University of Central Missouri Online Master of Science in Kinesiology

Central Missouri's M.S. in Kinesiology is a sport performance master's with real exercise physiology and biomechanics behind it. It runs 30 credits at $450 a credit, and you finish with either an internship or a thesis. It suits someone who already holds an exercise science or kinesiology bachelor's and wants to work with athletes or move toward doctoral study.

The open question is how the lab-based courses work when you aren't in Warrensburg.

The University of Central Missouri is a public university in Warrensburg, Missouri, near Kansas City, with a second location in Lee's Summit. The Department of Nutrition, Kinesiology and Health runs labs for human performance, biomechanics and clinical exercise physiology, and it reports a 21-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio.

The kinesiology master's is offered online, hybrid or on the Warrensburg campus, all with the same requirements. UCM says the emphasis is sport performance, and its named career targets include strength and conditioning coach, sports science research assistant and sports development trainer. Faculty hold doctorates in biomechanics, exercise physiology, rehabilitation science and physical therapy.

Online and hybrid graduate students pay $450 per credit hour for 2026-27, so 30 credits is $13,500 in tuition. That's $20 a credit more than Missouri residents pay on campus ($430), which adds up to $600 over the degree. Non-residents on campus pay $645.

The $450 excludes mandatory, technology, testing, program and course fees. UCM's own estimate for the whole degree is $15,120, or $504 a credit, and it assumes you take fewer than 9 credit hours a term. The gap of $1,620 is fees.

Prerequisite courses, if you're assigned any, bill at the undergraduate online rate of $310.90 a credit.

30 credits at $450 a credit comes to $13,500 in tuition, before fees.

Who It Fits

• You hold an exercise science or kinesiology bachelor's and want an athlete-facing job. The electives Monitoring Athlete Training and Performance and Sport Performance Analytics fit strength coaches, and the department works with UCM Athletics on real NCAA athletes.
• You studied something else and want in. Applicants without a related degree can be assigned undergraduate prerequisites, but you're fully admitted first and take them alongside graduate courses from your first semester.
• You want the option to do research. The thesis is 6 credits and ends with an oral defense, and UCM says its faculty have helped students get into doctoral programs.
• Your GPA is a bit soft. The catalog sets the minimum at 2.75 and lists a statement of purpose, with no GRE.

Who Should Skip It

• Skip it if your goal is the ACSM clinical exercise physiologist credential. UCM lists clinical exercise physiologist as a career, but no CAAHEP accreditation is listed for it, and the only clinical course is one 3-credit elective.
• Skip it if you can't travel at all. Until UCM tells you how Laboratory Procedures in Exercise Science and a thesis defense work for online students, don't assume you can do everything from home.
• Skip it if you have an unrelated bachelor's and no room in the budget for extra undergraduate courses.

Five required 3-credit courses come first: KIN 5830 Advanced Exercise Physiology, KIN 5890 Laboratory Procedures in Exercise Science, KIN 5900 Introduction to Research in Kinesiology, KIN 5910 Analysis of Movement and KIN 6600 Seminar in Kinesiology.

You then pick one statistics course, such as PE 5150 or PSY 5050, and 6 elective credits from options like KIN 5680 Monitoring Athlete Training and Performance, KIN 5690 Sport Performance Analytics, KIN 5850 Clinical Exercise Physiology, KIN 5870 Mechanical Analysis of Sport Skills and NUTR 5930 Sports Nutrition and Metabolism.

The capstone is your choice. Take KIN 6980 Internship for 3 credits plus one approved elective, or take KIN 6990 Thesis for 6. The program page names motion capture, force plates, a metabolic cart, DEXA and the BodPod among the tools you learn.

Courses the School Names

• Advanced Exercise Physiology
• Laboratory Procedures in Exercise Science
• Introduction to Research in Kinesiology
• Analysis of Movement
• Seminar in Kinesiology
• Monitoring Athlete Training and Performance
• Sport Performance Analytics
• Clinical Exercise Physiology
• Mechanical Analysis of Sport Skills

Standout Features

• Sport performance emphasis with athlete monitoring courses and partnership with UCM Athletics to work with NCAA athletes
• Lab technologies named on the program page: motion capture, force plates, metabolic cart, DEXA and BodPod
• Faculty doctorates in biomechanics, exercise physiology, rehabilitation science and physical therapy

Terms run 16 weeks, and you can start January 11, 2027 or August 16, 2027. UCM says students finish in as little as 18 to 24 months. Two starts a year means a missed deadline costs you a semester.

The program page is upbeat about hands-on work and states that UCM has placed kinesiology students in hospitals, gyms and companies in Warrensburg and the Kansas City area. That's helpful if you live nearby. If you don't, plan to arrange your own internship site, or choose the thesis and ask how the defense is held. Career Services offers resume and interview help.

UCM is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. No program-level accreditation from CAAHEP or CASCE is listed for the master's, and UCM doesn't appear in the CAAHEP program list our research pulled.

No certification exam is built into it. The CSCS exam requires a bachelor's, and from January 1, 2030 a U.S. candidate's bachelor's must come from a CASCE-accredited program. Your master's won't stand in for that.

For ACSM, the master's-plus-600-clinical-hours route to the clinical exercise physiologist credential now comes with a rule. From August 15, 2027, candidates must graduate from a CAAHEP-accredited exercise physiology program, or one that has started the process. Ask UCM directly where it stands.

Where this degree can lead: Exercise Science Jobs.

The full rubric is on the methodology page. A factor marked Peer Median had no published input, so it counts at half weight.

• The lab story and the online story don't line up on UCM's own pages. The program page stresses labs and hands-on learning, the catalog lists Laboratory Procedures as required, and neither says how an online student completes it.
• The advertised $450 leaves out fees. UCM's own $15,120 estimate is $1,620 higher than 30 credits at $450.
• Online costs more per credit than Missouri residents pay on campus, so local students should price the hybrid or campus route too.
• Internships are described around Warrensburg and the Kansas City area, which puts distant students on their own for a site.
• Only two starts a year, in January and August.

• How do online students complete KIN 5890 Laboratory Procedures in Exercise Science? Is there any required time on campus?
• For the internship, do I find my own site, how many hours does 3 credits require, and can my current job count?
• If I choose the thesis, can I defend it by video, and who helps me find a faculty advisor?
• Given my bachelor's, which prerequisites would you assign, and would they delay my start date?
• What fees does the $15,120 estimate include, and what would my bill be if I take two courses a semester?
• Which electives run online each term, especially Clinical Exercise Physiology?
• Has the program started the CAAHEP process, and how do graduates use the degree toward ACSM certification after August 15, 2027?

Public university in Warrensburg, Missouri, near Kansas City, with a second location in Lee's Summit. The Department of Nutrition, Kinesiology and Health runs human performance, biomechanics and clinical exercise physiology labs and reports a 21-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio.

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• Master of Science in Physical Education, Coaching Option

  M.S., Master's

  Fully Online $450 per credit Score 55.1

Also at University of Central Missouri, but not counted here because they are not fully online: Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology (bachelor's, on campus).

• University of Mary

  Master of Science in Kinesiology

  North Dakota $670 per credit Score 58.2

• University of the Cumberlands

  Master of Science in Health & Human Performance (MSHHP)

  Kentucky $355 per credit Score 58.0

• Parker University

  Master of Science in Strength and Human Performance

  Texas $871 per credit Score 58.3

• Concordia University-Saint Paul

  Master of Science in Strength and Conditioning

  Minnesota $475 per credit Score 57.9