University of Louisiana at Lafayette Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology (Online)

UL Lafayette's online B.S. in Kinesiology is one of the cheapest bachelor's degrees in our data at a flat $380 per credit, and it starts five times a year. But it's a health promotion and sport management degree wearing a kinesiology name.

The course list has no anatomy, physiology or biomechanics, and the school has no CAAHEP or CASCE accreditation. Choose it for wellness, health education or sport business work. Skip it if you want to be an exercise physiologist or a strength coach.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is a public university in Lafayette, and this degree comes from the School of Kinesiology in the College of Education and Human Development. It's 120 credits with two concentrations. Health Promotion and Wellness covers public health, nutrition, fitness assessment and health education. Sport Management covers marketing, event planning, facility management and athletic administration. Every student finishes with a capstone project or a supervised internship.

The school's federal graduation rate is 53 percent, a whole-university number, and its admit rate is 87 percent. Transfer students need an associate degree or higher, or at least 24 credits with a 2.25 GPA plus college English and college algebra. You must keep a 2.5 cumulative GPA to graduate. The program isn't open to students on F-1 visas.

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

UL Lafayette charges a flat $380 per credit, or $1,140 for a typical 3-credit course. Across 120 credits that's $45,600. There are no out-of-state fees, and a $30 per credit distance learning fee is already inside the flat rate. You'll still pay for textbooks, some course or lab fees and possibly exam proctoring.

The flat rate also covers access to online library services, career services, Microsoft Office 365 and IT support, but not campus services like the recreation center. Transfer credits are the biggest lever. Each 3-credit course you bring in saves $1,140, so an associate degree could cut this bill close to in half.

120 credits at $380 a credit comes to $45,600 in tuition, before fees.

Who It Fits

• Adults with some college credit or an associate degree. UL Lafayette accepts transfer students, and your total tuition depends on the credits you still need after they're applied. The flat rate means a transfer student with 60 credits left pays $22,800.
• People headed toward community health, corporate wellness or health education. The Health Promotion and Wellness concentration says it prepares you to sit for the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam, and courses include epidemiology, program planning and program evaluation.
• Future sport managers who like the fitness world but want the business side. The Sport Management concentration adds marketing, management, legal issues in sport and event management, and its internship can be in recreation programs or with professional and collegiate teams.

Who Should Skip It

• Anyone who wants clinical or lab-based exercise science. The concentration course lists we found show no anatomy, physiology, exercise testing or biomechanics course. If those are what you're after, compare online bachelor's degrees in exercise science.
• Students planning to sit for the ACSM exercise physiologist exams or the CSCS. The school isn't on the CAAHEP list or NSCA's CASCE list we pulled on September 29, 2026, and both credentials are tightening their degree rules.
• Anyone who needs a hands-on lab. Nothing on the program pages describes one.

The Health Promotion and Wellness page lists 16 core courses. Among them are HLTH 214 Principles and Foundations of Health Promotion, IPHE 200 Basic Human Nutrition, HLTH 312 Wellness, HLTH 314 Health Behavior Theories and Planning Models and HLTH 451 Stress and Stress Management.

HLTH 405G Nutrition for Fitness and Sports is the closest thing to exercise science. HLTH 452G Epidemiology and HLTH 460G Organization Funding Strategies, a grant-writing course, point toward public health work.

Sport Management runs on KNES 102, KNES 370 Event Management, MKTG 345 Principles of Marketing, MGMT 320 and KNES 371 Legal Issues in Sport and Physical Activity. It also includes KNES 400 Measurement and Evaluation in Kinesiology, which is statistics for kinesiology data.

Courses the School Names

• HLTH 214 Principles and Foundations of Health Promotion
• HLTH 312 Wellness
• IPHE 200 Basic Human Nutrition
• HLTH 405G Nutrition for Fitness and Sports
• HLTH 451 Stress and Stress Management
• HLTH 452G Epidemiology
• KNES 205 Technology in Health and Kinesiology
• KNES 400 Measurement and Evaluation in Kinesiology
• KNES 499G Internship in Kinesiology

Standout Features

• Health Promotion & Wellness concentration (CHES exam prep per the concentration page; not mentioned on the main kinesiology online page)
• Flat rate with no out-of-state fees
• Five starts per year and choice of 8-week or 16-week courses

The degree is 100 percent online, and you choose between 8-week and 16-week courses. You can start in January, March, June, August or October. As of today, the next application deadline is October 5 for classes starting October 19.

UL Lafayette says online faculty are trained and certified to teach online, and you get a dedicated enrollment specialist, 24/7 online tutoring and an online student resource center. Some exams may require proctoring services like ProctorU, because the school's accreditor requires identity checks for online students. The internship or capstone is the one part you'll arrange in your own community.

UL Lafayette's accreditor is SACSCOC, the regional accreditor for the Southern states. The kinesiology program itself has no programmatic accreditation, and the school doesn't appear on CAAHEP's list or NSCA's CASCE list.

That means it isn't a route to the ACSM-EP or ACSM-CEP after August 15, 2027, when candidates must graduate from a CAAHEP-accredited program or one in the process. And U.S. NSCA-CSCS candidates need a bachelor's from a CASCE-accredited program starting January 1, 2030.

The CHES credential is different. The Health Promotion and Wellness page says the concentration prepares you for that exam. The main kinesiology page doesn't mention it, so confirm it applies to your concentration.

Where this degree can lead: Exercise Science Jobs.

• The kinesiology page says first-time freshmen submit ACT or SAT scores, while the Health Promotion and Wellness page also allows Accuplacer scores or a 3.0 high school GPA. Ask which rule applies.
• Neither concentration lists exercise testing, anatomy or physiology, so this is a different field from exercise science even though the degree says kinesiology.
• Fees are not all in the sticker price. Textbooks, course or lab fees and proctoring come on top of $45,600.
• The program isn't open to F-1 international students, and UL Lafayette must be authorized to offer it in your state, so check eligibility before you apply.

• Which general education and elective courses make up the rest of the 120 credits, and do any include anatomy, physiology or biomechanics?
• Does the Health Promotion and Wellness concentration's CHES preparation apply to everyone, and what does the school say about exam pass rates?
• How many transfer credits will you accept from my prior college work, and does the associate degree cover all lower-division requirements?
• What are the first-time freshman admission rules, ACT or SAT only, or Accuplacer or a 3.0 high school GPA?
• How do internship placements work for online students, and how many hours does the capstone or internship take?
• Which courses use proctored exams, and what does proctoring cost?

UL Lafayette is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. Its online B.S. in Kinesiology is delivered by the School of Kinesiology in the College of Education & Human Development with two concentrations aimed at health promotion and sport management.

• Best Online Exercise Science Degrees Rank 3 of 46, bachelor's
• Best Online Bachelor's Programs Rank 3 of 46, bachelor's
• Best Online Kinesiology Degrees Rank 1 of 18, bachelor's
• Cheapest Online Programs Rank 6 of 15, bachelor's
• Best for Working Adults Rank 3 of 23, bachelor's
• Best Degree Completion Programs Rank 3 of 34, bachelor's
• Best for Healthcare Workers Rank 1 of 1, bachelor's
• Best 100% Online Programs Rank 3 of 34, bachelor's
• Best Online Programs in Louisiana Rank 1 of 1, bachelor's

• Lionel University

  Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science

  California $333 per quarter credit Score 69.3

• Northeastern State University

  Health and Human Performance

  Oklahoma $279 per credit Score 67.7

• Texas Tech University

  Online Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology

  Texas Score 67.2

• University of Wisconsin-Superior

  Exercise Science, B.S. (listed by Universities of Wisconsin Online as Physical Education - Exercise Science Concentration)

  Wisconsin $377.50 per credit Score 65.5