University of Southern Mississippi Online Fitness and Nutrition, B.S.

Southern Miss's online B.S. in Fitness and Nutrition is a fully asynchronous, public-university degree that splits its major between exercise and nutrition. It suits working adults and personal trainers who want a bachelor's with a certification prep course in the last semester. It isn't the CAAHEP-accredited exercise science degree Southern Miss runs on its Hattiesburg campus, so it won't line up with the 2027 and 2030 exam rules.

The University of Southern Mississippi is a public research university in Hattiesburg, with 13,170 students and a federal graduation rate of 49 percent, a figure for the whole school. This degree sits in the School of Kinesiology and Nutrition, which the school says has more than 20 faculty and more than 500 majors.

The program page lists no special admission requirements. The application has a $45 fee, first-year students send ACT or SAT scores, and transfer students send transcripts from every college they attended. You must earn at least a C in every program course.

The program is fully online and asynchronous, with no set login times. Not every course in the university Bulletin is offered online, though the page says enough are to finish the degree. Tests may need proctoring, and the transfer page says you can use a campus, a community college, a library or an online proctor, with fees possible.

The residency rules matter if you transfer a lot. At least 21 of your last 30 credits and 12 credits in the major must come from Southern Miss, and 30 credits must be at the 300 level or above. That means a full 90-credit transfer still leaves real coursework to do here.

Who It Fits

• Working adults who need to study on their own schedule. Southern Miss calls the classes fully asynchronous, so you learn on your own time and work inside deadlines instead of scheduled meetings.
• Personal trainers and wellness coaches who want nutrition in the same degree. Five of the 17 major courses are nutrition classes, from Nutrition and Weight Control to Cooking for Wellness, and the page points to wellness centers, corporate wellness and recreation jobs.
• Transfer students and military families. Southern Miss takes up to 90 transfer credits, and its military center lists no application fee, no out-of-state tuition, GI Bill help and free textbook programs. See our online exercise science degrees for military for comparisons.

Who Should Skip It

• Anyone who needs a CAAHEP-accredited degree. The Hattiesburg Kinesiology (Exercise Science) B.S. carries that accreditation, but this online fitness and nutrition degree does not. Start with our online bachelor's in exercise science list.
• Students who want a large exercise physiology core. Only Exercise Testing and Prescription, Methods of Strength and Conditioning and a few movement classes come close, and the page lists no internship.
• People who want to become registered dietitians. The nutrition classes here support a fitness career, and the page doesn't present the degree as a dietetics path.

The major is 17 three-credit courses, or 51 credits. On the exercise side you'll take Exercise Testing and Prescription, Methods of Strength and Conditioning, Creating and Implementing Exercise Programs, Exercise Psychology, Motor Development, Movement and Sport Skill Analysis and Anatomy and Movement. Lifestyle Management for Chronic Disease is the closest thing to a clinical course.

The nutrition side has Nutrition, Nutrition and Weight Control, Nutrition and Performance, Community Nutrition and Cooking for Wellness. Management Practices for the Fitness Professional and Exercise Specialist Certification Preparation come late. The capstone, Current Trends in the Fitness and Nutrition Industries, is a senior-year course.

General education fills much of the rest, including two natural science courses with labs, a marketing course and a counseling or health psychology course. Up to 25 credits are electives.

Courses the School Names

• Exercise Testing and Prescription
• Nutrition and Performance
• Motor Development
• Lifestyle Management for Chronic Disease
• Methods of Strength and Conditioning
• Exercise Psychology
• Creating and Implementing Exercise Programs
• Exercise Specialist Certification Preparation
• Management Practices for the Fitness Professional
• Current Trends in the Fitness and Nutrition Industries

Standout Features

• Fully asynchronous coursework
• Includes an Exercise Specialist Certification Preparation course
• Blend of kinesiology, fitness and nutrition (Nutrition and Weight Control, Lifestyle Management for Chronic Disease, Cooking for Wellness)

Southern Miss quotes $433.59 per credit hour, which is the part-time online rate for 1 to 11 hours. Multiply by 120 credits and you get $52,030.80. But full-time students pay a flat $5,197 per semester for 12 to 19 hours. At 15 credits a semester, 120 credits takes eight semesters and $41,576. Transfer 90 credits and two semesters at that flat rate is $10,394.

Those figures leave out the online delivery fee and course fees of $20 to $150 per credit hour. First-time fully online students can get a $500 Online Student Scholarship. Out-of-state tuition is waived for online programs, so everyone pays the same rate. A payment plan splits each fall and spring balance into four payments once you owe at least $500.

120 credits at $433.59 a credit comes to $52,031 in tuition, before fees.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges accredits the university. The online degree has no programmatic accreditation. Southern Miss's on-campus Kinesiology B.S. was accredited by CAAHEP in May 2024, and that's a separate program you can only take in Hattiesburg. CAAHEP is the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.

The page says certification isn't part of the program, but a prep course in your last semester prepares you for ACSM, NSCA and NASM exams. Personal trainer exams don't require a degree. The ACSM exercise physiologist exam (ACSM-EP) requires a CAAHEP-accredited graduate starting August 15, 2027, and the NSCA CSCS exam requires a bachelor's from a CASCE-accredited program starting January 1, 2030. This degree lists neither.

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 intro says classes prepare you for ACSM, NSCA and ACE certifications, while the FAQ names ACSM, NSCA and NASM. Ask which prep the course actually covers.
• The advertised $433.59 rate isn't what a full-time student pays, and the delivery fee and course fees sit outside it.
• No CAAHEP or CASCE accreditation is listed, so don't assume the degree meets the 2027 or 2030 rule.
• Two natural science courses require labs, and the program page doesn't explain how labs run online.

• Which of my transfer credits count toward the 17 major courses, and how do the 21-of-30 and 12-major-credit residency rules apply to me?
• Would I pay the $433.59 part-time rate or the $5,197 flat rate with my planned course load, and what are the online delivery fee and course fees?
• Which certification does Exercise Specialist Certification Preparation target, ACE or NASM, and are exam fees separate?
• Which science courses with labs can I take fully online, and how are the labs done?
• How are exams proctored, and where can I test near me?
• Is Southern Miss planning to seek CAAHEP accreditation for the online degree?

Public research university in Hattiesburg, MS. The School of Kinesiology and Nutrition (College of Education and Human Sciences) has 20+ faculty and 500+ majors and teaches in biomechanics, exercise physiology and sports pedagogy; Online at Southern Miss offers asynchronous programs at a rate that waives out-of-state tuition.

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• Best Online Programs in Mississippi Rank 1 of 2, bachelor's

• Coaching and Sport Performance, M.S.

  M.S., Master's

  Fully Online $578.12 per credit Score 53.4

• Kinesiology (Exercise Science), M.S.

  M.S., Master's

  Fully Online $578.12 per credit Score 45.9

Also at University of Southern Mississippi, but not counted here because they are not fully online: Kinesiology (Exercise Science), B.S. (bachelor's, on campus); Kinesiology, Ph.D. (doctorate, on campus).

• Pennsylvania Western University

  Exercise Science (Human Performance and Wellness), BS

  Pennsylvania $354 per credit Score 60.4

• Oregon State University

  Kinesiology (B.S.), Ecampus

  Oregon $409 per quarter credit Score 59.9

• Citadel Military College of South Carolina

  Strength and Conditioning, B.S. Degree Completion Program

  South Carolina $520 per credit Score 60.7

• Kansas State University

  Kinesiology Bachelor's Degree (BS, Online)

  Kansas $435.71 per credit Score 60.9