Wayne State College Online Master of Science in Organizational Management (MSOM), Human Performance and Wellness Management Focus

Wayne State College's online M.S. in Organizational Management, Human Performance and Wellness Management focus, is a management degree with a strength and conditioning slant, not a pure exercise science master's. At $427.45 per credit, the 36 credits cost $15,388.20. Half the credits are management, and at most 12 are human performance coursework. It suits trainers and coaches who want to lead, not future clinical exercise physiologists.

Wayne State College is a public college in Wayne, Nebraska, and a member of the Nebraska State College System. The degree lives in the Health, Human Performance, and Sport department of the School of Science, Health, and Criminal Justice. You complete an 18-credit organizational management core and an 18-credit human performance and wellness focus, all online, with no campus visits and no entrance exams.

Every bachelor's degree is accepted. An advisor or department chair can require undergraduate deficiency courses, and those don't count toward the 36 credits. Faculty listed on the page include exercise science professors who teach applied human and sport physiology, and sport management professors who teach sport law, event management and marketing.

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

Wayne State's page lists $427.45 per credit for 2026-27, made of $261.90 tuition and $165.55 fees. Across 36 credits that's $15,388.20, and the school rounds its estimate to $15,389. Books and other indirect costs aren't included.

The cost of attendance page shows on-campus graduate courses at $340.25 per credit, so the online rate runs $87.20 higher, or $3,139.20 over the degree.

Employer or agency funding can matter here. The school warns that some funding covers only the tuition portion of the online rate, not the fees. If you transfer the maximum 9 credits, the remaining 27 credits cost $11,541.15.

36 credits at $427.45 a credit comes to $15,388 in tuition, before fees.

Who It Fits

• Personal trainers and coaches who want NSCA-aligned graduate study. The page says the degree can prepare you for the NSCA's CSCS, Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Special Populations Specialist exams, and course descriptions for Advanced Strength and Conditioning and Training Special Populations point to those certifications.
• Future gym owners, facility managers and wellness program directors. PED 617 covers marketing, ethics, public relations, legal issues, budgets and facilities, and the management core adds communication, conflict management, leadership and organizational behavior.
• Budget-minded career changers with any bachelor's degree. There's no entrance exam, the application is free, and you can transfer in up to 9 credits from a regionally accredited graduate school if you earned a B or better.

Who Should Skip It

• Skip it if your goal is clinical exercise physiology. PED 614 Advanced Exercise Physiology is one of six focus options, so you can graduate without it, and the course list has no exercise testing course. Try our online clinical exercise physiology master's programs.
• Skip it if you want most of your credits in exercise science. Only 12 of 36 credits are focus coursework, and 18 are management and research core.
• Skip it if you expect the degree to change your CSCS eligibility. Exam eligibility depends on the bachelor's degree behind it, not on this master's.

The 18-credit management core has six 3-credit slots. You pick one course each from communication (BUS 620 Managerial Communications or CNA 675 Legal Topics in Media and Communication), conflict and organizational psychology (BUS 628 Dispute Resolution Management, CNA 617 Topics in Argumentation and Persuasion or PSY 535 Industrial/Organizational Psychology), leadership, organizational behavior and research. PED 622 Statistical Applications and Data Analysis is required.

The focus area starts with PED 617 Management in Human Performance and Wellness. You then choose three of PED 607 Exercise and Nutrition, PED 614 Advanced Exercise Physiology, PED 627 Training Special Populations, PED 657 Advanced Strength and Conditioning, PED 660 Periodization in Strength and Conditioning or PED 682 Optimizing Athletic Performance.

A 6-credit thesis, scholarly project or internship comes next, plus PED 694, a zero-credit exit benchmark that can use surveys, comprehensive exams or capstone papers.

Courses the School Names

• PED 617 Management in Human Performance and Wellness
• PED 607 Exercise and Nutrition
• PED 614 Advanced Exercise Physiology
• PED 627 Training Special Populations
• PED 657 Advanced Strength and Conditioning
• PED 660 Periodization in Strength and Conditioning
• PED 682 Optimizing Athletic Performance
• PED 622 Statistical Applications and Data Analysis

Standout Features

• Ranked No. 3 nationally by EDsmart for most affordable online master's degrees for 2026 (per the school)
• Combines an 18-credit management core with an 18-credit human performance focus including periodization and advanced strength and conditioning
• Faculty include exercise science professors who teach applied human and sport physiology
• Any bachelor's degree accepted, no entrance exam

Everything is online, and the school offers terms of 3, 5, 8, 10 and 16 weeks. The next start is Monday, October 26, 2026, an 8-week fall session. After that come January 11, March 15, May 17, June 10, July 12 and August 23, 2027, and some dates offer more than one term length. You can apply up to the first day of the term.

The page doesn't say whether classes are asynchronous or how long the degree usually takes, so ask how many courses you can run at once. The 6-credit culminating requirement is the one to plan early, because no page lists hours, placement rules or supervisor requirements.

Wayne State College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits the whole institution rather than individual programs. The master's lists no programmatic accreditation. It isn't on the CAAHEP list we pulled on September 29, 2026, so it won't satisfy ACSM's rule from August 15, 2027 for ACSM-EP and ACSM-CEP candidates.

The NSCA certifications the page names don't require this degree. CSCS today needs a bachelor's degree and CPR/AED, and from January 1, 2030 U.S. candidates need a bachelor's from a CASCE-accredited program. The NSCA personal trainer certification needs no degree. Our CSCS guide covers the details.

Where this degree can lead: Exercise Science Jobs.

• It's a management degree first. At most 12 of the 36 credits are human performance, and the rest are communication, leadership, research and a project.
• The online rate carries $165.55 in fees on top of $261.90 tuition. On-campus graduate courses cost $340.25 per credit, and tuition waivers may cover only the tuition portion.
• Advanced Exercise Physiology is optional, and no course teaches clinical exercise testing. Students who want that will need another program.
• The certifications the page names don't require a master's, so the degree adds management skills more than credential access.

• Which three focus courses do you recommend if I want to sit for the CSCS, and how often is each one offered?
• Do classes run asynchronously, and how many hours a week should I plan for an 8-week course?
• What does the 6-credit thesis, scholarly project or internship require online, and how many placement hours does it involve?
• Would my advisor require any undergraduate deficiency courses, and what would they add to my bill?
• If my employer offers tuition assistance, will it cover the $165.55 fees as well as the $261.90 tuition?
• How many courses can I take at once across the overlapping 8-week and 16-week terms?

Public Nebraska state college in Wayne, Nebraska. The Health, Human Performance, and Sport department in the School of Science, Health, and Criminal Justice houses exercise science faculty who teach in the online master's.

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