The editor
Taylor Rupe is the founder and editor of kinesiologydegreeprograms.com. He holds degrees in psychology from the University of Washington and computer science from Oregon State University, and works as a software engineer. He built the data pipeline behind this site: every program here is scored from federal IPEDS reporting, every wage figure comes from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release, and every education requirement is attributed to O*NET. He is not a clinician, and this site publishes no clinical advice. What it does is make the public record on kinesiology and exercise science programs comparable, and show its work.
How the rankings are built
Every program on this site is scored by the same model, inside its own peer group: programs at the same award level in the same field, nationwide. The inputs are graduation rate, admissions selectivity, earnings, entrance scores, enrollment, degrees conferred and return on tuition, each weighted and documented on the methodology page. Nothing is hand-placed, and no institution can pay to move.
Program descriptions are written from the school’s own published program page, not from a template. Where a school does not publish enough to describe the program, the card carries federal data alone rather than filling the gap with something that sounds right. That rule is why some cards are shorter than others.
There are 568 programs ranked across 130 state pages and four award levels.
Where the data comes from
- Program data: federal IPEDS reporting, for tuition, graduation rates, admissions, enrollment and completions, compiled and kept current by Hakia.
- Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release.
- Education requirements: O*NET OnLine, cited per occupation on each career page.
- Certification rules: each issuing body’s own page, with the date it was checked shown on every certification page.
Editorial standards
Every figure is traceable. Each number on a program card comes from the school’s own published page or from federal data, and the editorial passes that produce those cards are checked by a verifier that fails the build on any figure it cannot source back to one of them.
Wages are published, not modeled. Salary figures are the BLS survey values for a stated area, shown with their full percentile spread rather than as a single median, and never adjusted for cost of living.
This is not clinical advice. The editor is not a clinician. This site explains what credentials require and what jobs pay. It cannot tell you whether a career suits you, and it is not a substitute for talking to someone doing the work.
Disclosure
Some links on this site are paid, and we may earn a commission when you use them. Paid placements are labeled where they appear, and ranking order is computed from public federal data.
Corrections are welcome. If a figure here disagrees with your program’s own records, write to help@hakia.com and it will be checked against the source.