After going through the post-graduation job safari myself, counseling a number of students currently going through the job safari, and really getting a good look at what's out there, you eventually come to the question:
Was a degree in exercise science really worth it?
Not all college majors are created equal. TIME and Think Advisor have already proved that, and you can readily see the statistics on a number of other websites.
Like it or not, there are some majors that simply aren't useful. Philosophy and gender studies immediately spring to mind. You can't find a job with them. So automatically, we know that some college majors are duds.
However, some show more promise, such as is the case with exercise science. I was told again and again all through my undergrad just how expansive our field was going to grow, and how we would never have to worry about job security.
Maybe that's the case, and maybe it isn't (I'd argue more of the "isn't" line), but what my professors failed to mention was the pitiful pay you are likely to earn with a degree in exercise science.
The average student loan rate is currently around $30,000 after graduation, as you can see here. The average starting salary for somebody with a degree in exercise science is approximately $36,000, according to that Think Advisor link above.
How long do you think it's going to take you to pay off that $30,000 only making $36,000/year?
The answer? Forever.
What jobs do you qualify for with a degree in exercise science though?
Really, the only jobs are as a personal trainer, or as an exercise physiologist.
Unfortunately, you don't need a college degree to become a personal trainer. In fact, you really don't need anything to jump into personal training. You can get a job training at just about any gym out there after spending $100 on a certification test. Voila. You're a personal trainer, making an average of $37,000/year, according to Glassdoor.
The $100 test guy isn't going to know anywhere near as much as you are going to, but he's also not going to be $30,000 in the hole, in addition to the cost of not working full-time for 4 years while you were at college. To start off as a personal trainer, all you really need is a working knowledge of the gym, charisma, and to be in shape. Obviously that's a broad generalization, but seriously. I see a lot of trainers that know squat, yet they're good marketers of themselves. As a result, they sell.
So to work personal training as a career, I honestly can't say that a degree in exercise science is your best bet.
What about exercise physiology?
Depending on where you work, you may or may not need a master's in exercise science to land a job here. Unfortunately, those with a master's rarely make anything more than one with a bachelor's in exercise science. So a master's isn't worth it in my book.
What you are going to need no matter what, is some form of certification with diseased populations. Most 4-year programs have these put into their degree completion plans already. The ACSM CEP test is the best known.
A job as an exercise physiologist is certainly a lot more stable than as a personal trainer. With exercise physiology, you typically work for a hospital, and have set hours. Come in at 7am, leave at 6pm. Personal training is really just up to you. How many clients can you get?
Exercise physiology is certainly a lot more in-depth as well. You'll be working with cancer patients, guys who just finished having their chest sawed open, people with strange diseases, and incredibly brittle old ladies. You have to know what you can do, and what you can't. You have to know how that medication is going to affect Mrs. Jones' blood pressure. You have to know which exercises will flare up Bob's sciatica. It's on you. You mess up, and somebody can die, or get seriously hurt.
It's a lot more responsibility, As a result, you'll probably get benefits, and a median pay of $50,000 according to Glassdoor.
Now I'm not sure where Glassdoor gets their numbers from, but I can tell you that I've yet to meet an exercise physiologist (and I know a lot of them), who's making $50,000/year. Think more like $30,000. That $50,000 number may come from a big city like New York or San Diego where everybody makes more anyway (and everything costs more too).
I can remember my very last semester at college, when one of my professor's finally said something about our job opportunities. "Yeah, ya'll are probably going to have to go to grad school. You can't really support a family off of exercise physiology."
Shoot. That would have been nice to know.
If you absolutely have your heart set on exercise physiology though, you're going to need a degree in it.
As ya'll know, I am an exercise physiologist. I was a personal trainer. I absolutely love both of them. There is nothing like helping somebody to overcome a painful shoulder that nobody else could fix. To help a morbidly obese man lose 200 pounds. To help somebody with COPD not only now be able to walk across the room, but to get off of oxygen, and be able to do HIIT training. Exercise physiology rocks, and I love it.
However, I keep coming across students who are absolutely lost after they graduate. Ultimately, is it up to them to research their college major before taking classes? Absolutely. Is it wrong for exercise science professors to paint a pie-in-the-sky picture of exercise physiology for students though? Absolutely. Not a single one of my professors has ever worked as an exercise physiologist, and only one of them was a personal trainer. They have no clue. They're straight academics.
Am I complaining? No. If I knew what I knew now, would I still choose exercise physiology as a career? Yes. This is a passion of mine. I feel like I belong here. Paramedics make peanuts. They average $30,000/year, and yet there are still plenty of people out there who make that their full time job. Why? Because they love it.
So that's what it all boils down to with exercise science, I believe. Do you want to be a personal trainer? Skip college. You don't need it. Do you want to be an exercise physiologist, and have a full understanding of what that requires? Then do it. Are you planning on going to grad school afterwards in public health, physical therapy, biomechanics, MBA, med school, or something like that? Then by all means, take the exercise classes. You'll gain a different perspective from a lot of others out there, and be set financially.
However, if you think for a minute that you're going to make a large amount of money as an exercise physiologist, think again.
Just something to think about for all you upcoming potential exercise science students.
(And for the record, I went on to get my MPH. I absolutely love exercise science, and hopefully will be able to come back to it/somehow stay attached to it, but I want to be able to financially support my family, and I don't see that happening otherwise.)
Check out Eric Cressey's two awesome posts on the subject HERE and HERE. They may get you to thinking as well.
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