Let's Talk About Master's Degrees in Strength & Conditioning

Your dream strength and conditioning job just became available. You're a superb candidate for the position. You have the certifications, the experience, the time with the proper organizations, and the guidance of influential coaches.

The one requirement, however, hampering you from being the perfect candidate is completing a master's degree in exercise science.

As the strength and conditioning industry expands the roles of head strength & conditioning coaches, sports scientists, and performance directors, the requirement for higher education has also expanded. 

Roles from professional to semi-pro, collegiate, high school, private, and beyond now require a master's degree in areas of exercise science, with some organizations building it into the collective bargaining agreement, to be eligible for a head strength and conditioning coaching role.

On this surface, this seems logical: higher-level positions should have higher requirements. But as strength coaches, we know it's not that simple.

As Most Strength Coaches Will Tell You… You DON'T Become a Great Practitioner In School

Academic achievement is not always the initial path to success in strength and conditioning, nor is it the only standard that matters.

Multiple paths exist that include some combination of certification (e.g., CSCS, CSCCa), in-the-field experience, and networking. You or someone you know might be a successful S&C coach while having graduated with a business degree, moved into S&C, obtained their CSCS, and then started working full-time immediately for a hockey organization. Ten years of real-world exposure and hard work have placed them in a position to manage the S&C operations of the professional team. 

Anecdotally, you might have heard that it's the field practitioners pushing the industry forward and that schools then need to play catch-up by researching and publishing what the strength coaches already know. Putting this nuanced discussion aside, I say this to make the point that higher academic knowledge isn't always needed. An S&C coach can learn their craft from hands-on experience, learning through internships, mentorships, apprenticeships, or entry-level positions.

The Downsides of Getting a Master's Degree

For 36% of strength and conditioning coaches who don't have a graduate degree, the undertaking of returning to school to complete a master's degree can be burdensome with cost, commitment, and life changes all factoring into the decision to progress education (Employer's Council Inc, 2022).

Cost

The average tuition cost of a graduate degree is $66,000 (Kumok and Witkozski, 2022).

Numerous variables impact and can inflate the overall costs of graduate programs including transportation and parking costs of in-person study, books and materials, application and processing fees, prerequisite courses, standardized testing (GRE), graduation fees, technology fees, subject of study, and other hidden fees (The Cost of a Master's Degree: 8 Drivers Within Your Control, n.d.).

The financial burden requires the prospective student to commit many hours to research scholarships (if they're eligible), apply for said scholarships, take out additional student loans, and put off other financial allocations while committing to studying. I don't need to tell you that it's a huge deal to make that kind of financial commitment.

Lost Years In The Field, Building Experience

The commitment to a graduate degree is two to four years full-time and can be as long as six years part-time. During this commitment, outside of the time spent on the program itself, other time-leachers include the stipulation to submit GRE scores (which are probably outdated by now), re-taking the GRE, transportation to and from in-person courses, and internship requirements. These factors complicate the decision to enroll in a master's course as they can uproot your life by interfering with your dedication to personal, professional, lifestyle, and family engagement.

The Upsides of a Master's Degree

For those S&C coaches who choose to advance their education, there are plentiful opportunities that a master's degree provides. Beyond the need to satisfy the requirements of the job description to have earned a master's degree in strength and conditioning, an increase in salary earning, a new freedom to explore advanced and unique positions, updating and specializing current field knowledge, and networking are all benefits of a master's degree.

Updating Your Knowledge

For updating your knowledge by filling in gap areas or specializing in a particular sector of strength and conditioning, master's programs provide in-depth knowledge for tracks such as performance, rehabilitation, psychology, nutrition, data science, physiology, athletic training, sports medicine, biomechanics, and technology. Once completed, S&C coaches can then progress from developmental leagues to the professional league, be promoted from assistant S&C coach to the head S&C coach, from head S&C to Director of Performance, or into other areas of the athlete development team.

Statistically, You're in Good Company (And You Might Need it For That Raise)

Strength & Conditioning coaches who have earned a master's degree and work in sports across the high school, university, professional, and private settings earn an average annual income of $6,430 more than those with a bachelor's degree.

Professional S&C coaches who work in the professional league, out-earn S&C coaches in the developmental league by an average of $58,682. Additionally, for those professional S&C coaches who hold a director position, they out-earn an assistant S&C coach by an average of $60,807. The differences in pay show that those who earn a master's degree and hold a position that now requires a master's degree have a larger earning potential. (Employers Council Inc, 2022).

There Are Flexible, Effective Options

To reduce barriers to completing an exercise science master's degree, fully remote opportunities are becoming more popular, with a third of enrolled master's students studying online.

Generally, online programs are designed with the more experienced learner/worker in mind and delivered around those advancing in their field (Friedman and Kowarski, 2021).

As such, these online programs provide significantly reduced costs, averaging approximately $20,000, and you can do it in less than two years. In fact, some online colleges do not require a GRE for acceptance into a program as it is found that by waiving the GRE, programs become more attractive to those with higher-quality experience.

For cost and affordability, yes, there are options to take out federal and private student loans. However, for S&C professionals, other options exist, including S&C scholarships through various organizations, professional development pools, tuition reimbursement programs through employers, and potential tax deductions for tuition and fees.

Setanta College As An Option

An option for professional hockey strength and conditioning coaches interested in obtaining their master's degree is Setanta College – an international, online school with teaching locations in the U.S. 

The three master's programs offered are Performance Coaching, Sports & Exercise psychology, and Rehabilitation & Performance. These programs are designed with the professional coach and professional athlete in mind, providing flexibility between studying and training & coaching.

The asynchronous setup allows the student to study on their own time. To further support the personal and professional timeframe for the coach and athlete, Setanta College offers two annual enrollment intakes in September and March.

These U.S.-accredited degrees through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education cost $15,000 and not only provide academic flexibility but flexibility with bespoke payment options, making it possible for students to complete the degree without a need to take out student loans.

The school is recognized as an education provider by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and partnered with leading sports organizations, coaching associations, and player's unions to provide programs that can be completed in as little as 18 months.

If you're interested in Setanta College, reach out to [email protected] or visit florida.setantacollege.com for more information on the application process.

References

The Cost of a Master's Degree: 8 Drivers Within Your Control (no date) How Much Does a Master's Degree Cost: 8 Things to Know | Franklin.edu. Franklin University. Available at: https://www.franklin.edu/blog/how-much-does-a-masters-degree-cost (Accessed: November 2, 2022). 

Employers Council, Inc. National Strength & Conditioning Association's Coaches Survey. National Strength & Conditioning Association. November 2022. Available at: https://www.nsca.com/globalassets/tools/2022-nsca-strength-conditioning-coaches-salary-survey--final-report-v.2-webrez.pdf. Accessed: January 16, 2023.

Friedman, J. and Kowarski, I. (2021) Deciding Between an Online or On-Campus MBA Program, U.S News & World Report. Available at: https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2018-03-27/deciding-between-an-online-or-on-campus-mba-program (Accessed: November 2, 2022). 

Kumok, Z. and Witkowski, R. (2022) What You Need to Know About a Master's Degree: Costs, Duration, and More, Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/what-to-know-about-a-masters-degree/ (Accessed: February 2, 2023).