If you pursue a associate degree in health & physical education, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #25 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Health & Physical Education Associate Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 3,650 associate degrees in health & physical education to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Health & Physical Education School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of health & physical education for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on health & physical education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other health & physical education students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt health & physical education students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized health & physical education related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for health & physical education students working on their associate degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Health & Physical Education Associate Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Health & Physical Education in California
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in health & physical education.
Top California Schools for an Associate in Phys Ed
It is difficult to beat Riverside City College if you want to pursue an associate degree in health & physical education. Riverside City College is a very large public college located in the city of Riverside.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the phys ed program make around $25,516 in the first couple years of their career.
It is difficult to beat Mt. San Antonio College if you want to pursue an associate degree in health & physical education. Mt. SAC is a very large public college located in the suburb of Walnut.
Students who graduate with their associate from the phys ed program state that they receive average early career earnings of $19,869.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in health & physical education needs to take a look at International Sports Sciences Association. Located in the midsize suburb of Carpinteria, ISSA is a private for-profit school with a small student population.
Health & Physical Education associate degree recipients from International Sports Sciences Association receive an earnings boost of approximately $16,092 above the average earnings of health & physical education graduates.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Your choice of health & physical education for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice: