College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Rice University
• University of Southern California (USC)
• DePaul University
• Occidental College

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Maryland
• University of Connecticut
• Arizona State University
• Michigan State University
• Ohio State University

Classes in the Major

Biomechanics of Motion. These courses are the foundation for a kinesiology major. You'll learn the anatomical and mechanical nomenclature that governs human movement (that's just fancy talk for "what's moving and how"). Once you've got the vocab down pat, you'll figure out how a body interacts with the space around it. You'll have to know your way around both the scientific method and a graphic calculator, as most biomechanics classes have accompanying labs.

Physical Activity (PE credits). It's pretty difficult to figure out how the human body moves without trying out some of the movement yourself. This is the fun part of a kinesiology major: play time. Most colleges will provide you with a lot of options to fulfill this requirement, so just pick an activity that you enjoy. Not only will you be synthesizing the information you learn in your other kinesiology courses, but you'll also be getting in some serious stress relief, which is always important in college.

Nutrition. The key to getting a body moving is providing said body with the proper fuel. As a college student prone to late nights and staggering amounts of coffee consumption, nutrition can sometimes feel like a foreign concept. Much like the PE credits you'll need to take, your nutrition courses push you beyond the textbook and lab requirements of the major and help you further understand real-life applications of kinesiology. After all, dietary health directly relates to how well you can pop, lock, and drop it.

Statistics. Part of the study of human movement, especially as it relates to exercise, is measuring how different people move in varying ways. Understanding the fluctuation between individuals or groups will help enormously when you're tasked with putting together exercise regimes, charting diet plans, or choreographing a killer dance routine. Kinesiology in general does not rely heavily on statistics (you can breathe a sigh of relief), but you will need to take a few courses to get the basics down pat.

Psychology. Though most movement happens without conscious thought (remember when you picked something up earlier?), the two concepts are inextricably linked. Understanding how humans relate to themselves and the world around them will help you put the ideas learned during your time studying kinesiology in college to practical, real-world use—especially if you decide to pursue a career as a physical therapist, personal trainer, or dietitian. With the tools gained from your psychology courses, you'll have the mental strength to maneuver the human brain as easily as a chimpanzee on a ropes course.