<p>I plan on becoming a personal trainer. With this career path, the ideal major would probably be exercise science, kinesiology, or exercise physiology. However, I plan on going to a Division 3 school to play basketball. Many D3 schools do not offer these majors, but some do. I do plan on going on to graduate school. Should I narrow my school choices only to those that have these majors? What other majors would be similar and still beneficial for me? If I went to a good science school (ex: WashU), would that be good? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Do you really need grad school to be a personal trainer…?</p>
<p>You can go to a Division I or II school and play intramural basketball while majoring in a more relevant field.</p>
<p>@terenc Do I need it? No. Would it set me apart in both credentials and knowledge from other trainers? I believe so.</p>
<p>@spdf I want to play on a true team with real games. It’s very important to me.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on similar majors or schools or should I just stick with D3 schools with kinesiology, exercise science, or exercise physiology?</p>
<p>I have the stats to have a good chance at getting into most schools. 35 ACT, 4.0 GPA, #1 rank, decent ECs</p>
<p>
And why exactly do credentials matter for a personal training. As long as you get basic accreditation, you’re set (and accreditation, as far as I know, does not require grad school, unless your undergrad major is in an unrelated field).</p>
<p>@terenc This isn’t so much about getting a job. It’s about thriving as a personal trainer. To do that, you must be known as the best in the area, which means you need to BE the best in the area.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, this is all just my opinion - I’m obviously not a personal trainer myself.</p>
<p>However, to be honest, personal training does not strike me as the type of profession where the type of grad school you went to matters. It’s kind of like the writing profession. No publisher cares whether an author went to grad school; they only care about the actual writing. It’s like being a car salesman - no one cares that you went to grad school, they only care about how smooth-talking you are. Personal training strikes me as more of a customer-oriented profession, in that your reputation is based on how you deal with customers (clients) and how satisfied they are, not a piece of paper that you hang up on the wall. Personal training is not a very theoretical field, nor is it, in my opinion, a field that requires 2 more years of training in addition to getting a degree in exercise science (which takes 4 years already!).</p>
<p>An example of a profession where credentials really matter would be a doctor, for example, which explains why doctor’s offices have tons of framed credentials bragging about how they went to Harvard Med or something.</p>
<p>Sometimes, relevant courses in physical education may be “hidden” in a larger biological science department. For example, Berkeley’s physical education academic courses are in the Integrative Biology department; see course numbers 123, 123AL, C125L, 128, C129L here:</p>
<p>[General</a> Catalog - Integrative Biology Courses](<a href=“http://general-catalog.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Integrative+Biology&p_dept_cd=INTEGBI]General”>http://general-catalog.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Integrative+Biology&p_dept_cd=INTEGBI)</p>
<p>Of course, Berkeley is an NCAA Division I school, so you may not be able to make the basketball team if you expect to be competitive for NCAA Division III teams.</p>
<p>But then the physical education academics as described above do seem to be far beyond what most personal trainers actually have.</p>
<p>@terenc I agree I wouldn’t be going to grad school for the credentials. I would be going to learn even more so I could better help my clients.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Very good point. So it would sort of be like a “custom” major they design for me or…?</p>
<p>If the courses of interest happen to be within a larger department, then you may be able to take them either majoring in that department’s subject, or majoring in something else and using elective space for those courses and their prerequisites.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus That could be a good plan for me. If I did that and wanted to go onto grad school for exercise science or kinesiology, could I get in?</p>
<p>Check the graduate programs to see what they want for undergraduate preparation.</p>
<p>Here are some examples:</p>
<p>[PhD</a> : Graduate Programs : Health and Exercise Science : School of Physical Activity & Educational Services : College of Education and Human Ecology](<a href=“http://ehe.osu.edu/paes/exercise-science/academics/phd/]PhD”>http://ehe.osu.edu/paes/exercise-science/academics/phd/)
[PhD</a> Degree Programs: Department of Exercise Science](<a href=“Exercise Science - Arnold School of Public Health | University of South Carolina”>Exercise Science - Arnold School of Public Health | University of South Carolina)
[Department</a> of Health Kinesiology - Texas A&M University » Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology](<a href=“http://hlknweb.tamu.edu/articles/phd_exercise_physiology]Department”>http://hlknweb.tamu.edu/articles/phd_exercise_physiology)</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Thank you for the links. So I should check with admissions when I apply to be sure they have all these classes. With this, I could go to a great business (entreprenuership emphasis) and take some of their science classes as electives, and then choose whether or not to go on to graduate school when I am a senior, correct? Thank you.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>If you want to be the “best” PT, consider majoring in nutrition science or something along those lines. You can lift weight and run on the treadmill til you’re blue in the face, but it won’t mean jack if your diet sucks. Don’t registered dietitians make a decent living?</p>
<p>@art2CS I was considering minoring in that or taking some classes in that on the side. Great suggestion though. Any other thoughts?</p>