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Key takeaway: Health science is the broad, non-clinical degree in the health field. It does not license you to treat patients, and it does not pretend to. What it does is give people who already hold an allied-health credential – radiologic technologists, respiratory therapists, dental hygienists, paramedics, surgical technologists – a way to convert a two-year technical credential into a bachelor’s degree, and it gives students who have not yet chosen a clinical profession a science-based foundation with the prerequisites for physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and similar graduate programs built in. Most online programs are degree-completion formats aimed at the first group. Be clear about what the degree is not: it is not nursing, it is not public health, and it is not healthcare administration, though it borrows from each. Compare accredited programs below.
Coursework typically pairs a science core – anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, statistics, epidemiology – with health-systems content such as U.S. healthcare organization, health policy, ethics and law, and research methods, then lets you choose a track: health administration, health education and promotion, health informatics, pre-professional preparation, or community and public health. Accredited online programs generally deliver the same curriculum and degree titles as campus programs; browse the best accredited online colleges to compare schools that offer them.
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Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Health science graduates work in hospitals and health systems, outpatient and specialty clinics, public health departments, community health organizations, insurance and managed-care companies, health technology vendors, and employer wellness programs. Because the degree is non-clinical, the jobs it leads to are mostly on the coordination, education, information, and management side of care rather than at the bedside. The occupations below are commonly associated with health science coursework. Median annual wages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
| Occupation | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Medical and Health Services Manager | $123,860 |
| Health Information Technologist | $68,020 |
| Health Education Specialist | $64,070 |
| Health Technologist and Technician | $50,290 |
| Occupation | Projected job growth (2024-2034) |
|---|---|
| Medical and Health Services Manager | 23.2% |
| Health Information Technologist | 14.7% |
| Health Technologist and Technician | 5.2% |
| Health Education Specialist | 4.5% |
Entry requirements differ considerably across these occupations, and matching the track you choose to the role you want is the most important decision on this page. Medical and health services managers, who had a median annual wage of $123,860 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), typically hold a bachelor’s degree and often a master’s, and most reach management after years in a clinical or operational role – a health science degree with an administration track is a common on-ramp for allied-health professionals moving toward supervision. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in this occupation to grow 23.2 percent from 2024 to 2034 (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34), with roughly 62,100 openings per year over the decade. Health education specialists, at a median annual wage of $64,070 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), commonly enter with a bachelor’s in health science, health education, or public health, and many pursue the Certified Health Education Specialist credential; projected growth is 4.5 percent over the same period. Health information technologists and medical registrars, at a median annual wage of $68,020 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), are projected to grow 14.7 percent, and the informatics track of a health science degree overlaps substantially with what that work requires. Health technologists and technicians in the “all other” category, at a median annual wage of $50,290 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), represent the allied-health roles many degree-completion students already hold before enrolling. Individual outcomes vary by employer, geography, and experience.
A health science degree is an interdisciplinary, non-clinical degree that combines a natural-science foundation with coursework in how the U.S. health system is organized, financed, regulated, and evaluated. It is offered at the associate, bachelor’s (BS in Health Science or BSHS), and master’s (MS in Health Science or MSHS) levels. It does not lead to a clinical license on its own; its purpose is to prepare you for non-clinical health careers, to complete a bachelor’s on top of an existing allied-health credential, or to satisfy prerequisites for a clinical graduate program.
Two groups, mostly. The first is working allied-health professionals with an associate degree or certificate – radiologic and MRI technologists, respiratory therapists, dental hygienists, sonographers, paramedics, surgical technologists, medical laboratory technicians – who need a bachelor’s to move into supervision, education, or administration. Online degree-completion programs are built for them and often award block credit for the clinical credential. The second is students who want a science-heavy undergraduate degree that keeps clinical graduate school open without committing to a single profession at 18.
Public health is population-focused and organized around epidemiology, biostatistics, and community intervention, with its own accreditor (CEPH) and its own professional credential. Healthcare administration is a business degree applied to health organizations – finance, operations, human resources, strategy. Health science is broader and shallower than either: it carries a stronger natural-science core than both, lets you sample administration, education, informatics, and community health as tracks, and is the most common landing point for clinical professionals who want a bachelor’s without leaving the health field. See the public health guide and healthcare administration guide if you already know which of those you want.
Not directly. Nursing requires a nursing degree and licensure. Physician assistant, physical therapy, and occupational therapy are graduate-entry professions that require specific prerequisite science courses, observation hours, and admission to an accredited program. A bachelor’s in health science with a pre-professional track is a legitimate way to complete those prerequisites, and many programs are designed around it, but the health science degree itself confers no clinical scope of practice. Confirm the prerequisite list of the graduate programs you are targeting before assuming a given health science curriculum covers it.
No. There is no specialized accreditor for general health science degrees. Verify that the institution holds accreditation from a recognized institutional accreditor such as HLC, SACSCOC, or MSCHE through the U.S. Department of Education database. Where a program offers a track that touches an accredited field – for example, health informatics content aligned with CAHIIM, or a health education track built around the CHES competencies – ask how that alignment is documented, but do not expect the health science degree itself to carry programmatic accreditation.
Health science curricula are built in three layers, and the third layer is where programs differ enough to change which one you should choose.
The first layer is natural science. Human anatomy and physiology (usually a two-course sequence), general biology, chemistry, and often microbiology or nutrition form the base. Programs aimed at pre-professional students go deeper – organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics – because PA, PT, and OT programs require them. Programs aimed at degree-completion students usually accept the science coursework from your clinical credential and spend fewer credits here. Statistics appears in nearly every program, and it matters more than students expect, because the upper-division research and evaluation courses assume you can read a study.
The second layer is health systems. Introduction to the U.S. healthcare system, health policy, healthcare law and ethics, epidemiology, and research methods in health science are the standard set. This is the content that distinguishes health science from a biology degree: you learn how care is organized, paid for, and regulated, and how evidence about what works is produced and judged. Good programs treat this layer seriously, with real policy analysis and a research methods course that goes beyond vocabulary. Weaker programs pad it with survey courses.
The third layer is the track. Common options include health administration (management, finance, human resources, quality improvement for health organizations), health education and promotion (program planning, behavior change theory, community assessment, health communication – usually mapped to the CHES competency areas), health informatics (health data, electronic health records, data analytics, privacy and security), pre-professional preparation (the graduate-school prerequisite sequence plus a course in the target profession), and community or public health (population health, environmental health, global health). Bachelor’s programs generally run about 120 credits with the track occupying roughly 15 to 24 credits of the upper division; master’s programs typically run 30 to 36 credits and are more sharply focused on one track. Most programs finish with a capstone or an internship, and for online students the internship is the part that requires the most planning.
The work falls into four shapes, and the degree’s track choice maps to them fairly cleanly. Management and coordination roles – department supervisor, practice manager, clinical operations coordinator, quality or compliance analyst, and, with experience, medical and health services manager – are the destination for most degree-completion students who came from an allied-health field and chose an administration track. Education and promotion roles – health education specialist, community health educator, corporate wellness coordinator, patient educator – are where the health education track leads, and where the CHES credential is the recognized professional marker. Information and data roles – health information technologist, clinical data analyst, EHR trainer or analyst, registry specialist – follow from the informatics track, and overlap with the health information management field. Clinical graduate study – PA, PT, OT, and similar programs – is the destination for pre-professional students, and for them the bachelor’s is a prerequisite rather than a terminal credential.
Hiring in these roles is less standardized than in licensed clinical fields, which cuts both ways. There is no exam gating entry to most non-clinical health work, so the degree plus relevant experience is what an employer evaluates. But it also means job titles vary from one health system to the next, and a “health science” degree reads as general until you attach a track, a credential such as the CHES, or clinical experience to it. For general labor-market context on the management side of this field, see the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Health science or a related field? Choose health science if you want a science-based, non-clinical health degree with flexibility across tracks, or if you are completing a bachelor’s on top of an allied-health credential. Consider public health if population-level work and the MPH pathway are your goal, healthcare administration if you already know you want the business and management side, health information management if data and records are the draw and you want the RHIA-eligible route, kinesiology if movement science and exercise-based roles fit better, or nursing if you want to provide direct patient care. The broader healthcare degree guide compares the whole vertical.
Looking for programs near you? Browse health science programs by state.
Aiming at a specific role? See how to become a health educator. Wondering where it leads? See what you can do with a health science degree for the jobs and BLS salary data behind the degree. Compare programs by topic:
