Kinesioliogy Major, English Minor with education certifications. Masters in teacher leadership. Teaching HS English and coaching basketball. Not a dead end, if you plan to go into education and work with athletics. Definitely not a huge money maker. PT sounds good.
Looks exactly like my plan, but I don't think it was just exercise science back then. Again, it was a little bit of everything. If leaving elsewhere isn't a big problem for you, I'd go elsewhere with a better PT foundation. I think I've heard about UT's as well. Also, check out UTMB in Galveston. They have a PT program. You could just make sure to meet the requirements for it at UH and then go there after UH. Another option is UT at the med center. They may have something, not sure though.
Pretty sure you need more than a bachelor's in KIN to be a PT, like an additional 4 yr program. Are you sure he didn't continue his education after leaving UH?
As a physical therapist, many of my classmates had kinesiology degrees but you can major in anything you want. You'll need lots of volunteer hrs and a competitive GPA to get in. All programs are doctorate programs now.
Old roomate of mine majored in Sports Medicine (Equivalent to Kinesiology at Texas State I believe) and minored in Math. He's now a Math teacher and a football coach in Austin.
Secondary education is definitely recommended or else you will get stuck. Medical School, PT, grad school, etc
My wife had this major at SHSU. She was attempting to get into PT School, but they're all super competitive. She worked as a Tech for a year and then went to PTA school. She makes pretty good money now working at Texas Children's Hospital (about what I made starting out as an auditor). She tells me there is a PTA to PT bridge program that is starting at UTMB in Galveston and she is going to try to get into that. I wouldn't say it is a dead end, you just have to actually know what you're going to go do. You can't just say "I'm going to work in sports." Because, well, everyone wants to do that. You'll also need a pretty good GPA and hours working as a tech to get into the better graduate schools. But I can tell she knew a lot about what she learned and used it in PTA school and she's pretty knowledgeable about what she does. She probably got a lot of that getting her Kinesiology degree.
If you want to be a PT, I would recommend getting a Masters no matter what you get your undergrad degree in.
I wouldn't go with Business. Its too general. You'll cover accounting, marketing, finance, and management, but you won't get in depth with any of those fields. From a skills perspective, you won't really pick anything up. You should be more defined with the second major. For example, Finance would be great because you'll gain an in depth understanding of valuation, which is important in so many different fields. As for networking, getting into organizations is a great idea. You don't really have to commit very heavily. Its moreso about meeting people who may be able to help out down the line. What I'm actually referring to, though, is when they bring in various businesses for recruiting. Those are great opportunities to meet recruiters and to have somebody vouch for you in addition to just having a resume.
Another great avenue for networking are professional organizations, even if you aren't a "professional" yet. For example, I'm in mortgage banking in Texas, so going to a Texas Mortgage Banker's Association Conference as an undergrad would be a great way to get your name out there if you wanted to get into that field.
I don't think you can make that presumption. I guarantee that the OP would have success with his Kinesiology degree if he wanted to go into the medical field with the sort of networking techniques I'm talking about. I think a lot of college grads assume that just putting their impressive resume out there will get them the job. But employers want more than just an impressive resume. Don't get me wrong, an impressive resume will get you some phone calls, but I guarantee that going out and networking with professionals in that field will get more phone calls because you get to expand on that impressive resume by demonstrating your passion, knowledge, and social skills by actually speaking with them in a non-interview setting.
My brother got a kinesiology degree from UT. At first he worked as a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and other places. I always thought he was an idiot for this. Now he works for an insurance company in a high level position (not selling insurance). He lucked out in meeting good personal training clients (obviously not at 24 Hour) to help boost his career. He also now makes some serious dough. To answer your question, yes kinesiology is a terrible degree unless you want to coach or something to that effect. Even my brother thinks it's terrible now looking back. But sometimes in life it's who you know that matters.
