Which Schools and Academic Disciplines Are Part of SDSU's College of Health and Human Services?

Updated

The College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) at San Diego State University is organized into six schools: Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Public Health, Social Work, and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. If you are looking for a health-related major, minor, master's, or doctoral program at SDSU, this is the college that most likely houses it — it offers 15 majors and minors, 25 master's programs, and 14 doctoral programs, and is SDSU's fourth-largest college with nearly 5,000 students.

The six schools and what they cover

School Discipline area
Exercise and Nutritional Sciences Kinesiology, exercise science, nutrition
Nursing Nursing practice and preparation
Physical Therapy Physical therapy practice
Public Health Population health, health promotion, health equity
Social Work Social work practice and human services
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Communication sciences and disorders

These six schools are the college's core academic units, so the fastest way to check whether CHHS covers your intended field is to see which school name matches it.

Program breadth and how the disciplines connect

The college's scale matters if you are comparing it against other SDSU colleges or other universities:

  • 15 majors and minors — undergraduate entry points across the six schools.
  • 25 master's programs — graduate training across the same disciplines.
  • 14 doctoral programs — the deepest level of specialization, concentrated in health and human services fields.

CHHS describes its programs and related research training as prioritizing interprofessional and interdisciplinary concepts, so students in one school are expected to work alongside peers from other health disciplines. The stated purpose behind this is to maximize the impact of students, faculty, and staff on health equity and well-being. In practice, that means a nursing student, a public health student, and a social work student may share coursework or training experiences rather than staying in separate silos.

How to check whether your specific program is offered

  1. Start with the school list above and identify the closest match to your field of interest.
  2. Open the CHHS Degree Chart (PDF), linked from the college site, to see the full set of degree offerings in one place.
  3. Use the college's Academic Support Resources & Aid section if you also need to check advising, support services, or financial aid tied to these programs.
  4. If you want to understand the college's direction and priorities, the 2025–2028 strategic plan (PDF) is downloadable from the site and sets out its goals for the next three years.

Why the college's community role may matter to your decision

Two figures from the college illustrate where its graduates and research tend to go: more than 50% of the San Diego Health and Human Services Agency workforce comprises CHHS graduates, and the college hosts 12 centers and institutes in San Diego. It also reports that more than 115,000 lbs of food were donated through efforts to fight nutrition insecurity in San Diego. If you are weighing a health or human services program partly on local career pipelines and community-based research opportunities, these are concrete signals of how embedded the college is in the region.

For prospective students, the practical takeaway is straightforward: if your intended field falls under exercise and nutrition, nursing, physical therapy, public health, social work, or speech, language, and hearing sciences, CHHS is the SDSU college to explore — and the degree chart is the single document that will confirm whether your exact program exists at the level (bachelor's, master's, or doctoral) you need.