2024 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region
9Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
469Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$33,140Avg Early-Career Salary
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies isn't the most popular major in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #166 in popularity out of 395 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 469 degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Pick Your Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Degree Level
The parks & rec school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in the Great Lakes Region
The schools below may not offer all types of parks & rec degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
Every student who is interested in parks, recreation & leisure studies has to take a look at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is a very large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were about 145 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies degree program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $7,944 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It's difficult to beat Indiana University - Bloomington if you want to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #55 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were about 150 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career income of $35,063.
It's hard to beat Ohio University - Athens Campus if you want to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the town of Athens, OHIO Athens is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #239 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means OHIO Athens is a great university overall.
There were about 42 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent data year.
It is difficult to beat Southern Illinois University Carbondale if you wish to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. SIUC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Carbondale. This university ranks 23rd out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 18 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at SIUC in the most recent data year. After graduating, parks & rec degree recipients usually earn about $25,457 in the first five years of their career.
Located in the fringe town of Bowling Green, BGSU is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 23rd out of 96 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 59 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at BGSU in the most recent data year. After graduation, parks & rec degree recipients usually earn an average of $32,248 in their early careers.
University of Toledo is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Toledo. This university ranks 19th out of 96 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 19 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at University of Toledo in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies degree program at University of Toledo make $6,811 more than the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Aurora is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Aurora. A Best Colleges rank of #354 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Aurora is a great university overall.
There were roughly 5 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Aurora in the most recent data year.
Olivet Nazarene is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Bourbonnais. This university ranks 33rd out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 4 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Olivet Nazarene in the most recent data year.
Northern Michigan University is a medium-sized public university located in the town of Marquette. This university ranks 34th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were approximately 18 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Northern Michigan University in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career earnings of $24,288.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).