2024 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in Mississippi
7Colleges in Mississippi
1,137Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$28,783Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #15 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in Mississippi to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,137 degrees in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School
Your choice of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Pick Your Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness 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, & Fitness Studies Schools in Mississippi.
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, & Fitness Studies in Mississippi
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.
University of Mississippi is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Ole Miss is a fairly large public university located in the remote town of University. A Best Colleges rank of #361 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Ole Miss is a great university overall.
There were about 199 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Ole Miss in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, parks & rec degree recipients typically earn around $24,639 in their early careers.
Every student pursuing a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies has to look into Mississippi State University. Located in the remote town of Mississippi State, Mississippi State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #284 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Mississippi State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 283 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Mississippi State in the most recent year we have data available. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies degree recipients from Mississippi State University earn a boost of approximately $3,231 over the average earnings of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies majors.
University of Southern Mississippi is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Located in the small city of Hattiesburg, Southern Miss is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 5th out of 26 schools for overall quality in the state of Mississippi.
There were approximately 241 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Southern Miss in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduating, parks & rec degree recipients generally earn around $27,180 in the first five years of their career.
It is hard to beat Mississippi College if you want to pursue a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. MC is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Clinton. A Best Colleges rank of #644 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means MC is a great college overall.
There were roughly 75 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at MC in the most recent data year. After graduation, parks & rec degree recipients generally make around $24,976 at the beginning of their careers.
Located in the city of Jackson, Belhaven is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 9th out of 26 schools for overall quality in the state of Mississippi.
There were about 54 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Belhaven in the most recent year we have data available. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies degree recipients from Belhaven University earn a boost of approximately $4,478 above the typical income of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies majors.
Located in the city of Hattiesburg, William Carey University is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #634 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means William Carey University is a great university overall.
There were approximately 41 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at William Carey University in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, parks & rec degree recipients generally earn around $27,292 in the first five years of their career.
MUW is a small public university located in the town of Columbus. This university ranks 6th out of 26 colleges for overall quality in the state of Mississippi.
There were about 36 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at MUW in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career income of $21,221.
Jackson State is a moderately-sized public university located in the medium-sized city of Jackson. This university ranks 11th out of 26 colleges for overall quality in the state of Mississippi.
There were approximately 26 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Jackson State in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies degree program at Jackson State University earn $4,793 more than the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).