2023 Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s

With all of the options veterans have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s” ranking.

Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism is the 847th most popular major in the country with 177 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

This year’s “Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in environmental/natural resource recreation and tourism. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great environmental/natural resource recreation and tourism programs and a strong support system for veterans and active service members.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the environmental/natural resource recreation and tourism program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran satisfaction. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism Schools

The natural resource recreation and tourism 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 “Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s”.

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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s”.

Top 2 Best Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans

1

Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Fort Collins, Colorado

1,606 GI Bill® Students**

#1 in overall quality

$10,701 Average GI Bill® Award

Out of the 2 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, Colorado State University - Fort Collins landed the #1 spot on the list. This large school is located in Fort Collins, Colorado, and it awarded 58 masters’s natural resource recreation and tourism degrees in 2020-2021.

Colorado State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism Master’s Degree Schools” list.Our most recent data shows that 1,606 of the 32,428 students enrolled at Colorado State were GI Bill® students, of which 1,183 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $10,701. On top of their other funding sources, 68 students received scholarships through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Eligible students may be able to receive credit for their military training.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 85%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

[Read full report on veteran student life at Colorado State University - Fort Collins]](/colleges/colorado-state-university-fort-collins/student-life/veterans/)

2

Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan

2 GI Bill® Students**

#2 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Michigan State University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly for Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism for a Master’s list. Michigan State is a public institution located in East Lansing, Michigan. The school has a large population, and it awarded 2 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Michigan State also made our “Best Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism Master’s Degree Schools” list, coming in at #2.Among the 49,695 students enrolled at Michigan State University, 2 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 1 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $14,686. During this same period, 0 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Michigan State University Veteran Student Life Report

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Veteran-specific data can be found at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• **GI Bill® student total includes all chapters of the GI Bill® program (e.g., Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Veteran Readiness and Employment)
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Brian M. Powell.