2024 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in Illinois
3Colleges in Illinois
196Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
A degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #218 out of 1506 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation & leisure studies students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 196 degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School
The parks & rec program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies rankings. We derive our Best Overall Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Rankings by Degree Level
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in Illinois list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in Illinois
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the parks & rec degree levels they offer.
It is difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you wish to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 142 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 23rd out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 44 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at SIUC in the most recent data year.
It's difficult to beat Olivet Nazarene University if you want to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the suburb of Bourbonnais, Olivet Nazarene is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 33rd out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 6 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Olivet Nazarene in the most recent data year.
Every student pursuing a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies needs to check out Aurora University. Located in the large suburb of Aurora, Aurora is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #354 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Aurora is a great university overall.
There were approximately 4 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Aurora in the most recent data year.
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).