2023 Most Focused Colleges for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in Iowa

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies is the 166th most popular major in the country with 3,106 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, parks, recreation and leisure studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $31,801 and had an average of $23,333 in loans still to pay off.

Across Iowa, there were 113 parks, recreation and leisure studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $32,092 and $23,360 respectively.

This year’s “Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in parks, recreation and leisure studies. This a ranking of the schools where the largest percentage of students has enrolled in parks, recreation and leisure studies.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 “Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa”.

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.

Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa

The colleges and universities below are the best for iowa parks & rec students.

Top 2 Most Focused Colleges for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in Iowa

1

University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa

#4 overall quality in Iowa

$40,810 Average Early-Career Earnings

$23,518 Average Student Debt

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Northern Iowa. The school came in at #1 for the Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa. University of Northern Iowa is a medium-sized school located in Cedar Falls, Iowa that handed out 60 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at University of Northern Iowa

2

University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

#2 overall quality in Iowa

$50,430 Average Early-Career Earnings

$24,741 Average Student Debt

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Iowa that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Iowa landed the #2 spot on the list. Iowa is located in Iowa City, Iowa and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 53 ’s parks and rec degrees to qualified students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 88%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at University of Iowa

• Most Focused Colleges for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in the Plains States Region
• Most Focused Colleges for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies

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).
• 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.
• 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.