Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #123 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Colorado to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation & leisure studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 45 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies to qualified students.
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on parks, recreation & leisure studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other parks, recreation & leisure studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt parks, recreation & leisure studies students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized parks, recreation & leisure studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for parks, recreation & leisure studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Colorado ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in Colorado
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies.
Top Colorado Schools for a Bachelor's in Parks & Rec
Metropolitan State University of Denver is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. MSU Denver is a large public university located in the large city of Denver.
Those parks, recreation & leisure studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver earn $7,160 more than the average parks & rec student.
Western Colorado University is a wonderful decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Western is a small public university located in the remote town of Gunnison.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program report average early career wages of $22,704.
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.
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