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.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 121 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The parks & rec bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality parks & rec program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
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 colleges for parks, recreation & leisure studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools
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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina list to help you make the college 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 North Carolina
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies.
Top North Carolina Schools for a Bachelor's in Parks & Rec
East Carolina University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. ECU is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Greenville.
Those parks, recreation & leisure studies students who get their bachelor's degree from East Carolina University receive $2,322 more than the average parks & rec student.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. UNC Greensboro is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Greensboro.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career earnings of $24,215.
University of Mount Olive is a great choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the town of Mount Olive, UMO is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies major at University of Mount Olive get $3,798 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Shaw University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Raleigh, Shaw University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program report average early career earnings of $18,795.
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.