2023 Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is the 15th most popular major in the country with 73,813 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $31,423 and had an average of $24,388 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 2,442 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $33,264 and $24,988 respectively. At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 37 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $81,698 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois doctor’s degree parks & rec students.

Top 2 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in Illinois

1

Concordia University, Chicago
River Forest, Illinois

#9 overall quality in Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Concordia University, Chicago. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois. Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit institution located in River Forest, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 32 doctorate’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.1%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Concordia University, Chicago

2

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois

#3 overall quality in Illinois

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the #2 spot on the list. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a public institution located in Champaign, Illinois. The school has a large population, and it awarded 5 doctorate’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at UIUC

• Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the Great Lakes Region
• Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness 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.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to NPS Photo/Zurbuch.