2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in South Dakota

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

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 South Dakota, there were 344 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $32,046 and $25,408 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 61 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $60,795 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree 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

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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota”.

Top 4 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in South Dakota

1

Northern State University
Aberdeen, South Dakota

#11 overall quality in South Dakota

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Northern State University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota list. Northern State University is located in Aberdeen, South Dakota and, has a small student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 13 masters’s parks and rec degrees to qualified students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 4.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Northern State University

2

Augustana University
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

#3 overall quality in South Dakota

Out of the 4 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota that were part of this year’s ranking, Augustana University landed the #2 spot on the list. Augustana University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The school has a small population, and it awarded 12 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Augustana University Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Report

3

University of South Dakota
Vermillion, South Dakota

#5 overall quality in South Dakota

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of South Dakota. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota. University of South Dakota is located in Vermillion, South Dakota and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 27 masters’s parks and rec degrees to qualified students.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.1%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

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

4

South Dakota State University
Brookings, South Dakota

#1 overall quality in South Dakota

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend South Dakota State University. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Parks & Rec Major in South Dakota list. South Dakota State is a public institution located in Brookings, South Dakota. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 9 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full South Dakota State Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Report

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the Plains States Region
• Most Focused Master’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.