2023 Most Popular Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in Rhode Island

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island” 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 Rhode Island, there were 291 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $32,446 and $27,000 respectively.

For this year’s “Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies. To top this list, a school must have a successful parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies program that graduates more students in the field than other colleges that offer the same major.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness 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 “Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island” 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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island

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

Top 4 Most Popular Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in Rhode Island

1

University of Rhode Island
Kingston, Rhode Island

#5 overall quality in Rhode Island

$44,926 Average Early-Career Earnings

$24,193 Average Student Debt

Out of the 4 schools in the Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Rhode Island landed the #1 spot on the list. This fairly large school is located in Kingston, Rhode Island, and it awarded 167 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 4.3% 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%.

Full URI Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Report

2

Johnson & Wales University - Providence
Providence, Rhode Island

#9 overall quality in Rhode Island

$43,037 Average Early-Career Earnings

$26,117 Average Student Debt

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Johnson & Wales University - Providence. The school came in at #2 for the Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island. JWU Providence is a medium-sized school located in Providence, Rhode Island that handed out 77 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

Read more about Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Johnson & Wales University - Providence

3

Johnson & Wales University - Online
Providence, Rhode Island

$38,044 Average Early-Career Earnings

$26,750 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Johnson & Wales University - Online. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island list. Located in Providence, Rhode Island, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 29 diplomas to qualified ’s parks and rec students in 2020-2021.

Read more about Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Johnson & Wales University - Online

4

Rhode Island College
Providence, Rhode Island

#8 overall quality in Rhode Island

$42,201 Average Early-Career Earnings

$24,418 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Rhode Island College. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Most Well Attended Parks & Rec Major in Rhode Island list. Providence, Rhode Island is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s parks and rec degrees to 7 students in 2020-2021.

Read more about Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Rhode Island College

• Most Popular Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the New England Region
• Most Popular 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.