2024 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region
89Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
10,200Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$32,202Avg Early-Career Salary
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #15 most popular 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 89 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 10,200 degrees in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School
The parks & rec program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Rankings by Degree Level
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
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 Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the Great Lakes Region
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the parks & rec degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student who is interested in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies needs to check out University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were roughly 310 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent data year. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor earn a boost of about $6,890 above the typical earnings of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies majors.
University of Wisconsin - Madison is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the city of Madison. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UW - Madison is a great university overall.
There were roughly 207 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at UW - Madison in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career earnings of $27,879.
Every student who is interested in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies needs to look into Northwestern University. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 54 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies degree recipients from Northwestern University get an earnings boost of approximately $16,695 over the average income of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies majors.
Indiana University - Bloomington is a great option for students interested in a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #55 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were about 579 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies degree program at Indiana University - Bloomington get $4,761 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
UIUC is a very large public university located in the city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were about 329 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Those parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who get their degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $3,482 more than the average parks & rec student.
Located in the town of Oxford, Miami University - Oxford is a public university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #116 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Miami University - Oxford is a great university overall.
There were about 320 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Miami University - Oxford in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies degree program at Miami University - Oxford earn $2,964 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #69 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Ohio State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 243.99999999999997 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Ohio State in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies major at Ohio State University - Main Campus earn $5,276 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Michigan State is a fairly large public university located in the small city of East Lansing. A Best Colleges rank of #74 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were about 355 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn around $30,429 for their early career.
Located in the town of Athens, OHIO Athens is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 9th out of 96 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 288 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent year we have data available. Those parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who get their degree from Ohio University - Athens Campus earn $11,003 more than the average parks & rec grad.
Located in the suburb of River Forest, Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #170 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Concordia University, Chicago is a great university overall.
There were about 375 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Concordia University, Chicago in the most recent data year. Those parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who get their degree from Concordia University, Chicago make $7,844 more than the standard parks & rec graduate.
UW - La Crosse is a fairly large public university located in the small city of La Crosse. This university ranks 3rd out of 46 schools for overall quality in the state of Wisconsin.
There were about 248 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at UW - La Crosse in the most recent year we have data available. After graduating, parks & rec degree recipients generally earn about $31,779 in the first five years of their career.
Located in the medium-sized city of Dayton, UDayton is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #184 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UDayton is a great university overall.
There were about 48 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at UDayton in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, parks & rec degree recipients usually make about $31,458 at the beginning of their careers.
Ball State is a large public university located in the small city of Muncie. This university ranks 6th out of 42 schools for overall quality in the state of Indiana.
There were approximately 145 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Ball State in the most recent data year. Those parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who get their degree from Ball State University make $2,699 more than the typical parks & rec student.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The parks & rec program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
