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Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Schools

16 Colleges
$42,720 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, 3,106 people earned a degree or certificate in parks, recreation and leisure studies, making the major the #169 most popular in the United States.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Course Advisor has developed this Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Schools ranking. Our analysis looked at 16 schools in the United States to see which master's degree programs offered the best educational experiences for students. To come up with a school's ranking, we analyzed numerous factors related to post-graduation wages, the quality of education offered by the school, average accumulated student debt, and more.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools in the United States

The following schools top our list of the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Colleges.

Top 10 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign the best school in the United States for parks, recreation and leisure studies students working on their master’s degree. UIUC is a very large public school located in the city of Champaign.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Report

Out of the 16 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Indiana University - Bloomington landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the small city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at Indiana University - Bloomington

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Ohio University - Athens Campus. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. OHIO Athens is a very large public school located in the town of Athens.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at Ohio University - Athens Campus

#4

University of Northern Iowa

Cedar Falls, IA

Out of the 16 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Northern Iowa landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the small city of Cedar Falls, UNI is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at University of Northern Iowa

#5

SUNY Cortland

Cortland, NY

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend SUNY Cortland. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the town of Cortland, SUNY Cortland is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at SUNY Cortland Report

California State University - Long Beach did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for parks, recreation and leisure studies students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. CSULB is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Long Beach.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at California State University - Long Beach Report

#7

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT

University of Utah did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for parks, recreation and leisure studies students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the medium-sized city of Salt Lake City, U of U is a public college with a very large student population.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at University of Utah

Oklahoma State University - Main Campus did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for parks, recreation and leisure studies students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. OSU is a fairly large public school located in the distant town of Stillwater.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at Oklahoma State University - Main Campus

California State University - Sacramento ranked #9 on this year’s Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Sacramento, Sac State is a public school with a very large student population.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at California State University - Sacramento

California State University - Chico landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree parks, recreation and leisure studies programs. Chico State is a large public school located in the medium-sized city of Chico.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at California State University - Chico Report

Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies by Region

View the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Great Lakes

One of 4 majors within the area of study, parks, recreation and leisure studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Health & Physical Education 67,146
Recreation Administration 3,122
Outdoor Education 265
Other Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies 174

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 16 schools only.

  • Read more about our ranking methodology.
  • 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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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