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

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

16 Colleges
$22,505 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$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 assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value 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 value experiences for parks and rec students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

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

Check out the parks and rec master's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

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

Our analysis found Northwest Missouri State University to be the best value school for parks, recreation and leisure studies students who want to pursue a master’s degree in the United States. Northwest is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Maryville.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Northwest are $7,064 per year.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Ohio University - Athens Campus. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. OHIO Athens is a very large public school located in the distant town of Athens.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at OHIO Athens are $17,712 a year.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at Ohio University - Athens Campus Report

The excellent master’s degree programs at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value parks, recreation and leisure studies schools in the United States. UIUC is a very large public school located in the city of Champaign.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UIUC are $30,862 per year.

UIUC also claimed a spot on our Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 5% of all schools in this category.

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The excellent master’s degree programs at California State University - Long Beach helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value parks, recreation and leisure studies schools in the United States. CSULB is a very large public school located in the city of Long Beach.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSULB are $17,784 per year.

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

#5

University of Northern Iowa

Cedar Falls, IA

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means University of Northern Iowa is a great value for parks, recreation and leisure studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the small city of Cedar Falls, UNI is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UNI are $21,201 a year.

UNI excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list.

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

California State University - Sacramento 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. Located in the large city of Sacramento, Sac State is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Sac State are $18,330 a year.

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

California State University - Chico ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. Chico State is a fairly large public school located in the midsize city of Chico.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Chico State are $18,802 a year.

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

#8

SUNY Cortland

Cortland, NY

SUNY Cortland came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the distant town of Cortland, SUNY Cortland is a public college with a medium-sized student population.

SUNY Cortland graduate students pay an average of $24,845 in tuition and fees each year.

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Oklahoma State University - Main Campus landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree parks, recreation and leisure studies programs. OSU is a very large public school located in the town of Stillwater.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at OSU are $24,175 per year.

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

With a ranking of #10, Indiana University - Bloomington did quite well on this year’s best value schools for parks, recreation and leisure studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at IU Bloomington are $33,352 per year.

IU Bloomington also claimed a spot on our Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Master’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools in this category.

Full Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies at Indiana University - Bloomington Report

Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies by Region

View the Best Value 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.

  • 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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