2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master's Degree Schools in Missouri
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing
Finding the Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master's Degree School for You
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is the #15 most popular major in Missouri with 1,342 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.
Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
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 & Fitness Master's Degree Schools in Missouri ranking. This report analyzed 8 schools in Missouri to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for parks and rec students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.
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.
Best Missouri Schools for Affordable Quality for a Master's in Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness
Our 2023 rankings named Missouri Western State University the best value school in Missouri for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students working on their master’s degree. Missouri Western is a small public school located in the small city of Saint Joseph.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Missouri Western are $7,458 a year.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Missouri State University - Springfield. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Missouri list. Missouri State is a fairly large public school located in the city of Springfield.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Missouri State are $6,858 a year.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Northwest Missouri State University. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Missouri list. Northwest is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Maryville.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Northwest are $7,064 a year.
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Out of the 8 schools in Missouri that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Missouri - Columbia landed the # 4 spot on the list. Mizzou is a very large public school located in the midsize city of Columbia.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Mizzou are $11,255 a year.
Mizzou did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Missouri list.
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Out of the 8 schools in Missouri that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Central Missouri landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the town of Warrensburg, UCM is a public college with a fairly large student population.
UCM graduate students pay an average of $9,156 in in-state tuition and fees each year.
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Lindenwood University came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Missouri ranking. Lindenwood University is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Saint Charles.
Lindenwood University graduate students pay an average of $9,784 in in-state tuition and fees each year.
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Missouri Baptist University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, MBU is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at MBU are $10,670 a year.
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Avila University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Missouri ranking. Avila is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Kansas City.
Avila graduate students pay an average of $8,598 in in-state tuition and fees each year.
Request InformationBest Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges in the Plains States Region
Explore all the Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.
| State | Degrees Awarded |
|---|---|
| Kansas | 710 |
| Minnesota | 1,139 |
| Iowa | 1,491 |
| South Dakota | 342 |
| Nebraska | 429 |
| North Dakota | 266 |
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Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Related Majors for Parks & Rec
Parks & Rec Majors to Study
| Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Health & Physical Education | 67,146 |
| Recreation Administration | 3,122 |
| Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies | 3,106 |
| Outdoor Education | 265 |
| Other Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies | 174 |
Most Popular Majors Related to Parks & Rec
| Related Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting | 142,610 |
| Public Administration & Social Service | 98,583 |
| Legal Professions | 61,055 |
| Military Technologies & Applied Sciences | 4,477 |
Notes and References
*These averages are for the top 8 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).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to NPS Photo/Zurbuch.
More about our data sources and methodologies.