Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #123 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation & leisure studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 90 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The parks & rec bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality parks & rec program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on parks, recreation & leisure studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other parks, recreation & leisure studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt parks, recreation & leisure studies students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized parks, recreation & leisure studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for parks, recreation & leisure studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation & Leisure 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 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina 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.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in North Carolina
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies.
Top North Carolina Schools for a Bachelor's in Parks & Rec
University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. UNC Greensboro is a large public university located in the large city of Greensboro.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn about $31,561 in the first couple years of their career.
East Carolina University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. ECU is a very large public university located in the city of Greenville.
Those parks, recreation & leisure studies students who get their bachelor's degree from East Carolina University earn $3,308 more than the average parks & rec grad.
University of Mount Olive is a wonderful option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the rural area of Mount Olive, UMO is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make around $27,219 for their early career.
Shaw University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the large city of Raleigh, Shaw University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly small student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make about $32,241 for their early career.
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.
The parks & rec bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality parks & rec program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
