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.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 200 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to parks, recreation & leisure studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of parks, recreation & leisure studies students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for parks, recreation & leisure studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized parks, recreation & leisure studies related body.
Our complete 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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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 the Rocky Mountains Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies.
Top Rocky Mountains Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Parks & Rec
It's difficult to beat University of Utah if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Salt Lake City, U of U is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career earnings of $37,009.
Brigham Young University - Provo is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the medium-sized city of Provo, BYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Brigham Young University - Provo earn a boost of approximately $9,901 over the typical earnings of parks, recreation & leisure studies graduates.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies needs to check out Western Colorado University. Located in the town of Gunnison, Western is a public university with a small student population.
After graduation, parks & rec bachelor's recipients typically earn around $25,903 at the beginning of their careers.
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.
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
