2025 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region
7Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
469Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$34,246Avg Early-Career Salary
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies isn't the most popular major in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #166 in popularity out of 395 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation & leisure studies students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 469 degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies annually.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Pick Your Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Degree Level
The parks & rec school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in the Great Lakes Region
The schools below may not offer all types of parks & rec degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
It's hard to beat Indiana University - Bloomington if you want to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were approximately 150 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make around $35,429 in the first couple years of working.
Every student who is interested in parks, recreation & leisure studies has to look into University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were about 145 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $6,213 more than the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It's hard to beat Ohio University - Athens Campus if you wish to pursue a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the town of Athens, OHIO Athens is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #184 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means OHIO Athens is a great university overall.
There were approximately 42 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent year we have data available.
Bowling Green State University - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the town of Bowling Green, BGSU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 18th out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 59 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at BGSU in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career wages of $32,709.
Located in the town of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 36th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 18 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at SIUC in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn about $32,357 in the first couple years of working.
University of Toledo is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Toledo. This university ranks 15th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 19 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at University of Toledo in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies program at University of Toledo make $8,451 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Northern Michigan University is a moderately-sized public university located in the town of Marquette. This university ranks 35th out of 56 colleges for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were approximately 18 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Northern Michigan University in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career income of $28,890.
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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
