2025 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Schools in Missouri
3Colleges in Missouri
160Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$34,246Avg Early-Career Salary
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies is about average in terms of popularity for degree programs. That is, it ranks #166 out of the 395 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Missouri to determine which ones were the best for parks, recreation & leisure studies students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 160 degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies to qualified students.
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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for parks, recreation & leisure studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each 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
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 Schools in Missouri ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
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 Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies in Missouri
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the parks & rec degrees they offer, see the list below.
University of Missouri - Columbia is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Columbia, Mizzou is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #131 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Mizzou is a great university overall.
There were roughly 83 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Mizzou in the most recent data year. Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies degree recipients from University of Missouri - Columbia earn a boost of approximately $4,479 over the average earnings of parks, recreation & leisure studies majors.
Northwest Missouri State University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Northwest is a moderately-sized public university located in the remote town of Maryville. This university ranks 20th out of 48 colleges for overall quality in the state of Missouri.
There were about 44 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Northwest in the most recent year we have data available.
Missouri State University - Springfield is a great option for students interested in a degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Missouri State is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Springfield. This university ranks 10th out of 48 schools for overall quality in the state of Missouri.
There were approximately 20 parks, recreation & leisure studies students who graduated with this degree at Missouri State in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career earnings of $28,345.
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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for parks, recreation & leisure studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
