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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 9 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 402 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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 quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various 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 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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 California
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies.
Top California Schools for a Bachelor's in Parks & Rec
It is difficult to beat California State University - Long Beach if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the large city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn around $35,532 for their early career.
California State University - Chico is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Chico State is a large public university located in the city of Chico.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn about $33,920 in their early career salary.
It is hard to beat California State University - Sacramento if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Sac State is a very large public university located in the city of Sacramento.
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies bachelor's degree recipients from California State University - Sacramento earn a boost of about $5,484 above the typical earnings of parks, recreation & leisure studies graduates.
San Francisco State University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the large city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career income of $28,427.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public university located in the suburb of San Luis Obispo.
Those parks, recreation & leisure studies students who get their bachelor's degree from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo make $4,303 more than the typical parks & rec graduate.
Cal State East Bay is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Hayward.
Bachelor's recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies major at California State University - East Bay get $8,846 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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:
