Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studiesdoctorate programs are on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of popularity. In fact, the major degree program ranks #23 out of the 36 majors we look at each year. This may make is a little harder to find a school that is a good fit for you.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Combined, these schools handed out 146 doctor's degrees in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School for Your Doctor's Degree
Your choice of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies for getting your doctor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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, & fitness studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
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, & fitness studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students working on their doctor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools
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, & Fitness Studies Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the Southeast Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students seeking a a doctor's degree.
Top Southeast Region Schools for a Doctorate in Parks & Rec
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).