2023 Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is the 15th most popular major in the country with 73,813 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $31,423 and had an average of $24,388 in loans still to pay off.

Across Maine, there were 200 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $28,747 and $26,482 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k” list to help you make the college decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k.

Top 3 Best Value Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies (Income $48-$75k) in Maine

1

Saint Joseph's College of Maine
Standish, Maine

#2 in overall quality

$24,573 Average Net Price

$58,620 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k list. Standish, Maine is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s parks and rec degrees to 21 students in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Saint Joseph’s Maine, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in Maine” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Saint Joseph’s Maine is $24,573 for maine parks & rec students whose families make $48-$75k.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 4.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine

2

Thomas College
Waterville, Maine

#3 in overall quality

$20,448 Average Net Price

$37,918 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Thomas College. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k list. This small school is located in Waterville, Maine, and it awarded 13 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

Thomas College not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in Maine” list. The yearly cost to attend Thomas College is $20,448 for maine parks & rec students whose families make $48-$75k.

Full Thomas College Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Report

3

University of New England
Biddeford, Maine

#1 in overall quality

$32,345 Average Net Price

$61,270 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Parks & Rec Schools in Maine For Those Making $48-$75k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of New England landed the #3 spot on the list. University of New England is located in Biddeford, Maine and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 57 ’s parks and rec degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our maine parks & rec students whose families make $48-$75k list, UNE has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in Maine” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for University of New England is $32,345 for Maine Parks & Rec students whose families make $48-$75k.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full University of New England Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Report

• Best Value Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies (Income $48-$75k) in the New England Region
• Best Value Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies (Income $48-$75k)

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to NPS Photo/Zurbuch.