2023 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in New Hampshire

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, veterans have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 73,813 people earned their degree in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, making the major the 15th most popular in the United States. 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 New Hampshire, there were 575 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $33,269 and $26,975 respectively.

This year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies programs as well as strong veteran support.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran satisfaction. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools

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 “Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s”.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s

The colleges and universities below are the best for new hampshire master’s degree vets studying parks & rec.

Top 3 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in New Hampshire

1

University of New Hampshire - Main Campus
Durham, New Hampshire

37 GI Bill® Students**

#1 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

Out of the 3 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, University of New Hampshire - Main Campus landed the #1 spot on the list. University of New Hampshire - Main Campus is a fairly large public school situated in Durham, New Hampshire. It awarded 16 masters’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

UNH did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Schools in New Hampshire” list.Of the 14,348 students enrolled at University of New Hampshire - Main Campus, 37 were GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 24 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $20,247. During this same period, 2 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Eligible students may be able to receive credit for their military training.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full UNH Veteran Student Life Report

2

Southern New Hampshire University
Manchester, New Hampshire

1 GI Bill® Students**

#3 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

Out of the 3 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern New Hampshire University landed the #2 spot on the list. Manchester, New Hampshire is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s parks and rec degrees to 129 students in 2020-2021.

SNHU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Schools in New Hampshire” list.Our most recent data shows that 1 of the 134,345 students enrolled at Southern New Hampshire University were GI Bill® students, of which 0 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $0. During this same period, 0 students received scholarships through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

Full Southern New Hampshire University Veteran Student Life Report

3

Plymouth State University
Plymouth, New Hampshire

124 GI Bill® Students**

#2 in overall quality

$6,351 Average GI Bill® Award

Out of the 3 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in New Hampshire for Parks & Rec for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, Plymouth State University landed the #3 spot on the list. Located in Plymouth, New Hampshire, this small public school handed out 22 diplomas to qualified masters’s parks and rec students in 2020-2021.

Plymouth State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Schools in New Hampshire” list.Among the 4,491 students enrolled at Plymouth State, 124 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 53 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $6,351. In addition to receiving other benefits, 3 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

[Read full report on veteran student life at Plymouth State]](/colleges/plymouth-state-university/student-life/veterans/)

• Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in the New England Region
• Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans

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).
• Veteran-specific data can be found at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
• 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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• **GI Bill® student total includes all chapters of the GI Bill® program (e.g., Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Veteran Readiness and Employment)
• 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.