2023 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges for Veterans in Vermont

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for veterans. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec” ranking - to help you make that 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 Vermont, there were 165 parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $31,616 and $25,302 respectively.

This year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree 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.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as veteran satisfaction, veteran affordability, and overall quality of the parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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

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 “Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique 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 Vermont for Parks & Rec

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec”.

Top 3 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges for Veterans in Vermont

1

Castleton University
Castleton, Vermont

74 GI Bill® Students**

$5,995 Average GI Bill® Award

$46,876 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Castleton University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec list. Castleton University is a public institution located in Castleton, Vermont. The school has a small population, and it awarded 58 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Castleton, the school also landed the #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] spot in our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” ranking.Our most recent data shows that 74 of the 2,211 students enrolled at Castleton University were GI Bill® students, of which 47 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $5,995. During this same period, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Eligible students may be able to receive credit for their military training.

Full Castleton University Veteran Student Life Report

2

University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont

218 GI Bill® Students**

YES Student Veterans Organization

$10,767 Average GI Bill® Award

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Vermont. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec list. This fairly large school is located in Burlington, Vermont, and it awarded 43 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

UVM not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] on our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list.Of the 13,292 students enrolled at UVM, 218 were GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 142 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $10,767. On top of their other funding sources, 19 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program. UVM does offer credit for military training for eligible students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read More…

3

Northern Vermont University
Johnson, Vermont

45 GI Bill® Students**

$5,691 Average GI Bill® Award

$40,580 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Northern Vermont University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Vermont for Parks & Rec list. Northern Vermont University is a small public school situated in Johnson, Vermont. It awarded 42 ’s parks and rec degrees in 2020-2021.

Northern Vermont University did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] on our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list.Our most recent data shows that 45 of the 1,999 students enrolled at Northern Vermont University were GI Bill® students, of which 27 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $5,691. On top of their other funding sources, 0 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

Full Northern Vermont University Veteran Student Life Report

• Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges for Veterans in the New England Region
• Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies 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.