2025 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Far Western US Region
51Colleges in the Far Western US Region
13,000Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$34,494Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #15 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 51 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 13,000 degrees in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School
The parks & rec program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies rankings. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Rankings by Degree Level
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 Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
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.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in the Far Western US Region
The schools below may not offer all types of parks & rec degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
10 Top Far Western US Region Schools in Parks & Rec
Any student pursuing a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies needs to take a look at San Diego State University. Located in the large city of San Diego, SDSU is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #185 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means SDSU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 427 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at SDSU in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn an average of $27,500 in their early career salary.
Every student who is interested in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies has to check out Concordia University, Irvine. Concordia University, Irvine is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Irvine. This university ranks 67th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 370 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Concordia University, Irvine in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies degree program at Concordia University, Irvine earn $25,732 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
San Francisco State University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #225 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means SFSU is a great university overall.
There were about 227 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at SFSU in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make around $26,916 in their early career salary.
Washington State University is a good choice for students interested in a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Wazzu is a very large public university located in the distant town of Pullman. A Best Colleges rank of #182 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Wazzu is a great university overall.
There were roughly 124 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Wazzu in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career wages of $30,815.
Located in the large suburb of Moraga, SMC is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #148 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means SMC is a great college overall.
There were about 45 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at SMC in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies major at Saint Mary's College of California earn $29,956 above the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #246 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means CSULB is a great university overall.
There were approximately 472 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at CSULB in the most recent data year. After graduating, parks & rec degree recipients usually earn an average of $31,826 in their early careers.
Sac State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Sacramento. A Best Colleges rank of #267 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Sac State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 384 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Sac State in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career wages of $34,998.
Located in the medium-sized city of Las Vegas, UNLV is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 8 schools for overall quality in the state of Nevada.
There were roughly 226 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at UNLV in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career income of $29,123.
Located in the large city of San Francisco, USFCA is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #152 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means USFCA is a great university overall.
There were approximately 163 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at USFCA in the most recent year we have data available. Those parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who get their degree from University of San Francisco make $7,302 more than the average parks & rec graduate.
Located in the small city of Corvallis, Oregon State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #238 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Oregon State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 230 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Oregon State in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the parks & rec program earn around $30,224 in their early career salary.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in the Far Western US Region award.
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).
The parks & rec program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies rankings. For our Best Overall Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
