2025 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in New Jersey
7Colleges in New Jersey
1,114Parks & Rec Degrees Awarded
$34,494Avg Early-Career Salary
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #15 most popular degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 7 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in New Jersey ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,114 degrees in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies annually.
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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each 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
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 the Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools in New Jersey.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies in New Jersey
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the parks & rec degrees they offer, see the list below.
Any student who is interested in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies has to look into Rutgers University - New Brunswick. Located in the small city of New Brunswick, Rutgers New Brunswick is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #74 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Rutgers New Brunswick is a great university overall.
There were approximately 396 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Rutgers New Brunswick in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make around $30,252 for their early career.
It's difficult to beat William Paterson University of New Jersey if you wish to pursue a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Located in the large suburb of Wayne, William Paterson University is a public university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 12th out of 45 schools for overall quality in the state of New Jersey.
There were approximately 100 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at William Paterson University in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the parks & rec program make about $31,382 in the first couple years of working.
Any student who is interested in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies has to look into Seton Hall University. Located in the suburb of South Orange, Seton Hall is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #283 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Seton Hall is a great university overall.
There were about 44 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Seton Hall in the most recent year we have data available. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies degree recipients from Seton Hall University earn a boost of around $4,839 above the average earnings of parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies graduates.
Union County College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies. Union County College is a moderately-sized public college located in the large suburb of Cranford. This college ranks 25th out of 45 schools for overall quality in the state of New Jersey.
There were about 20 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Union County College in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Montclair, Montclair State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #290 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Montclair State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 136 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Montclair State in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the parks & rec program report average early career wages of $29,907.
Kean is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Union. This university ranks 21st out of 45 colleges for overall quality in the state of New Jersey.
There were about 78 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Kean in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies program at Kean University get $3,390 above the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large suburb of West Long Branch, Monmouth is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 15th out of 45 colleges for overall quality in the state of New Jersey.
There were about 25 parks, recreation, leisure, & fitness studies students who graduated with this degree at Monmouth 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 $27,907.
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).