a bachelor's degree in recreation administration is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #128 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for recreation administration students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 126 bachelor's degrees in recreation administration during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Recreation Administration School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The recreation admin bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on recreation administration students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of recreation administration students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for recreation administration to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized recreation administration related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for recreation administration students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Recreation Administration Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Recreation Administration Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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 Bachelor’s Students to Study Recreation Administration in the Plains States Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in recreation administration.
Top Plains States Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Recreation Admin
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in recreation administration has to look into Minnesota State University - Mankato. Located in the city of Mankato, Minnesota State Mankato is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the recreation admin program state that they receive average early career income of $36,220.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in recreation administration has to take a look at South Dakota State University. South Dakota State is a fairly large public university located in the town of Brookings.
Soon after graduating, recreation admin bachelor's recipients usually earn around $38,076 in their early careers.
Kansas State University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. K -State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Manhattan.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the recreation admin program state that they receive average early career income of $37,083.
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 recreation admin bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
