2023 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in the Great Lakes Region

When it comes to choosing a college, veterans have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management is the 231st most popular major in the country with 2,937 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

Across the Great Lakes region, there were 380 parks, recreation and leisure facilities management graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in parks, recreation and leisure facilities management. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality parks, recreation and leisure facilities management programs as well as strong veteran support.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the parks, recreation and leisure facilities management program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran satisfaction. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management Schools

The parks administration 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 the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s”.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s”.

Top 2 Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in the Great Lakes Region

1

University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
La Crosse, Wisconsin

230 GI Bill® Students**

#1 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s list. La Crosse, Wisconsin is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s parks administration degrees to 10 students in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UW - La Crosse, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management Master’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region” ranking.Our most recent data shows that 230 of the 10,531 students enrolled at UW - La Crosse were GI Bill® students, of which 79 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $4,846. During this same period, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

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%. With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Full UW - La Crosse Veteran Student Life Report

2

Western Illinois University
Macomb, Illinois

330 GI Bill® Students**

#2 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

Out of the 2 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in the Great Lakes Region for Parks Administration for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, Western Illinois University landed the #2 spot on the list. WIU is a medium-sized school located in Macomb, Illinois that handed out 17 masters’s parks administration degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our great lakes region master’s degree vets studying parks administration list, WIU has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management Master’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region” ranking.According to our most recent data, WIU supports 7,490 students, and 330 of those are GI Bill® students, of which 62 are Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $4,652. To help with additional expenses, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Eligible students may be able to receive credit for their military training.

[Read full report on veteran student life at WIU]](/colleges/western-illinois-university/student-life/veterans/)

• Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Facilities Management 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 Glen Santy.