If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #123 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 11 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 492 bachelor's degrees in parks, recreation & leisure studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to parks, recreation & leisure studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of parks, recreation & leisure studies students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for parks, recreation & leisure studies 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 parks, recreation & leisure studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for parks, recreation & leisure studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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.
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.
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California State University - Long Beach is a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies program at California State University - Long Beach get $2,510 above the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies has to check out California State University - Chico. Chico State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Chico.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the parks & rec program state that they receive average early career wages of $33,920.
California State University - Sacramento is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies. Sac State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Sacramento.
Bachelor's recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies program at California State University - Sacramento earn $7,316 more than the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in parks, recreation & leisure studies has to take a look at San Francisco State University. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, parks & rec bachelor's recipients typically earn around $28,427 in the first five years of their career.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public university located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.
Bachelor's recipients from the parks, recreation & leisure studies major at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo get $6,135 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Cal State East Bay is a large public university located in the suburb of Hayward.
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies bachelor's degree recipients from California State University - East Bay earn a boost of around $10,678 above the average earnings of parks, recreation & leisure studies graduates.
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.
Your choice of parks, recreation & leisure studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
