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.
College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Recreation Administration Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 194 bachelor's degrees in recreation administration during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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 schools for recreation administration students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Recreation Administration Schools
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Recreation Administration Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college 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.
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It's hard to beat Illinois State University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the recreation administration program at Illinois State University make $4,983 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Michigan State University is a good option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, recreation admin bachelor's recipients usually make about $35,343 in their early careers.
Western Illinois University is a great option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. WIU is a medium-sized public university located in the remote town of Macomb.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the recreation admin program state that they receive average early career wages of $28,978.
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. Located in the city of La Crosse, UW - La Crosse is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduation, recreation admin bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $34,490 at the beginning of their careers.
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:
