Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Western Kentucky University

What traits are you looking for in a parks and rec school? To help you decide if Western Kentucky University is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's parks and rec program.

WKU is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky and has a total student population of 17,517. During the 2020-2021 academic year, 72 students received their master's degree in parks and rec.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies section at the bottom of this page.

WKU Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Degrees Available

• Master’s Degree in Parks & Rec

Online Classes Are Available at WKU

If you are a working student or have a busy schedule, you may want to consider taking online classes. While these classes used to be mostly populated by returning adults, more and more traditional students are turning to this option.

Are you one of the many who prefer to take online classes? WKU offers distance education options for parks and rec at the following degree levels:

• Master’s Degree

WKU Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Rankings

Parks & Rec Student Demographics at WKU

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the parks and rec majors at Western Kentucky University.

WKU Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Program

Of the 72 students who graduated with a master’s in parks and rec from WKU in 2021, 69% were men and 31% were women.

Of the students who received a parks and rec master's degree from WKU, 65% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level. In the parks and rec master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 33% of degree recipients. That is 4% better than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Western Kentucky University with a master's in parks and rec.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	19
Hispanic or Latino	4
White	47
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

Concentrations Within Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies

Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies majors may want to concentrate their studies in one of these areas. The completion numbers here include all graduates who receive any type of degree in this field from Western Kentucky University. Some of these focus areas may not be available for your degree level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
Recreation Administration	86
Health & Physical Education	28

Related Majors

• Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting
• Public Administration & Social Service

Careers That Parks & Rec Grads May Go Into

A degree in parks and rec can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for KY, the home state for Western Kentucky University.

Occupation	Jobs in KY	Average Salary in KY
General and Operations Managers	30,240	$89,750
Managers	3,260	$92,630
Coaches and Scouts	2,520	$38,740
Fitness Trainers and Aerobics Instructors	2,290	$36,800
Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Supervisors	1,250	$45,210

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By OPMaster under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.