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Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

12 Colleges
$17,051 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$41,687 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master's Degree School for You

Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies is the #14 most popular major in Illinois with 797 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master's Degree Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 12 schools in Illinois to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for parks and rec students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois

Check out the parks and rec master's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Master's Degree Schools

#1

Concordia University, Chicago

River Forest, IL

Our 2023 rankings named Concordia University, Chicago the best value school in Illinois for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the suburb of River Forest, Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Concordia University, Chicago are $9,378 per year.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Concordia University, Chicago

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Illinois State University is a great value for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Illinois State graduate students pay an average of $9,773 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Illinois State also took the #5 spot in our Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois rankings.

Read More…

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. UIUC is a very large public school located in the small city of Champaign.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UIUC are $17,823 per year.

UIUC not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #3 on our Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a large student population.

SIUE graduate students pay an average of $9,316 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Report

Out of the 12 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Northern Illinois University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at NIU are $11,390 a year.

Full Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Northern Illinois University Report

#6

Eastern Illinois University

Charleston, IL

Eastern Illinois University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies programs. EIU is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Charleston.

EIU graduate students pay an average of $10,640 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read More…

#7

North Central College

Naperville, IL

With a ranking of #7, North Central College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the medium-sized city of Naperville, North Central is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

North Central graduate students pay an average of $15,822 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at North Central College

#8

Aurora University

Aurora, IL

With a ranking of #8, Aurora University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large suburb of Aurora, Aurora is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Aurora graduate students pay an average of $14,100 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Aurora also claimed a spot on our Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools in this category.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at Aurora University

Western Illinois University ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. WIU is a moderately-sized public school located in the remote town of Macomb.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at WIU are $12,182 per year.

Read More…

University of Illinois at Chicago ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the large city of Chicago, UIC is a public school with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UIC are $17,277 per year.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago

Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Indiana 192
Ohio 478
Wisconsin 117
Michigan 222

Parks & Rec Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Health & Physical Education 9,742
Recreation Administration 441
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies 206
Other Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies 35
Outdoor Education 28

Related Major Annual Graduates
Public Administration & Social Service 53,252
Legal Professions 45,189
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 13,045
Military Technologies & Applied Sciences 1,613

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 12 schools only.

  • 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).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to NPS Photo/Zurbuch.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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