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Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California

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2023 Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California

27 Colleges
$32,218 Avg Salary
$19,856 Avg Student Debt

Finding the Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies School for You

With 1,097 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies is the #16 most popular major in California.

With all the programs available today, it can be tough to choose which one is the best for you. 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.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Grad Degree Search has created its Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California ranking. Our analysis looked at 27 schools in California to see which programs were the most popular for students. To create this ranking we looked at how many students graduated from the Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies program at each school on the list.

The following schools top our list of the Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges.

Our analysis found Concordia University, Irvine to be the most popular school for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students who want to pursue a degree in California. Located in the city of Irvine, Concordia University, Irvine is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

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A rank of #2 on this year’s list means California Baptist University is a great place for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students. Located in the city of Riverside, Cal Baptist is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

Full Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at California Baptist University Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend California State University - Long Beach. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California list. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public school with a fairly large student population.

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#4

University of San Francisco

San Francisco, CA

A rank of #4 on this year’s list means University of San Francisco is a great place for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students. USFCA is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Francisco.

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#5

National University

La Jolla, CA

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend National University. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California list. National University is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of La Jolla.

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Point Loma Nazarene University ranked #6 on this year’s Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Diego, PLNU is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

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California State University - Fullerton landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the most popular parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies programs. Located in the large suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public college with a very large student population.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at California State University - Fullerton

California State University - Northridge ranked #8 on this year’s Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California list. CSUN is a fairly large public school located in the city of Northridge.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at California State University - Northridge

San Jose State University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Schools in California ranking. Located in the large city of San Jose, San Jose State is a public college with a very large student population.

Full Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at San Jose State University Report

California State University - Fresno did quite well in this year’s ranking of the most popular schools for parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies students. It came in at #10 on the list. Fresno State is a very large public school located in the city of Fresno.

Read full report on Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies at California State University - Fresno

Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Most Popular Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 122
Oregon 67
Nevada 13
Hawaii 12
Alaska 5

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

Majors Similar to Parks & Rec

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 25 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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