Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Parks, Recreation and Leisure Studies

Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.

50

Schools Ranked

$30,243

Avg. Earnings

9.5 yrs

Best Payback

2,729

Graduates

How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.

#	School	Net Price/yr	Major Earnings	Payback
1	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$41,565	9.5 yrs
2	California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA · Public	$12,602	$38,751	13.4 yrs
3	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$37,568	17.9 yrs
4	California State University-Chico Chico, CA · Public	$16,738	$38,072	21.8 yrs
5	Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO · Public	$14,679	$36,992	29.5 yrs
6	University of Iowa Iowa City, IA · Public	$18,026	$36,150	62.7 yrs
7	California State University-Fresno Fresno, CA · Public	$8,030	$35,240	133.8 yrs
8	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public	$17,525	$35,461	152.1 yrs
9	University of Nebraska at Kearney Kearney, NE · Public	$16,311	$35,416	156.8 yrs
10	Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN · Public	$12,369	$35,060	824.6 yrs
11	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$35,060	845.1 yrs
12	California State University-East Bay Hayward, CA · Public	$15,615	$27,669	N/A
13	University of South Dakota Vermillion, SD · Public	$19,548	$30,650	N/A
14	University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT · Public	$13,842	$25,967	N/A
15	San Diego State University San Diego, CA · Public	$14,698	$26,585	N/A
16	Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown, PA · Public	$22,881	$33,022	N/A
17	University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public	$13,715	$33,043	N/A
18	San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA · Public	$16,065	$31,314	N/A
19	Winona State University Winona, MN · Public	$15,289	$33,993	N/A
20	California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA · Public	$11,189	$34,942	N/A
21	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$28,055	N/A
22	Bowling Green State University-Main Campus Bowling Green, OH · Public	$18,606	$26,187	N/A
23	University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public	$16,256	$28,960	N/A
24	Midwestern State University Wichita Falls, TX · Public	$10,417	$25,194	N/A
25	Shepherd University Shepherdstown, WV · Public	$11,116	$29,685	N/A
26	Gordon College Wenham, MA · Private	$22,425	$26,353	N/A
27	Western Washington University Bellingham, WA · Public	$16,819	$25,812	N/A
28	Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ · Public	$14,142	$32,569	N/A
29	Ohio University-Main Campus Athens, OH · Public	$23,509	$28,309	N/A
30	Radford University Radford, VA · Public	$16,716	$30,650	N/A
31	University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA · Public	$15,287	$33,138	N/A
32	Western Colorado University Gunnison, CO · Public	$16,216	$25,194	N/A
33	East Carolina University Greenville, NC · Public	$16,654	$24,421	N/A
34	University of South Alabama Mobile, AL · Public	$17,568	$19,592	N/A
35	Oregon State University Corvallis, OR · Public	$21,716	$30,771	N/A
36	Oregon State University-Cascades Campus Bend, OR · Public	$20,523	$30,771	N/A
37	Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL · Public	$14,499	$30,409	N/A
38	Grambling State University Grambling, LA · Public	$19,738	$27,048	N/A
39	University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg, MS · Public	$14,959	$26,353	N/A
40	Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA · Public	$16,181	$30,228	N/A
41	Missouri State University-Springfield Springfield, MO · Public	$15,950	$30,228	N/A
42	Northern Michigan University Marquette, MI · Public	$16,017	$25,194	N/A
43	Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI · Public	$15,720	$23,260	N/A
44	Utah State University Logan, UT · Public	$13,553	$24,421	N/A
45	University of Mount Olive Mount Olive, NC · Private	$16,682	$29,685	N/A
46	Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI · Public	$20,840	$32,569	N/A
47	Calvin University Grand Rapids, MI · Private	$22,329	$32,029	N/A
48	Virginia Wesleyan University Virginia Beach, VA · Private	$22,128	$31,851	N/A
49	State University of New York at Cortland Cortland, NY · Public	$18,700	$29,685	N/A
50	Southern Utah University Cedar City, UT · Public	$13,460	$29,685	N/A

Top Earners in Parks, Recreation and Leisure Studies

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

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Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.