SUMMARY
Majoring in Recreational Therapy is a valuable choice and commonly an essential first step for undergrads endeavoring to begin a career as a recreational therapist, a bouldering instructor, or a yoga instructor. Interestingly, recreational therapy is a very rare major coming in at the 231st most popular major. Last year alone, there were 842 recreational therapy diplomas received. In-state tuition for recreational therapy at private colleges is, on average, 2.6 times more expensive than their public rivals.
With only 32 colleges having programs for recreational therapy you may have a smaller selection of institutions which will have a degree program for you. If you are looking to surround yourself with other recreational therapy undergraduates, look at institutions in North Carolina which have the most undergraduates admitted to recreational therapy annually. More generally, the best region to get a degree in recreational therapy is in the Great Lakes region with Central Michigan University, University of Toledo, and University of Wisconsin-La Crosse best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the top conference to study recreational therapy is the Mid-American Conference with Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, and University of Toledo representing the conference. From our list on the best colleges, our choice for the best school for recreational therapy is Brigham Young University-Provo.
The best school does not have to be the 'best' school for every student. There might be tons of perspectives to weigh when deciding on institution. Things like campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely affect your decision of which school to attend. Here at Authority, we have examined the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are interested in which recreational therapy college is home to the superior campus, the answer is Temple University. If, for example, you are very interested in which college has the top campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, student reviews, government databases, and more in order to compare every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our comprehensive list for the schools with the best student life here and from that list, our pick of the university with the best student life for recreational therapy is Brigham Young University-Provo. Curious why? Continue scrolling to find out more about our top choices. Some of our picks just might shock you.
If expense is a primary factor in your decision on where to go to university, you might be cautious about Calvin University. Calvin University is our most expensive college for recreational therapy, at least for out of state enrollment. We do have a list of the most expensive colleges that could put the cost at Calvin University into perspective. Additionally, you could be interested to know that recreational therapy is the 349th most expensive program in the United States, with an average expense of $19,600. To zoom out a little, the most expensive state for recreational therapy on our list is Indiana demonstrated by a tuition of $26,990 at the main college in the state Indiana Institute of Technology. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region for recreational therapy is the New England region which is best demonstrated with University of Southern Maine with a cost of $20,692, and Unity College with a cost of $28,800.
Our cheapest region for recreational therapy is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790 and University of Utah with a cost of $26,017. On the bright side, the most affordable school for recreational therapy is Southern University and A & M College. Authority's comprehensive list of the most affordable schools can be found here.
In-state attendees can anticipate paying around $9,800 for a degree in recreational therapy. That price grows by a lot to a median of $20,100 for an out-of-state public-school undergraduate. Our selection for the university constituting the best value for recreational therapy: Calvin University. Here you can see our comprehensive list on the schools we believe to be the best value in general. Bear in mind, this list is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when it comes to in-state tuition, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.
Earnings for recreational therapy students vary widely, but within two years finishing the degree graduates will regularly make around $56,800. While there is a lot of variation in earnings potential; highest paid earners can bring in up to $90,800. Even right out of college, the lowest earning positions within the recreational therapy field earn $35,100, which isn't that bad. The highest earning graduates from recreational therapy have come from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and if you want to find the colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The all-around diversity of recreational therapy stands near the bottom, ranking within only the 2nd percentile of majors nationally. The school with the highest composite diversity for recreational therapy is Indiana Institute of Technology and here you can find our general list for the universities with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Recreational Therapy major only stands within the 99th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is even less in the 3rd percentile. White students make up the largest share at 85% of students studying recreational therapy. Additionally, 91% of students seeking a recreational therapy degree are women.
The median rating for recreational therapy professors is 4 stars, which is exactly the median across all majors; this is a fine. If you want to find the most popular recreational therapy professor in the nation, look no further than Mark Dotson at Western Michigan University-Thomas M. Cooley Law School. It may surprise you, but the top rated instructors of recreational therapy according to students are found at San Francisco State University. If we incorporate data other than just rankings it becomes clear that the university with the best professors for recreational therapy is University of Utah. You can find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, as well as many of the finest examples of instructors in the U.S.
Finally, the most difficult school to get into for recreational therapy is Southern University and A & M College. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have an extensive page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you understand that looking at college from context primarily shaped by superlatives might create problems. We encourage you to look at some of our other pages on different colleges and peruse some of our helpful background articles on essential details to think about as your college search develops.