Quick answer:Recreational therapy programs can lead to CTRS certification through NCTRC and to work in rehabilitation, long-term care and behavioral health. Only 51 institutions award the degree, and the required internship is in person. Programs, the careers this degree opens, and what they pay are covered below.
What Recreational Therapy Actually Is
It is not activities coordination, and the distinction is the reason the credential exists.
Recreational therapists assess a patient’s functional status and use recreation and leisure interventions to work on specific clinical goals - mobility, cognition, social functioning, emotional regulation, community reintegration. In a spinal injury rehabilitation unit that might mean adaptive sport. In behavioral health it might mean structured group activity aimed at social skills. In dementia care it might mean interventions aimed at agitation and orientation.
The work is documented and goal-directed in the same way physical and occupational therapy are, which is what CTRS certification attests to.
Where it is genuinely distinct is the setting. Veterans facilities, long-term care, adaptive sport programs and community disability services employ recreational therapists in roles the other allied-health disciplines do not fill.
Certification and the Internship
The credential is the CTRS, awarded by the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification. It requires an accredited degree, a supervised internship and a national examination.
The internship is the practical constraint. It runs in a clinical setting under a CTRS supervisor, and the number of qualifying sites is limited by how small the profession is. With 14,930 practitioners nationally, some regions have very few supervisors available, and that is a real risk to plan around rather than discover late.
Ask any program directly how internship placements are arranged and how many students it places each year. Confirm current certification requirements with NCTRC rather than relying on a program’s summary.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
Before you request information anywhere, confirm with NCTRC that the specific program meets certification eligibility and ask how internship placements are arranged. With that filter set, compare online recreational therapy programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering This Degree
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
#1
University of Utah
📍
Salt Lake City, UT
•In-state option•BOC Score
77.6
TuitionContact school for pricing
Contact
201 Presidents Circle, ROOM 201 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9008
Because this field is small and the alternatives are stronger on paper, the burden on a program to justify itself is higher than usual. Three questions get at it.
Is the program NCTRC-recognized for certification eligibility? Not every therapeutic recreation degree meets the coursework requirements, and discovering that after graduating is an expensive mistake. Confirm with NCTRC directly rather than taking a program’s word.
How many internship placements does it secure, and where? This is the practical constraint on the whole credential, and a program with established relationships is worth substantially more than one that leaves you to find a supervisor yourself.
What do graduates actually do? Ask for the settings, not a percentage. A program placing consistently into inpatient rehabilitation is a different proposition from one placing consistently into activities roles in long-term care, even though both are legitimate.
The general principle applies more sharply here than on any other page in this section: in a field with 51 programs and 14,930 jobs, the individual program matters more than the credential does.
Before you shortlist schools, it also helps to be precise about which setting you actually want to work in.
Where the Jobs Concentrate
The 14,930 figure is small enough that where those positions sit matters more than it would for a larger occupation.
Long-term and skilled nursing care is the largest employer, and the demographic argument for it is straightforward. Recreational therapy in this setting works on cognition, mobility, mood and social engagement in older adults, including significant dementia care work.
Inpatient rehabilitation covers spinal cord injury, brain injury and stroke recovery, and this is where adaptive sport and community reintegration work happens. It is also the setting most people picture when they choose the field.
Behavioral health uses structured group and activity-based intervention as part of treatment programs, including substance use and adolescent settings.
Veterans facilities are a significant employer and run some of the most developed adaptive sport and recreation programs in the country.
Each of these is a genuinely different job. If a specific one of them is what drew you to the field, check that programs near you place interns there, because an internship in long-term care is not preparation for inpatient rehabilitation.
What These Careers Pay
The median is $61,960 across 14,930 jobs, with about 1,300 openings a year and 3.3 percent projected change (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Recreational Therapy at a Glance
Metric
Detail
Source
Median annual wage
$61,960
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Wage range
$40,990 (10th pct) - $100,420 (90th pct)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Employment
14,930 recreational therapists
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Projected change (2024-34)
3.3%, about 1,300 openings per year
BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34
Typical credential
Bachelor’s in therapeutic recreation
Program catalogs
Certification
CTRS, from the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification
NCTRC
Institutions awarding
51
IPEDS Completions, 2024
Geo coverage
Parent page only - supply is too thin for a state tier
This page is unusual in leading with the comparison rather than the pitch, because the comparison is what most readers need.
Role
Median
75th percentile
Employment
Projected change
Recreational therapists
$61,960
$79,930
14,930
3.3%
Physical therapist assistants
$68,380
$78,680
112,430
22.0%
Occupational therapy assistants
$72,300
$79,160
51,290
19.2%
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
Both assistant routes pay more, employ more people, and are projected to grow six times faster. They also require an associate degree rather than a bachelor’s, which is a shorter route.
The honest case: the numbers do not argue for this field. 14,930 jobs, about 1,300 annual openings, a $61,960 median below both assistant alternatives, 3.3 percent projected change, and only 51 institutions awarding the degree. Every one of those is a constraint.
The case for it is the work. Recreational therapy occupies a space no other allied-health discipline covers, and the people who do it well are usually people who wanted this specific job rather than a job in health care generally. That is a legitimate reason to choose it. It is not a reason to choose it without reading the table above.
Is college worth it covers the general tradeoff. Individual outcomes may vary.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do recreational therapists make?
The national median annual wage is $61,960 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $40,990 or less and the top 10 percent earn $100,420 or more, across employment of 14,930. It is one of the smallest occupations covered on this site.
What is CTRS certification?
Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, awarded by the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification. It combines an accredited degree, a supervised internship and a national examination, and it is the credential employers in this field recognize.
What degree do you need for recreational therapy?
A bachelor's in therapeutic recreation or recreational therapy is the standard entry credential, and it is what NCTRC certification is built around. 51 institutions awarded CIP 51.2309 at degree level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024), which is a very small supply.
Can you study recreational therapy online?
The coursework partly, the internship not at all. NCTRC certification requires a supervised internship in a clinical setting, and that component is the gate. Ask any program how internships are arranged before enrolling on the assumption a distance format will work.
Where do recreational therapists work?
Hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, long-term and skilled nursing care, behavioral health settings, veterans facilities and community programs for people with disabilities. Rehabilitation and long-term care are the largest employers.
How does recreational therapy compare with OT and PT assisting?
Occupational therapy assistants earn a median $72,300 with 19.2 percent projected growth and physical therapist assistants $68,380 with 22.0 percent, against $61,960 and 3.3 percent for recreational therapists (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Both assistant routes are larger, better paid and growing faster.
Is recreational therapy worth studying?
It is a small field - 14,930 jobs and about 1,300 openings a year - with pay below the allied-health alternatives and slower growth. The honest case for it is the work itself rather than the numbers, and anyone choosing it should do so with those numbers in front of them. Individual outcomes may vary.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Recreational Therapists (SOC 29-1125), Occupational Therapy Assistants (SOC 31-2011), Physical Therapist Assistants (SOC 31-2021)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions, 2024 - CIP 51.2309
National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC)
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
