Park graduated from the University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1887 and attended Harvard University. He earned an MA from Harvard in 1899. After graduating, he went to Germany to study at Friedrich Wilhelm University. He studied Philosophy and Sociology in 1899–1900 with Georg Simmel in Berlin, spent a semester at the University of Strasbourg (1900), and took his PhD in Philosophy in 1903 in Heidelberg under Wilhelm Windelband and Alfred Hettner with a dissertation titled "Masse und Publikum. Eine methodologische und soziologische Untersuchung," which translates to":" "Crowd and Public: A methodological and sociological study." Park then traveled to Germany to study at the University of Berlin. He enrolled for one semester at the University of Strasbourg, and studied for a few years at the University of Heidelberg alongside Georg Simmel, earning his PhD in 1904.