Amid a changing arts environment, drama schools are continuing to evolve to meet the moment. That means adding more courses on how actors can create their own work (i.e., generate employment opportunities), how to prepare for the realities of AI as well as building into curriculums’ increased industry outreach to give students as many inroads to a career as possible.
While the training remains stellar, students choosing schools also are increasingly considering the cost of an education and how much debt they’ll be carrying coming out of it, particularly with the ups and downs of an acting career.
THR spoke with educators and industry insiders to determine their ranking of the best schools for an acting degree, while weighing overall training, cost, facilities, alumni success, industry connections and more. Please note: Tuition is listed on an annualized basis for the upcoming year and does not include housing and other fees.
Juilliard
NEW YORK
Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Danielle Brooks, Oscar Isaac and many more stars have trained at this prestigious institution in the heart of New York City. Juilliard accepts 18 acting students a year, roughly split between MFA and BFA students, with attendees from both programs learning together across the four-year program. Dean Evan Yionoulis is ending her eight-year tenure at the school, with an interim leadership team, led by former provost Ara Guzelimian and artistic adviser Laura Linney taking over as the search for a new dean begins. Linney, an alum with deep ties to the program, tells students to expect a continuation of the strong teaching that has been a mainstay, including helping students identify their place in the world as artists. “They are as prepared as they can possibly be for whatever they face once they leave,” says Linney. The school combines its conservatory-style training with bespoke opportunities, including commissioning alumni to write short films for graduating students, workshopping Broadway-bound musicals and meeting with experts in motion capture, voiceover and more. Juilliard’s MFA program went tuition-free in 2024 and is making progress in also seeing its bachelor’s program become tuition-free. Just this past year, grads landed series-regular positions: Petro Ninovskyi on Ponies, Taylor Dunbar on Stumble and Laëtitia Hollard on The Pitt. Undergrad tuition is $57,200.
Yale School of Drama
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
Juilliard dean Yionoulis will become the head of the Yale School of Drama starting July 1, taking over from the long-tenured dean, James Bundy. Bundy, who will stay on to teach, calls Yiounoulis “one of the most influential acting teachers of the last quarter century.” She returns to the school after holding teaching positions there and directing at the Yale Repertory Theatre. The three-year MFA program is tuition-free and provides a need-based living stipend for the 16 actors accepted each year. In addition to high-caliber training, the school offers a wide range of performance opportunities, including school productions; Yale Cabaret, which conducts 14 student-run productions each year; as well as Yale Rep. Actors begin performing at the end of their first year. With many famous alumni, including Meryl Streep, Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Giamatti, the school has been well represented onscreen this season, with Patrick Ball and Lucas Iverson starring in The Pitt. Yale is in the process of building a new drama school building, which will house Yale Rep and the grad and undergrad programs.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
WINSTON-SALEM
Over the past year, the undergrad acting program has been increasing its industry ties, with 24 pros flying down to meet with seniors, and the school has been preparing actors for the realities of their profession, from renting an apartment to creating a career plan. The 28 actors annually accepted undergo rigorous conservatory training for the first three years, then branch out into learning stand-up comedy, creating their own work (with two plays having recently gone on to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and undergoing on-camera training from the in-demand Heidi Miami Marshall. At the end of it, students showcase in four cities. “We really leaned in to how to make our students as employable as soon as possible,” says dean John Langs. This has paid off with sophomore Aidan Armstrong landing a role in season five of Stranger Things, alongside other storied alum such as The White Lotus‘ Jake Lacy and Mary-Louise Parker. In-state tuition is $6,497, while out-of-state is $24,231.
Carnegie Mellon
PITTSBURGH
About 24 students are accepted each year into this prestigious undergrad program that has alumni across Broadway stages and onscreen like Sarah Pidgeon, who starred in FX’s Love Story and Myha’la, who leads Industry. Acting and music theater students take the same core curriculum before moving into more specialized areas and performing in productions starting junior year. Students also work with visiting alumni. This year, the school opened the Center for New Work, which provides opportunities to develop work with local and national professional companies. Each year, the graduating class travels to New York and L.A. to present a showcase. Undergrad tuition is just under $70,000.
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
LONDON
This year was a banner one for RADA grads, with Jessie Buckley winning the Oscar for Hamnet, Wunmi Mosaku taking home several awards for Sinners, Luke Thompson leading Bridgerton, and Cynthia Erivo starring in Wicked: For Good and now playing all parts in Dracula on the West End. Alumni, including Erivo and Imelda Staunton, return to the school to teach master classes, with president David Harewood also conducting one last year. RADA accepts 28 undergrads a year who have the opportunity to participate in 10 stage productions, five short films and studio nights to develop their own work, in addition to classical training. The school also offers a well-being service to support students. Every year, RADA holds a short-film showcase, featuring student actors in professionally written scripts commissioned by the school. International tuition is about $36,000 a year.
NYU
NEW YORK
Rachel Sennott, Cristin Milioti, Elizabeth Olsen and John Early are some of the many starry alums from this centrally located school, which counts working artists as faculty and often welcomes industry members to view productions. Each undergrad class consists of about 400 students, who are split up into eight primary training studios, with six in acting, one in musical theater and one in production and design, and then even smaller groups as training progresses. The school’s prestigious graduate program accepts just 16 students a year and is deepening its partnership with the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center to prepare actors for the future of digital filmmaking. Tuition for the undergraduate program is just above $75,000 a year (with financial aid for families with income less than $100,000 that do not have to pay tuition). Graduate tuition is just under $83,000 with need-based scholarships.
LAMDA
LONDON
The oldest drama school on the British Isles has taught alumni including John Lithgow, Harry Melling and Benedict Cumberbatch, with recent grad success including Dylan Ennis, who will appear in the next season of The White Lotus. LAMDA offers three-year undergrad degrees in acting and graduate degrees, including a musical theater concentration. The school recently was granted indefinite degree awarding powers, giving it a similar authority to Oxford and Cambridge in being able to design, award and regulate its own degrees. LAMDA has been strengthening its industry ties within the U.K., including partnering with the West End Mischief Theatre company and having students present at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. LAMDA also has been bolstering its ties within the U.S. with offices and studios in Manhattan. The undergrad and graduate acting and musical theater programs accept 32 students per year. Tuition for international undergrad students is just under $35,000.
Guildhall
LONDON
Paapa Essiedu, Michaela Coel, Lily James and more attended this prestigious three-year undergraduate program, with recent grads also finding big success, including Oli Higginson (Bridgerton‘s footman John) and Lola Shalam, who played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The first two years are spent on technique, including acting on camera, movement and voice, while most of the third year is spent preparing for careers, via writing and performing self-devised work, and ending in industry showcases. Dramatherapist Patricia Ojehonmon has joined the BA in acting program to teach students how to navigate demanding creative processes. The acting program accepts 28 students a year, with annual tuition close to $43,000 for international students for the first year and slightly less the following two years.
University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR
Home to the top musical theater program, Michigan grads are filling Broadway stages, with Darren Criss in Maybe Happy Ending, McKenzie Kurtz and Isabelle McCalla in Schmigadoon and Nora Schell in Cats: The Jellicle Ball, among others, and also transitioning into onscreen careers, as in the case of Ashley Park (Emily in Paris), Erika Henningsen (The Four Seasons) and Helen J. Shen (The Devil Wears Prada 2). The program is led by Cynthia Kortman Westphal, with frequent visiting artists and alums. Jane Lanier, who worked with Bob Fosse, will join the musical theater faculty for the upcoming academic year. The school accepts 24 musical theater students a year to its undergraduate program and 18 students to its acting program. In-state tuition last year was $18,590 and out-of-state was $64,328.
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
GLASGOW, U.K.
This renowned Scottish institution has trained the likes of Ncuti Gatwa, James McAvoy and David Tennant. Twenty-four students are accepted annually into the three-year acting BA program, which offers specialist voice and movement training as well as training in Shakespeare and on-camera. In their second year, students can participate in the Off Kilter Festival, at least two fully staged productions and industry showcases in London and Glasgow. Pupils also can participate in international exchanges with partner institutions, which have included Carnegie Mellon and the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. The school also offers a BA performance for deaf and hard of hearing actors. Tuition is just above $40,000 for international students.
UC San Diego
SAN DIEGO
Eight actors are accepted every other year into this MFA program, which offers three years of tuition-free training and a close affiliation with the esteemed La Jolla Playhouse, which shares four state-of-the-art theaters with the school. In addition to an acting residency at La Jolla, students perform in at least three school productions a year and build a teaching portfolio through their work as teaching assistants. The annual Wagner New Play Festival brings the industry to the school, serving as a launchpad for the MFA playwrights and actors. Des McAnuff, Tony Award-winning director and founding artistic director of the Playhouse, joined the faculty this year. Alum include nine-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein and recent grad Colby Muhammad, who is featured in CBS’ Beyond the Gates.
The Old Globe and USD
SAN DIEGO
Seven students are accepted each year to the two-year MFA program, which is tuition-free and offers a monthly living stipend of $2,300 a month. Led by actor-director Jesse Perez, the school has a focus on classical training and Shakespeare and is closely partnered with the Old Globe Theatre, where students can work on professional productions. Second-year students take a trip to London for workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the British American Drama Academy, while first-year students participate in the Powers New Voices Festival for playwrights developing new works. Alumni include The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons, currently in Titanique on Broadway. New hires include movement teachers Emmanuel “Manny” Brown, who teaches stage combat, and Lesa Green.
USC
LOS ANGELES
Starting this spring, the school’s recently opened Dick Wolf Drama Center will house the new USC Institute for Actor-Driven Innovation, where actors can learn how to use AI tools to help hone their craft. USC boasts ready industry access, with working faculty and a professional development center offering free headshots, audition prep and other career support. The MFA Acting program, which accepts eight students a year, is tuition-free thanks to scholarship funding, including a new Cynthia Erivo Scholarship. BFA cohorts in acting for stage and screen as well as musical theater typically include 12 to 14 students a year, while the BA in dramatic arts program enrolls less than 100 students a year with a tuition of just under $76,000, alongside large financial-aid packages. Alumni include Lexi Minetree, who will star as Elle Woods in Prime Video’s Elle, The Pitt‘s Taylor Dearden and Amielynn Abellera, and Kiss of the Spider Woman‘s Tonatiuh.
UCLA
LOS ANGELES
Under the recent leadership of dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu, the school of theater, film and television has updated its undergrad curriculum to include courses on underrepresented voices in musical theater and acting, and embraced technology with enhanced facilities and a production by theater chair Jeff Burke of the musical Xanadu, using generative AI to enhance audience participation. The undergrad acting program offers an annual showcase and other industry connections, including having Oscar-winning screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney as a visiting professor. The program targets an incoming class of about 20 acting students and 18 to 20 musical theater students each year. Annual tuition for undergraduates is about $19,600 for California residents and $57,200 for non-residents.
National Institute of Dramatic Art
KENSINGTON, AUSTRALIA
Cate Blanchett, Sarah Snook, Bridgerton‘s Yerin Ha and Catherine Laga’aia, soon to be seen as Moana in Disney’s live-action film, all trained at this premier Australian institution. Offering top-notch conservatory training, new faculty include celebrated theater director Darren Yap, while student productions are helmed by professional directors. The school shares graduating actors’ work with top casting agents in the U.K. and London, and it has partnered with the L.A.-based Australians in Film for networking opportunities. NIDA offers 24 places a year to its BFA acting program, with a tuition fee of just under $29,000 for international students, as well as 24 places each for its one-year diploma programs in musical theater and stage and screen performance that are only available to Australian citizens.
Columbia
NEW YORK
The MFA acting program is led by an actor, Peter Jay Fernandez, and a casting director, James Calleri (back in the fall after a creative leave) and benefits from working faculty, its industry proximity and interdisciplinary focus. New courses include a playwright-actor workshop taught by Pulitzer winner James Ijames, as well as a directing actors class for MFA film students. The school offers acting showcases as well as direct auditions for third years with The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, Warner Bros. Casting, CBS, ABC and more. The program accepts 16 students a year, with alumni including Hannah Shealy (The Gilded Age) and Amber Chardae Robinson (Palm Royale). Last year, tuition was just under $78,000 for the first two years and just under $6,500 for the third.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CHAPEL HILL
Six actors are accepted every other year into the MFA program, which is closely integrated with the nearby professional theater, Playmakers Repertory Company. Each student receives a teaching assistant package, which includes a living stipend, tuition waiver and health insurance benefits. In addition to performing at the resident professional theater, students star in intimate presentations of full-length plays selected specifically for each actor. In the last year of their MFA, actors are paired with a mentor, film a showcase and spend a week in New York in workshops with industry professionals. Alumni include Carey Cox, a series regular on The Handmaid’s Tale, and Maren Searle, currently on Broadway in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Case Western Reserve/Cleveland Play House
CLEVELAND
This three-year MFA program is tuition-free and offers a living stipend and free health care to the eight students accepted every other year. The program is closely affiliated with the Cleveland Play House, with students taking part in productions there and becoming full members of Actors’ Equity. The school is increasing its industry exposure with visiting guest artists and through the Play House’s theater festival, where students work on plays before they hit major markets. Recently, playwright Kate Hamill workshopped her latest play here. Students also are introduced to the business side and on-camera training. The school typically partners with UCSD on a showcase in New York every other year, with all students garnering representation at the last outing.
Northwestern
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
The respected Chicago-area school counts Severance breakout Britt Lower, Sorry, Baby‘s Eva Victor, Greta Lee, Stephen Colbert and more as alum. Sarah Bock, an undergraduate, also boasts a Severance credit after starring as Miss Huang. Among its offerings are an undergrad theater major, with a music theater certificate option (which requests a portfolio submission), as well as two-year MFA programs in acting. In addition to the traditional theater training and industry ties, including a new partnership with Gersh, the school awards grants that allow students to bring theater to underrepresented populations, with one student doing so for orphaned children in Puna, India. About 100 undergrad students are accepted each year, and tuition is just under $70,000.
Savannah College of Art and Design
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
SCAD’s campus features an impressive 11-acre backlot, where undergrads have recently acted in a horror anthology and single-camera comedy, and a multicamera soundstage, where students are shooting a sitcom and a drama series. Two more soundstages are set to open in the fall, alongside the school’s 17,000-square-foot production and costume facility. Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife, actress Nicolette Robinson, have joined the faculty as artists in residence, with Odom also working alongside Jon Batiste to bring a BFA in vocal performance to the school this fall. The program has two professionally run casting offices, which have placed students in projects like the new Judd Apatow film The Comeback King and David Mamet’s Speed the Plow. The annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival also brings the industry to the school, on top of visits and mentorship from stars like Sydney Sweeney and Oscar Isaac. The last freshman class was about 100 students, who acted on camera and in musical theater (which requires an audition). Tuition is just under $43,000.
Purchase College, SUNY
PURCHASE, NEW YORK
Located about an hour outside of New York City, this state school has trained Stanley Tucci, Edie Falco and recent breakout James Ortiz, the voice and puppeteer of Rocky in Project Hail Mary. About 14 to 18 students are accepted each year into the BFA acting program and are trained by working pros, including new addition Kate Murray (casting director at New York’s Public Theater). Students are cast in at least 10 productions, culminating in a live and filmed showcase, with the latter sent to L.A. and Atlanta. Last year, in-state tuition was just above $7,000, while out-of-state was just under $18,000. New Yorkers with a family income of less than $125,000 can qualify for free tuition.
Texas State
SAN MARCOS
This school offers a rare tuition-free undergrad musical theater program for the 12 to 14 students accepted annually and has proved its success via its Broadway alumni, including Six‘s Anna Uzele. Faculty member Deonté Warren has led research in 2026 on how to prepare singers for the rigors of musical theater performance. The core program also teaches students how to build a digital presence and prep for virtual auditions. It also has newly partnered with nearby Zach Theatre and The Majestic Empire Theatre to offer more professional opportunities, bringing in guest artists and building relationships with musical creative teams who then workshop shows at the school (the Broadway-bound musical Joy is planning a workshop next year). The senior showcase takes place every spring in New York City, where the vast majority of students sign with an agent.
Pace
NEW YORK
The downtown school that trained Cooper Koch (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) and Christopher Birney (The Summer I Turned Pretty) is about to get a major upgrade in the fall with a new performing arts center featuring three new state-of-the-art theaters, scene and costume shops and dance studios. Faculty members are working artists, including Tony nominee L Morgan Lee, and the school also has launched an artist-in-residence program with theater company Deaf West to bring more accessibility to musical theater training. The college offers a BA in acting and a BFA in musical theater (with many alumni on Broadway stages), as well as a BFA in acting for film and media, which includes on-camera and voiceover acting as well as a semester in L.A. (The school’s MFA partnership with The Actors Studio is ending in 2027.) Each program selects 32 students a year, culminating in an industry showcase. Tuition is $59,000.
Penn State
STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA
This musical theater program boasts alumni filling Broadway stages, including Maria Wirries, starring in this season’s The Lost Boys, and Teddy Wilson, starring in Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Kikora Franklin leads the school of theater, which also includes a BFA in acting, design and more, but recruits just 12 people a year for its musical theater program. The school commissions Broadway writers to pen musicals for students each year and recently has added in a new summer musical, where commercial producers can workshop and develop shows. Next year, the program will launch a two-week program for seniors to visit New York and meet with industry pros. Undergrad tuition and fees for the upcoming year are $21,000 in-state and just under $42,000 out-of-state.
Elon
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA
The 16 students accepted to the undergraduate musical theater program go through a rigorous training process, which begins with classes in acting, voice and dance, and then allows students to explore individualized paths, including taking part in student-driven cabaret performances. Seniors also take part in a two-semester course on professional readiness and artistic identity, which includes bringing in casting directors and talent representation, with many students gaining representation or jobs out of this process. To that point, Campy Rodriguez, a current student in the senior class, is on Broadway in Aladdin, in addition to such alum as Taylor Trensch, who recently led the off-Broadway production of Bat Boy. Tuition and fees are close to $51,000.
This story appeared in the May 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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