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College profile

American Musical and Dramatic Academy

NY · Private nonprofit · Large city · 6,580 applicants 2023

25% admit rate $65,647/yr full price, before aid
Get your child's odds at American Musical and Dramatic Academy Free Family Decision Report — Reach / Match / Likely + your real net price. American Musical and Dramatic Academy starts already on the list. Start →

Parent/student verdict

Selective

Selective but achievable for strong students.

Best for

  • Strong overall academic profile (3.9+ unweighted GPA in rigorous coursework + strong essays — school is test-optional, so the transcript carries the most weight)
  • Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience

The reality

  • Test-optional — but selective. Transcript GPA, course rigor, and essays do the heavy lifting
  • With selective universities, build a balanced college list of Reaches, Targets, and Safeties ⓘ

Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.

What are your child's odds here?

Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.

Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.

Institutional snapshot

What kind of college is this?

Carnegie classification
Associate's: High Transfer-High Trad
Undergraduates
1,438
1,000 - 4,999 including graduate students
TuitionThe published full price before any aid. Families who don't qualify for need-based aid at a given college pay this, minus any merit scholarships — whether you qualify depends on the college's price and policies, not on any fixed income line.
$46,928
flat rate (no in/out-of-state split) · 2023–24 federal figure
Admit rateThe share of applicants a college accepts. Useful context, but your student's odds depend on their own grades and scores, not the average.
24.7%
Highly selective
Test policyApplicants choose whether to send SAT/ACT scores. At many such colleges, students who submit strong scores are still admitted at higher rates.
Test-optional
2023
10-yr earningsMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$26,975
median, after entry

Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.

Outcomes & cost

What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.

Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).

Earnings, 6 yrs after entry
$21,168
Earnings, 10 yrs after entryMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$26,975
Graduate within 6 yrsThe share of students who start here and finish a bachelor's within six years — the standard federal measure, and the one College Scorecard publishes. It is not a four-year rate. Read it as the odds of finishing at all: nationally about a third of students who start never do, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision.
72%
Median debt (completers)The federal-loan balance of the typical graduating borrower. Families who pay cash aren't counted, so read it as "among those who borrowed."
$15,250

The real cost

What American Musical and Dramatic Academy actually costs

If you qualify for need aidGrant money based on your family's finances (via FAFSA and the college's own forms), not your student's stats.
Aid averages aren't published federally for this college — its own calculator below shows what you'd pay.
If you don't
$65,647/yr
the full published price

Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by American Musical and Dramatic Academy's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.

Get your family's number — American Musical and Dramatic Academy's Net Price Calculator ↗ 10–15 minutes; have a tax return handy. It's still an estimate — but it's this college's own, built from your family's numbers, not anyone's average.
Start your Family Decision Report →

Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.

Source: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.

What students study here

Most popular majors at American Musical and Dramatic Academy

Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what American Musical and Dramatic Academy actually graduates — not just what it markets.

1. Visual & Performing Arts
250 degrees · 100.0%
Highly variable. Steady-pay roles cluster in design, illustration, production. Performance careers have very wide income distributions.

What those majors earn here

Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — American Musical and Dramatic Academy's own graduates, not national averages.

Major (CIP) Credential Cohort 1-yr earnings 4-yr earnings
Dance. Bachelor's Degree 29 $15,881 $34,107
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft. Bachelor's Degree 214 $17,410 $32,008

Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →

Student body & economic mobility

Who attends here — and what the campus adds.

Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.

Top-1% access
1.1%
from top-1% households
Mobility rateThe share of ALL students who arrived from the bottom 20% of family incomes AND reached the top 20% themselves by their early 30s — access and lift in one number, and a sign the campus itself adds earnings power.
0.7%
bottom 20% → top 20% by age 32
Upward rate
10.3%
of lower-income students who reach the top 20%
Pell recipientsStudents receiving federal Pell grants, which go to lower- and middle-income families — the standard shorthand for a college's economic mix.
33%
on federal need grants — context for these numbers

Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →

Alternatives to American Musical and Dramatic Academy

Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.

Better merit-aid options
These similar-selectivity schools publish merit scholarships your family can plan around — your kid’s stats could unlock real scholarship dollars.
Tuskegee University
AL · Private nonprofit
3 stats-based merit scholarships
Tulane University of Louisiana
LA · Private nonprofit
3 competitive merit scholarships
University of Miami
FL · Private nonprofit
3 competitive merit scholarships
Lower full price
Similar selectivity, but a meaningfully lower full sticker price — the comparison that matters most for families who won't qualify for much need-based aid.
University of Florida
FL · Public
$22,523/yr full price (in-state) · $43,124 less before aid for FL residents
Alcorn State University
MS · Public
$23,751/yr full price (in-state) · $41,896 less before aid for MS residents
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
FL · Public
$23,970/yr full price (in-state) · $41,677 less before aid for FL residents
Safer in-state options
Same state and similar selectivity, but with a more forgiving admit rate — useful safety / match anchors.
Binghamton University
NY · Public
38% admit rate (vs 25% here)
Stony Brook University
NY · Public
49% admit rate (vs 25% here)
CUNY Bernard M Baruch College
NY · Public
50% admit rate (vs 25% here)
More students move up here
Per Opportunity Insights, a larger share of these campuses' lower-income students reach the top earnings quintile than at American Musical and Dramatic Academy. That reflects who they admit as well as what they do, so read it as a destination signal rather than proof of value added.
University of California-Irvine
CA · Public
6.8% mobility rate (vs 0.7% here)
Tuskegee University
AL · Private nonprofit
5.2% mobility rate (vs 0.7% here)
University of California-San Diego
CA · Public
4.8% mobility rate (vs 0.7% here)

Or compare any college side-by-side

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At a glance

JSON · Using this page with an AI assistant

American Musical and Dramatic Academy is a private nonprofit four-year college in NY. It admitted 25% of applicants (6,580 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.

Cost: $65,647 a year at full price, before aid.

Median earnings ten years after entry: $26,975 a year.

Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Dance ($34,107); Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft ($32,008).

Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 7% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 10% of those reached the top fifth as adults.

Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/american-musical-and-dramatic-academy.json

By major: Theatre
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What families ask next

Can my kid get in? Score odds calculator → See how a higher SAT or ACT changes admit odds — college by college. What will it cost — and pay back? Earnings by major → What graduates actually earn, program by program. What do we do next? Free Family Decision Report Reach / Match / Likely for every college on their list, plus the real cost. Start with a 10-second odds check — no email needed. Check odds →