Where can your student actually get into theatre?

• 756 colleges nationwide offer a bachelor's theatre program: 747 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 1 more report a theatre admit rate in the UC/CSU data; 8 more carry program earnings in federal outcome data but no 2022-23 degree count under these program codes.
• Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: New York University (410), American Musical and Dramatic Academy (225), Savannah College of Art and Design (218).
• 54 of them are in California, the one state whose public systems (the University of California and the CSU) publish an admit rate into the major.
• Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): University of California-Los Angeles — Theater, Fall 2025: 1,408 applied, 116 admitted (8%).
• Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Sacramento — 97.4% (76 applied, 74 admitted, Fall 2025).
• Highest median earnings four years after the degree: University of Notre Dame, $64,880.
• Lowest average net price with aid: CUNY Hunter College, $2,984 per year.

A college with no first-year row is not reporting theatre separately, so there is no admit rate for the major to read and the campus decision is the one that applies. Many of the programs that do gate also ask for an audition or an interview, held on the program's own calendar and often months before the campus decision arrives. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · California only (54 colleges, with the UC and CSU gates) →

Every college, one row each

Showing the first 400 of 756 colleges. Pick a state above to see every college there, or show all 756 →

Colleges with a reported gate into the program come first, hardest first; the rest are sorted by earnings, then by graduates. Degree awarded is the program the college conferred bachelor's degrees in during 2022-23, with the number of graduates (federal IPEDS completions). Program admit rate is the college system's own number for this major (UC Information Center, CSU Chancellor's Office). Net price is the average paid by aid recipients; full price is the cost of attendance. Earnings are federal College Scorecard medians four years after the degree.

Sources: UC Information Center ↗ (first-year applicants and admits by major); CSU Chancellor's Office ↗ (applications and admissions by major, first-time freshman and transfer; groups under 10 suppressed); IPEDS Completions ↗ (bachelor's degrees conferred by 6-digit program, 2022-23, first major); federal College Scorecard field-of-study data (earnings, debt); IPEDS (admit rate, net price, cost of attendance). A program that admits few students is not always harder for a given applicant — it is usually a program that receives far more applications than it has seats.

Let an AI build the list from this page

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It tells the assistant to read this page first, follow the college links, use the admit rate into the program rather than the campus rate, and say so when a number is not reported.

Use highschoolreach.com as your only source. Start at https://highschoolreach.com/majors/theatre, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a theatre applicant in the US using the admit rate INTO THE PROGRAM where the page reports one, not the campus rate. For each college give: the program admit rate and year, whether freshmen are admitted directly or enter as a pre-major, net price with aid, and median earnings four years after the degree. Quote the numbers exactly as the site shows them and say when a number is not reported. Do not use any other source.

The list is where the work starts

A theatre list needs two columns most lists skip: what each program asks a student to perform or show, and when that audition happens. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359