Alfred University
Alfred University is a private comprehensive institution on a 600-acre campus in Alfred, New York—75 miles south of Rochester. About 1,600 undergraduates from 43 states and 16 countries attend the University full-time, pursuing more than 60 majors and 70+ minors in many areas, including Music, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Design & Technology. For students who are makers and performers, the Performing Arts Division fosters discovery, ideas, and creativity through innovative learning with the support of faculty members who are practitioners, researchers, and scholars.
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a prestigious music institution with an urban campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The College offers 12 undergraduate majors and teaches nine principal instruments. All students begin undeclared, giving you a full year to hone your craft and explore who you want to be before choosing your major.
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
The Boston Conservatory at Berklee is a specialized performing arts institution right on Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts. The Conservatory provides top-notch music, dance, and theater programs to more than 850 students from 40+ countries around the world. Each academic year, Boston Conservatory students participate in more than 800 performances and numerous other academic and creative opportunities that the city of Boston has to offer.
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The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is the national university of the Catholic Church, located on a 184-acre campus just north of Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art has produced two Oscar, seven Tony Award, and two Pulitzer Prize winners. The School is home to a broad range of performing arts programs, including Acting, Drama, Composition, Music, Orchestral Instruments, and more.
College of the Holy Cross
College of the Holy Cross is an exclusively undergraduate private liberal arts institution located on a 174-acre campus in Worcester, Massachusetts—around 50 miles from Boston. In addition to classes in theatre history and literature, acting students can choose to pursue an Acting or Design emphasis, minor in Dance, or they can create a self-designed major through the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Film Studies or Playwriting. Music students, on the other hand, can pursue areas of study in theory and composition, history and cultural studies, performance studies, classical music and popular music, world music and jazz, and audio engineering and music technology.
Dean College
Dean College is a private, co-ed, residential college with a 100-acre campus in Franklin, Massachusetts—only 30 miles from Boston and Providence. Dean offers baccalaureate and associate degrees through four academic schools, including the School of Arts and the School of Dance. Majors include Dance (BFA and BA), Arts & Entertainment Management, Theatre (with multiple concentrations), Acting, and Musical Theatre.
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private coeducational institution located in Boston, Massachusetts. Emerson’s Department of Performing Arts undergraduate and graduate programs encompass a core liberal arts curriculum, promote civic engagement, and demand that students create with clarity, integrity, and conviction. Students work with active theatre professionals who have deep connections to the performing arts community in Boston and beyond.
Marymount Manhattan College
Marymount Manhattan College in New York City is a private liberal arts college with a one-acre campus in midtown Manhattan. The College offers several different majors and minors related to Performing Arts and Media Arts, including Acting; Cinema, Television & Emerging Media; Dance; Musical Theatre; and Theatre Arts. The campus is just a few steps or subway stops away from Broadway, the Museum Mile, and many major TV networks.
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New York University
New York University is one of the largest private universities in the country, located in the heart of Greenwich Village in New York City, New York—with additional degree-granting campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi. Students can earn a BA, BFA, MA, MFA, MPS, or PhD in a wide range of disciplines, including Dance, Drama, Performance Studies, Cinema Studies, and more. Admission to the Tisch School of the Arts is highly selective, with applicants evaluated through a two-part admission process that includes an artistic review.
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Pace University
Pace University is a private comprehensive university with a three-acre urban campus in New York City and a 200-acre suburban campus 20 miles away in Pleasantville-Briarcliff, New York. The Dyson College of Arts & Sciences offers majors such as Acting for Film, Television, Voice-Overs, and Commercials as well as Musical Theater, Production & Design for Stage and Screen, and Stage Management.
Sacred Heart University
Sacred Heart University is a private coeducational institution with a 350-acre campus in Fairfield, Connecticut. The Department of Media and Theatre Arts offers a major in Media Arts with concentrations in Film & Television, Journalism, and Performing Arts, as well as a Theatre Art major with concentrations in Acting and Musical Theatre. Students can also showcase their talents with band and orchestra, choral, dance, and theatre arts groups.
Thiel College
Thiel College is a small private church-affiliated college on a 135-acre campus in Greenville, Pennsylvania—80 miles north of Pittsburgh. With a student body under 1,000, the College offers more than 60 majors, minors, and areas of study, including minors through the Music & Theatre Department. By studying Music or Theater at Thiel, you will be able to get personal attention from accomplished professors in small classes, receive private coaching and instruction in acting and vocal performance, perform in musical ensembles and theatrical productions beginning the first year, and more.
Vermont State University
Vermont State University is a public comprehensive university with campuses in Castleton, Johnson, Lyndon, Randolph, and Williston, Vermont. Students can choose to pursue a BA in Theatre Arts, designed to showcase your talents and set you on a path to a successful career in the theater world; Musical Theatre, with a focus on real-world experiences that will have you performing in your first semester; or Music, in which you can choose a general concentration or a performance concentration. The University offers small classes that have a personal touch, with one-on-one attention from faculty whose priority is student success.
William Paterson University
William Paterson University is a public multipurpose university in Wayne, New Jersey—20 miles west of New York. The JPU Department of Music prepares students for careers in classical performance, jazz performance and composition, sound engineering arts, music education, music and entertainment industries, and popular music. Students can major in Jazz Studies, Music, Music Education, Music with an emphasis on Entertainment Industries, Music with an emphasis on Popular Music, Performance, or Sound Engineering Arts and join any of the University's 14 different music ensembles.
Interested in earning a performing arts degree somewhere else in the country? Check out all our featured Performing Arts school profiles.