If you plan on majoring in acting, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #323 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 69 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Acting Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,686 degrees in acting annually.
Your choice of acting school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for acting schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
The acting school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Acting Schools.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the acting degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student who is interested in acting needs to take a look at University of Southern California. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were about 45 acting students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.
Emerson College is a wonderful decision for students interested in a degree in acting. Emerson is a medium-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Boston. This college ranks 16th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were roughly 14 acting students who graduated with this degree at Emerson in the most recent data year.
Any student pursuing a degree in acting needs to look into Northwestern University. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.More information about a degree in acting from Northwestern University
Any student who is interested in acting has to look into Boston University. Located in the city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #23 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Boston U is a great university overall.
There were approximately 23 acting students who graduated with this degree at Boston U in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of Orange, Chapman is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 24th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 17 acting students who graduated with this degree at Chapman in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of New York, American Academy of Dramatic Arts - New York is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly small student population.
There were roughly 99 acting students who graduated with this degree at American Academy of Dramatic Arts - New York in the most recent year we have data available.
Columbia is a medium-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Chicago. This college ranks 9th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 45 acting students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
UT Austin is a very large public university located in the city of Austin. A Best Colleges rank of #46 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UT Austin is a great university overall.
There were approximately 11 acting students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, American Academy of Dramatic Arts - Los Angeles is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly small student population.
There were approximately 89 acting students who graduated with this degree at American Academy of Dramatic Arts - Los Angeles in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Purchase, Purchase College is a public college with a small student population. This college ranks 53rd out of 136 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were roughly 12 acting students who graduated with this degree at Purchase College in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #62 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were about 20 acting students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
Brown is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Providence. A Best Colleges rank of #26 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Brown is a great university overall.
There were approximately 11 acting students who graduated with this degree at Brown in the most recent data year.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Donald Judge.
Your choice of acting school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for acting schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
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