2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Musical Theater in California

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Musical Theater is the 489th most popular major in the country with 935 degrees awarded in 2019-2020.

Across California, there were 49 musical theater graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 20 musical theater graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,907 and $21,546 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in musical theater. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality musical theater programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the musical theater program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

The colleges and universities below are the best for california bachelor’s degree musical theatre students.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Musical Theater in California

#1

University of California - Irvine

Irvine, California

#1 in overall quality

$14,783 Average Net Price

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Irvine landed the #1 spot on the list. UC Irvine is located in Irvine, California and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 9 bachelors’s musical theatre degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our california bachelor’s degree musical theatre students list, UC Irvine has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Musical Theater Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $14,783 for california bachelor’s degree musical theatre students per year to attend University of California - Irvine.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 1.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Musical Theater at UC Irvine

#2

California State University - Chico

Chico, California

#2 in overall quality

$15,017 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Chico. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. Chico State is a fairly large school located in Chico, California that handed out 7 bachelors’s musical theatre degrees in 2019-2020.

Chico State also made our “Best Musical Theater Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #2. The estimated yearly cost for Chico State is $15,017 for California Bachelor’s Degree Musical Theatre students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full California State University - Chico Musical Theater Report

#3

Vanguard University of Southern California

Costa Mesa, California

#3 in overall quality

$20,051 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Vanguard University of Southern California. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Musical Theatre Schools for a Bachelor’s in California. Vanguard University of Southern California is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Costa Mesa, California. It awarded 4 bachelors’s musical theatre degrees in 2019-2020.

Vanguard also took the #3 spot in our “Best Musical Theater Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Vanguard University of Southern California is $20,051 for california bachelor’s degree musical theatre students.

The low student loan default rate of 4.0% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Musical Theater at Vanguard

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Musical Theater in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Musical Theater

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Donald Judge.

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