Theater Arts is of the hottest degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #70 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 7 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Theater Arts Schools in Massachusetts ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 314 degrees in theater arts to qualified students.
The theater program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Theater Arts rankings. For our Best Overall Theater Arts School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Theater Arts Schools in Massachusetts list to help you make the college decision.
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 theater degree levels they offer.
Emerson College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in theater arts. Located in the large city of Boston, Emerson is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population. This college ranks 16th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were approximately 49 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Emerson in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in theater arts needs to take a look at Boston University. Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston. A Best Colleges rank of #23 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Boston U is a great university overall.
There were approximately 18 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Boston U in the most recent data year.
Northeastern University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in theater arts. Northeastern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston. A Best Colleges rank of #33 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Northeastern is a great university overall.
There were about 16 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Northeastern in the most recent data year.
Every student who is interested in theater arts has to look into University of Massachusetts Amherst. Located in the small city of Amherst, UMass Amherst is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #60 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UMass Amherst is a great university overall.
There were approximately 26 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UMass Amherst in the most recent data year.
Mt. Holyoke is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of South Hadley. This college ranks 36th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were roughly 10 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Mt. Holyoke in the most recent data year.
Located in the suburb of Franklin, Dean College is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. This college ranks 55th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were about 24 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Dean College in the most recent year we have data available.
UMass Boston is a large public university located in the large city of Boston. This university ranks 25th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were approximately 14 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UMass Boston 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.
The theater program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Theater Arts rankings. For our Best Overall Theater Arts School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
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