If you pursue a degree in theater arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #70 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 9 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for theater arts students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 333 degrees in theater arts to qualified students.
Your choice of theater arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Theater Arts School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
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.
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 North Carolina list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
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.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the theater degrees they offer, see the list below.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in theater arts. Located in the large city of Winston Salem, UNCSA is a public university with a small student population.
There were approximately 32 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UNCSA in the most recent data year.
It is difficult to beat University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if you want to pursue a degree in theater arts. Located in the small city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were roughly 37 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent data year.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in theater arts. Located in the large city of Greensboro, UNC Greensboro is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 17th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were roughly 80 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UNC Greensboro in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student pursuing a degree in theater arts needs to take a look at Appalachian State University. Appalachian State is a very large public university located in the distant town of Boone. A Best Colleges rank of #401 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Appalachian State is a great university overall.
There were about 25 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Appalachian State in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the small city of Greenville, ECU is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #275 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means ECU is a great university overall.
There were about 22 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at ECU in the most recent data year.
UNC Charlotte is a fairly large public university located in the city of Charlotte. A Best Colleges rank of #367 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UNC Charlotte is a great university overall.
There were roughly 24 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UNC Charlotte in the most recent data year.
UNCW is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Wilmington. This university ranks 12th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were roughly 17 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at UNCW in the most recent data year.
Located in the town of Cullowhee, WCU is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 36th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 21 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at WCU in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Greensboro, NC A&T is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 51st out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 10 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at NC A&T in the most recent year we have data available.
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 theater arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Theater Arts School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
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