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.
College Factual looked at 8 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Theater Arts Schools in Virginia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 375 degrees in theater arts annually.
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.
The theater 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 Theater Arts Schools in Virginia.
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.
Virginia Tech is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in theater arts. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg. A Best Colleges rank of #58 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Virginia Tech is a great school overall.
There were approximately 31 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Virginia Tech in the most recent data year.
James Madison University is a great option for students pursuing a degree in theater arts. Located in the city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #141 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means JMU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 63 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at JMU in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Virginia - Main Campus is a wonderful decision for students interested in a degree in theater arts. University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Charlottesville. A Best Colleges rank of #35 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means University of Virginia is a great university overall.
There were approximately 15 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at University of Virginia in the most recent data year.
Any student pursuing a degree in theater arts needs to check out Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Richmond. This university ranks 8th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 58 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #92 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means GMU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 33 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent data year.
Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg. This university ranks 11th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 9 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Liberty University in the most recent data year.
Old Dominion is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Norfolk. This university ranks 16th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 11 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Old Dominion in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the town of Radford, Radford is a public university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 20th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 21 theater arts students who graduated with this degree at Radford 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 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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