a bachelor's degree in drama & theater arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #38 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 7 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in New Jersey ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 207 bachelor's degrees in drama & theater arts to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Drama & Theater Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of drama & theater arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality theater program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on drama & theater arts students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other drama & theater arts students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for drama & theater arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized drama & theater arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for drama & theater arts students working on their bachelor's degree.
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 Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in New Jersey.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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Rutgers University - New Brunswick is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in drama & theater arts. Rutgers New Brunswick is a fairly large public university located in the small city of New Brunswick.
Those drama & theater arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Rutgers University - New Brunswick earn $5,464 more than the average theater grad.
It's difficult to beat Montclair State University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in drama & theater arts. Montclair State is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Montclair.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the theater program report average early career earnings of $18,474.
It is difficult to beat Rowan University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in drama & theater arts. Located in the suburb of Glassboro, Rowan is a public university with a large student population.
After graduating, theater bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $18,558 in their early careers.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in drama & theater arts needs to take a look at Rutgers University - Camden. Rutgers Camden is a medium-sized public university located in the city of Camden.
Drama & Theater Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Rutgers University - Camden get an earnings boost of around $5,464 over the average earnings of drama & theater arts graduates.
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).