If you plan on getting your master's degree in drama & theater arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #83 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for drama & theater arts students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 419 master's degrees in drama & theater arts to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Drama & Theater Arts School for Your Master's Degree
The theater master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality theater program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 - The number of drama & theater arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
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 much debt drama & theater arts students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized drama & theater arts related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for drama & theater arts students working on their master's degree.
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 Drama & Theater Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region list to help you make the college decision.
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New York University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in drama & theater arts. Located in the city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the drama & theater arts major at New York University get $17,148 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Carnegie Mellon University is a wonderful option for individuals pursuing a master's degree in drama & theater arts. Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the theater program make around $21,814 for their early career.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in drama & theater arts needs to check out Columbia University in the City of New York. Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the theater program make an average of $20,935 in the first couple years of working.
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).
The theater master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality theater program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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