Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Theatre Arts (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts earn a median of $39,775 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $25,491 and $55,399. We rank the 153 U.S. colleges whose Theatre Arts programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 8,262 graduates in all. That puts Theatre Arts at #131 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, leads at $64,880, 62% above the median ranked school ($40,121). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $37,094 and $43,957, and the lowest earns $28,807, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 84 of the 153 ranked schools (55%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 12 public, 8 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Texas places 5 schools in the top 20, ahead of California (2).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $19,672 a year, against $17,613 across all 153 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $23,000 in federal loans, about 47% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 6.1 years.
Showing the top 50 of 153 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $64,880 | 49 | $19,000 | $26,780 | 3.8 |
| 2 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year | $54,000 | 48 | $25,706 | $25,648 | 5.7 |
| 3 | Chapman University Orange, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,611 | 80 | $22,500 | $46,555 | 12.7 |
| 4 | Western Connecticut State University Danbury, CT Public · 4-year | $50,955 | 35 † | $25,000 | $17,604 | 5.3 |
| 5 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Public · 4-year | $49,802 | 30 † | $19,566 | $16,200 | 5.8 |
| 6 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL Public · 4-year | $49,323 | 32 † | $20,500 | $14,355 | 4.3 |
| 7 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,316 | 61 | $17,000 | $29,167 | 8.8 |
| 8 | Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,135 | 94 | $20,000 | $48,381 | 15.9 |
| 9 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $48,781 | 31 † | $25,711 | $19,857 | 5.7 |
| 10 | University of North Carolina School of the Arts Winston Salem, NC Public · 4-year | $48,664 | 91 | $23,500 | $14,906 | 4.1 |
| 11 | Texas State University San Marcos, TX Public · 4-year | $48,502 | 137 | $19,500 | $16,805 | 4.9 |
| 12 | Saint Edward's University Austin, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $47,974 | 26 † | $26,000 | $25,578 | 7.8 |
| 13 | University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $47,878 | 28 † | $24,250 | $11,900 | 6.6 |
| 14 | University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK Public · 4-year | $47,587 | 32 † | $20,044 | $15,300 | 4.8 |
| 15 | West Texas A & M University Canyon, TX Public · 4-year | $47,175 | 29 † | $19,250 | $19,487 | 6.3 |
| 16 | Ithaca College Ithaca, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $46,563 | 79 | $26,000 | $33,926 | 12.5 |
| 17 | Fordham University Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $46,317 | 27 † | $26,826 | $44,338 | 16.8 |
| 18 | University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO Public · 4-year | $46,089 | 76 | $24,000 | $17,760 | 13.1 |
| 19 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $45,888 | 68 | $20,379 | $13,138 | 4.7 |
| 20 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $45,706 | 28 † | $24,130 | $41,104 | 15.1 |
| 21 | University of South Florida Tampa, FL Public · 4-year | $45,671 | 31 † | $22,342 | $9,812 | 3.5 |
| 22 | George Mason University Fairfax, VA Public · 4-year | $45,656 | 32 † | $27,000 | $17,915 | 7.9 |
| 23 | University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH Public · 4-year | $45,504 | 27 † | $27,000 | $23,805 | 27.0 |
| 24 | James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA Public · 4-year | $45,225 | 52 | $19,000 | $23,322 | 10.8 |
| 25 | College of Charleston Charleston, SC Public · 4-year | $44,991 | 29 † | $26,746 | $18,960 | 7.4 |
| 26 | Appalachian State University Boone, NC Public · 4-year | $44,986 | 30 † | $23,750 | $16,836 | 6.2 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $44,913 | 29 † | $27,000 | $32,875 | 15.6 |
| 28 | Full Sail University Winter Park, FL For-profit · 4-year | $44,878 | 162 | $20,500 | $38,875 | 14.8 |
| 29 | San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Public · 4-year | $44,848 | 51 | $17,940 | $12,278 | 6.2 |
| 30 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE Public · 4-year | $44,825 | 31 † | $22,500 | $17,747 | 9.0 |
| 31 | Emerson College Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,760 | 113 | $25,000 | $49,180 | 52.9 |
| 32 | Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI Public · 4-year | $44,694 | 82 | $26,731 | $15,273 | 6.2 |
| 33 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $44,471 | 38 † | $23,665 | $16,674 | 8.4 |
| 34 | Hofstra University Hempstead, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,388 | 48 | $26,000 | $34,176 | 15.8 |
| 35 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $44,115 | 76 | $19,500 | $11,297 | 4.6 |
| 36 | University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA Public · 4-year | $44,106 | 47 | $16,667 | $16,109 | 9.0 |
| 37 | DePaul University Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,095 | 75 | $26,348 | $30,902 | 15.4 |
| 38 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,045 | 87 | $27,000 | $38,793 | 18.7 |
| 39 | Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA Public · 4-year | $43,957 | 65 | $20,500 | $23,433 | 12.8 |
| 40 | Lindenwood University Saint Charles, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $43,329 | 27 † | $27,000 | $19,638 | 9.2 |
| 41 | California State University-Northridge Northridge, CA Public · 4-year | $43,240 | 57 | $15,201 | $7,021 | 4.5 |
| 42 | Ball State University Muncie, IN Public · 4-year | $43,082 | 87 | $24,340 | $14,940 | 9.1 |
| 43 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $43,055 | 58 | $19,778 | $16,778 | 12.9 |
| 44 | University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Public · 4-year | $42,954 | 54 | $19,500 | $10,411 | 4.8 |
| 45 | Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $42,870 | 25 † | — | $15,327 | 27.9 |
| 46 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year | $42,820 | 40 | $22,185 | $19,680 | 9.8 |
| 47 | Ohio University-Main Campus Athens, OH Public · 4-year | $42,796 | 29 † | $21,875 | $21,637 | 12.9 |
| 48 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year | $42,712 | 69 | $21,000 | $24,406 | 17.0 |
| 49 | DeSales University Center Valley, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $42,571 | 30 † | $27,000 | $31,643 | 20.8 |
| 50 | California State University-Fullerton Fullerton, CA Public · 4-year | $42,455 | 80 | $15,000 | $6,555 | 4.8 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Theatre Arts (CIP 5005, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 153.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Theatre Arts earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | $46,089 | 3 | University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus |
| Virginia | $43,957 | 5 | George Mason University |
| Indiana | $43,082 | 3 | University of Notre Dame |
| Florida | $42,954 | 7 | University of South Florida |
| Michigan | $42,820 | 5 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
| Minnesota | $42,438 | 3 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities |
| Texas | $42,068 | 12 | The University of Texas at Austin |
| Arizona | $41,745 | 3 | University of Arizona |
| North Carolina | $41,235 | 8 | University of North Carolina School of the Arts |
| California | $41,192 | 17 | Chapman University |
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