Just FYI, it’s great if students can be RAs, but it is usually impossible for theatre majors as their schedules are usually too busy for that commitment. I’m only saying this because my D thought she’d be an RA at Northwestern - she wanted to graduate with no debt - but it was just not possible in her schedule.
My daughter was an RA her sophomore year while majoring in theatre. It can be done but she was completely booked almost every hour of the day and night. Fortunately she is a night owl so the long hours sitting at the RA desk she was able to do her homework. Depending on the RA director (which was in my daughter’s case) you may get one who is willing to work around the theatre schedule. At the beginning of the semester the kids could choose their nights on rounds, their meeting times etc and my daughter was able to juggle just fine. The only thing that was a negative was that she really had a hard time finding time to spend with friends. She felt those relationships took a serious hit. So don’t discount it. Wouldn’t hurt to explore the option.
Thanks everyone for the feedback.
Also factor in travel expenses. Son is 900 miles away. He comes home for Christmas, not Thanksgiving. We travel to see him when he is in a show. We joke that we “vacation” in Ohio. 
@entertainersmom I hear that. Our family “vacation” last year was moving D into school in NC in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity! Fun times (actually it was). But not exactly relaxing. Nor near the beach. Lol
Lol, son agonized over choosing Coastal Carolina or Otterbein, so we missed beach “vacations” by a hair.
New to this forum. I bow to each of you for being such amazing and supportive parents! I am curious as to the course load your kiddos took in high school to get merit scholarships and to get into these elite schools in general. (and grades and test scores if you can share…perhaps that is not appropriate to this site) My D wants to go for BFA in Acting, she’s halfway through sophomore year and we are figuring out junior courses. I’m at a loss b/c I went to UC Berkeley so it was all about taking four years of all the core classes, the more AP the better, and getting way over 4.0 GPA to get in, because that is really all they cared about. But I have an art kid, a right brained kid. Do they really need science like chemistry and physics for admission to these arts schools? Would psychology/sociology be better because that is what her brain is drawn toward. And do they need 3 and 4 years of foreign language? She can memorize a script… snap like that, but past tense verbs? Oh my! : ) I see much better course offerings for her brain. I realize it is dependent on each school…but a lot of them have no “specific” requirements. Any help is much appreciated! And again thank you from the bottom of my heart.
If you want merit money it’s all about test scores and grades and rigor of classes taken. If you don’t need merit money then you probably don’t need to worry about those difficult courses. My daughter had a 4.7 gpa and 1900 SAT and was given significant merit monies and admitted to honor’s colleges. Made college affordable for us. Depends on where she is applying. NU and NYU are going to care about course load, GPA and test scores.
Agree with all @bisouu said. I will confirm a good ACT score helped with merit money from many schools for my daughter. Many schools seem to go in “blocks” of scores -if you get a 26-28 you qualify for this amount, 28-30 this amount and above 30 this amount. Or they had a combo of GPA and test score to get you merit money. I did not not think the actual classes taken really mattered towards the merit scholarships much (the ones all applicants are considered for). Courses did matter for selective scholarships at colleges where you had to be invited to apply for the scholarship or honors college.
I also found the unweighted GPA to be important along with class rank related to merit scholarships. And I noticed that many kids who did not take AP classes still had decent (top) stats for both of those. And got into some great schools (including NYU). Made me rethink the whole AP thing for child number two.
For acceptance into many of the BFA programs talked about on these forums the audition is key to admission. Only a few really weigh academics -as long as you meet minimum requirements for the college in general. Carnegie Mellon says the BFA students don’t need the same high stats as the rest of the school. NYU does look at grades as does Northwestern
I would say for most schools if your daughter takes the standard 2 years language, 2-3 science, 4 years math, etc she will meet the requirements for many schools with good audition based BFA programs. The UC schools have a good list of high school classes required and if you can meet those you probably are ok for most colleges in terms of a BFA in drama.
I would recommend taking the standard and then what interests her and getting the best grades in those.
Good luck to her.
@actingadvocate - welcome!!! Grades/scores can be determining factors at certain schools - as noted above, Northwestern and NYU are probably the most well known academically focused for admissions amongst “popular” theater school choices - but if Michigan, Penn state, Boston, Syracuse, Elon or Emerson are on your list- grades/scores matter there too. But the numbers certainly will certainly play a role in aide/scholarships- which could be the determining factor in attending various programs if accepted. Let’s put it this way… good stats are never going to hurt any kid.
I am an AP teacher- so I have very strong feelings about Student’s need to challenge themselves to help prepare for college level work. But with that said, a kid does not have to take every AP that exists in order to get a benefit. And to be 100% honest, different AP classes require different levels of work. What you want is for the guidance counselor at your school to indicate that the kid took a “rigorous” courseload. My kid never took an AP Lab class (chem/physics) or AP Calc - those are known to be HW monsters. She did take APES and AP stats so she would get credit math/sci rigor- and then she took bunches of APs in the humanities b/c that’s what she loves (and I teach, so she had no choice…) Having the rigorous designation on the school report is going to be important if your kid is going for academically competitive schools.