Hi all - My daughter (c/o 2025) is very interested in pursuing screen acting (not theater) and/or film in conjunction with business studies.
I’m looking for any experience you may have had in researching this combination and/or would love to hear from anyone who has traveled this path.
We have visited NYU (the Tisch/Stern program would be perfect), but my daughter isn’t a huge fan of the NYU campus and is looking for something with a little more of the college vibe.
Are there any other programs similar to this? Or schools with flexibility to pair up these majors? We have also visited Brown due to their open curriculum, but the focus would likely be more on theater there (I think), which is not her passion.
If these were my kids’ interests, these are the schools where I’d start my research beyond those that have already been mentioned. They seem to have fair to large numbers of students majoring in cinematography/film production (or similar) to make me think that there would be ample opportunities for an acting student to get experience with film acting (rather than theater).
Schools where I think you will find satisfactory strength of both the acting and business programs (with size/proportion of department as a proxy for strength) are listed in the Probably category, while those that I think of are possible are in the Maybe category (sometimes due to the more limited business offerings…which would then be dependent on your daughter’s specific interests.
One of Carnegie Mellon BXA programs might, but business doesn’t seem to be a possible combo, but there is data science, decision science, economics, behavioral economics, etc as possible combos with an arts field. This is an example of why I put it in the Maybe category rather than the Probably one. Mind you, I don’t know if any of these specific schools has the type of program you’re looking for, but this is where I’d start my search.
My nephews did Business and acting. dual majors One at NYU and the other at USC. One leaned more towards theater and the other more towards business. Recent grads. Both like their repsective programs.
Look at Syracuse and Emerson. Drexel and American have good film programs and might have some business offerings. CMU has world class BFA programs but might be geared towards theatre. That said, Pittsburgh has done well with its film industry.