CUNY Brooklyn has a good theater program. There’s a Theater BA and BFA’s in Acting and Theater Tech, which is what my son is pursuing. My S17 looked at it, but we are on LI and there’s very little dorming. It would have been 2 hours plus each way, so he didn’t apply.
Queens College has a BA and a minor in theater, but, to me, those are more for people who are interested in having a theater EC as opposing to a lifelong career. QC is 5 minutes from grandma so S17 didn’t even consider it, but it didn’t fit his needs as he wants to work in theater.
CUNY Lehman (my alma mater) offers a BA and a minor in Theater and a minor in Theater Management. It also appears to offer a BFA in Multi media performing. It didn’t say on the department page which programs, if any, are audition.
CUNY Hunter has a non-audition theater BA or minor.
SUNY Purchase has an excellent program. There is a non-audition theater BA and auditioned Acting BFA.
I didn’t know when my son first began looking at programs (for tech, not acting) that there were BA’s and BFA’s. There are also different levels of intensity. I began by evaluating the different programs - do you have to audition (or, for tech, have an interview/portfolio review) or is the major open to anyone admitted to the school, is it a BA (the amount of credits is equivalent to any other major) or is it a BFA (much higher percentage of major classes and electives, fewer gen eds and outside classes), etc. Some programs appeared to me to be programs for kids who just wanted to continued theater as an EC in college. Stony Brook’s now apparently discontinued program comes to mind as a prime example - it appeared to me to more a program to attract future engineers and doctors who did theater in HS and wanted to continue for fun than it did a program for people who wanted to work in theater. I mention Stony Brook because it’s my H’s alma mater and he wanted S17 to go there. I had to research it very carefully in order to convince them why it wouldn’t or would be a good idea. As it turned out, it was not a match for S17, who has zilcho interest in math and who wants to work in theater. However, that’s an example of how you should do your own research. You also need to look at the type of shows done. Purchase tends to more modern, edgier shows. My son wasn’t into that.
Do you want a program that has an MT major or an acting program that puts on musicals? If you don’t get in MT, will you be ok with acting at a school that also has MT? For my son, he wanted a program with both, because he wanted to be able to work with musicals and straight plays.
You should work hard to get your grades and test scores as high as possible because those can translate into higher merit awards. Now that it’s too late, my son finally understands that.
Finally, the most important thing, is what can your family afford?
My S17 is at a SUNY school, which in my family’s situation, is the best deal financially. If you read the boards, you will see awful stories or students who auditioned their way into top or dream programs and can’t go because their families can’t afford it or who are going into incredible debt to pay for it. NYU Tisch is a great school but $70K is a lot of money a year… People have different POV’s but mine is not to bother to apply to a place you know won’t be affordable. My son applied to Adelphi and LIU-Post, both good programs on LI. We weren’t sure how much aid or merit he might get but he knew that if it wasn’t enough, he couldn’t attend. We knew going in that his stats wouldn’t warrant merit at schools like NYU or Northwestern and we are in the doughnut hole where we don’t qualify for FA. With Post and Adelphi, his stats were such that he would get money, how much was the question. It turned out that in neither case did he get enough (although Adelphi did offer to review him again after we declined), so he’s upstate at a SUNY. I decided early on that I didn’t want him to have the heartbreak I did of getting into schools I loved and having to settle for a CUNY. As it turns out, he is really happy at his school and it was the right choice for him.
Good luck.