I would be interested to know from those visiting campuses how important are the facilities? and how much does that influence your students decision.
@Notmath1 I think it depends a bit. We visited a couple of schools that I would say have “normal” facilities, one that has amazing, brand new studios, and one that the facilities really weren’t great. S was deciding between the one with the brand new studios and the not great facilities. The program itself and the people were probably the first and second criteria, but the facilities definitely weighed in. After observing class at “not great” facilities, he mentioned them and the contrast with the other school- so I know it was in his head even if it wasn’t the primary factor in the decision. If he was deciding between “normal” and “amazing”, I don’t think it would have factored in as much.
In our case, the facilities matter. We visited four schools over spring break, and one of them was at the very top of my daughter’s list and she thought she would fall in love with it like she had online. The day started with her observing classes, and she loved each of them. After the classes came the campus tour. She hated the campus. The buildings were older, and the dorms left a lot to be desired. Although this is a top tier program, she has marked it off her list. She says that when she needs to get outside and get fresh air and regroup after hard days in the studio or classroom, she needs to be able to enjoy her surroundings.
A lot of people caution to not spend the money on a campus tour and wait until you audition for their program, but we have found the visits to be invaluable and quite the necessity. No reason to apply somewhere you don’t see yourself attending.
The theater facilities at my son’s school are brand new and gorgeous. I think that working in an environment like that inspires students and teachers alike. There are still students there who remember the old facilities and they tell S17 and the new kids how lucky they are to be able to work and learn in these new surroundings.
Theatre facilities are one factor in deciding where to apply/where to accept but, in my opinion, they shouldn’t be near the top of the list of factors. There are far more important issues that students should be assessing, e.g., curriculum, options for performance opportunities (mainstage, black box, student works, new works readings and workshops, student films, off-campus opportunities, faculty bios, opportunities to make connections in the business and network while still in school, to name just a few.
Although brand new facilities will always be a nice thing to have, keep in mind that it’s probably the last time that your student will ever get to work in brand new facilities! If you’ve ever had a chance to have a look backstage at any professional theatre, you’ll know what I mean. 
Facilities should be a factor, but not the only factor. A school can have a really spiffy theater and nice classrooms, but if the training isn’t there, the facilities shouldn’t overshadow that. We visited a school that has a flat seating area with a raised stage (like a church). As a short woman, I couldn’t see half of what was going on. The theater was lovely, but the setup was poor. Another theater was lovely but the sound system was horrendous. Sometimes a nice or new theater (and classroom area) can show that the college values the program and wants to invest in it. When a school has invested in contemporary facilities and technology, it can show that they are aware of newer digital media that a portion of this industry has veered toward.
I agree in some ways that decent facilities for the theatre dept may indicate that the school values the dept and is willing to invest in the upkeep of the theatres rehearsal spaces, etc. Sometimes we visited a school and the facilities for the dept were NOT acceptable and I wondered how the school viewed the dept , thereby making me worry a bit.
I have to admit when my son was weighing his three options a year ago, facilities were considered. Point Park was a year or so away from opening their new space (I assume it’s open now?) and that was something that definitely added points for them. In the end he chose another school, but that new facility was a big carrot that almost swayed him towards downtown Pittsburgh.
My daughter is a sophomore there. The new facility opens in the fall. She just performed in one of their last productions at the old Playhouse in Oakland.
I definitely think it influences student’s decisions, but I think that is the wrong thing to focus on. You can have bad training in great facilities and great training in outdated facilities. The other aspects of the program should be the priority when making a decision. If you somehow end up with two schools that are absolutely on par with each other in every aspect except facilities, then that can factor in.
I think it mattered somewhat to my daughter. At one school (which was a top contender) the dance building and the theater building were across 4 lane busy streets on the outskirts of the campus. The dance building was old and while it was clean it just had an old dark ambiance about it. The entire campus tour was focused on the brand new state of the art fitness center and after the tour she mentioned that a sliver of that budget could have greatly improved the dance building - heck they could have moved the dance classes into the fitness center. It just showed her that the school didn’t put value into the program. Also our tour guide didn’t even know where the building was we had to find it on our own so that was a huge red flag to us
lol no tour guide ever seems to know anything about the art buildings …What? Huh? At least at schools where it is not strictly a conservatory tour.
It hasn’t been much of a factor for my D. She comes from a public high school (not performing arts) that really values the arts. They have an amazing theatre and a very impressive blackbox, as well as other excellent facilities the arts programs use. The district just passed a bond that will give them even more arts facilities. Most of the colleges she visited didn’t have facilities as nice. But D grew up in a little community theatre that had the worst facilities but wonderful teachers. She knows she can get excellent training in either setting. (However, her final two choices have fantastic facilities - they also happen to have programs she likes and the people were WONDERFUL! Wish she would hurry up and choose!)
I am enjoying reading the replies and surprised with how many kids and parents do consider the facilities. I always thought, “well you can’t take the facilities with you!” But it really does seem to carry some weight, and I get @theaterwork what you said about the school caring. I hadn’t thought of it like that
Last year when we toured Northern Colorado, our tour guide was a theatre major, so she knew where everything was!
@emdcollege we ran into the same thing at one of the colleges we looked at. The theatre area was in disrepair and was pretty much run down but the college had a huge new fitness facility and our daughter said the exact same thing. “take a tiny amount of that budget and make the theatre and dance building better!” The university was marked off of the list after that visit, for other reasons than just the facilities though. I love what @VoiceTeacher said though about great training in poor facilities and poor training in great facilities. SO TRUE!
One thing that stuck out for my D is if they had enough vocal practice rooms and well maintained pianos …it kind of matched up to the quality of the program.