I’m looking for the best theater BAs in the country. I have a couple in mind but I’m curious as to what others think.
(I’ve looked into the best BFAs, I would love some insight on BAs if anybody could help.)
Are you looking at full country- or do you have geographic limits?
Popping to the top of my head - and by NO means exhaustive
Northwestern
Fordham
Brown
Yale
Kenyon
Bennington
Skidmore
The ‘best’ is really subjective. Writing? Directing? Acting? Tech? Production? Musical and/or Straight? etc…
We visited many colleges and theatre departments and really liked:
Northwestern - they offer a musical theatre certificate, I think. Arguably, one of the finest BA programs available, IMO.
Fordham - audition based - limited musical theatre. Fantastic location.
Brown - sort of wide open - theatre happening everywhere, all the time. Lots of opportunities for all facets of theatre.
Williams - Rural, but amazing facilities: http://62center.williams.edu/about/ and great kids and professors https://vimeo.com/104947758
We had Vassar, Northwestern, Washington St. Louis and Davidson on our BA with good theater list.
You also hear a lot of good about Muhlenberg.
James Madison University has a great auditioned BA program. Definitely yes to Muhlenberg, @Jkellynh17! I have also heard good things about Oberlin.
Many of these schools will have VERY different school cultures; visiting is key.
As I understand it- Oberlin is more music based, but I have not done direct research
They do have a wonderful music conservatory (separate admissions track) but their BA theater program is also apparently good (not related to the music conservatory at all). One of the top female actors from our area (was national winner of the ESU Shakespeare monologue competition, got a callback from Juilliard, had auditioned options) chose to go to Oberlin and appears to be thriving there, doing interesting stuff.
While we’re on the topic of Ohio schools, though, Denison is also strong in theater!
Very true @times3 - both Jennifer Garner and Steve Carell are Denison grads 
Yep, @toowonderful, and Paul Newman, Allison Janney, & Josh Radnor are Kenyon grads. What is about those Ohio towns? Great support (in the form of student and community audiences/attendance) in the smaller Ohio schools also.
Ohio is littered with great LACs - goes back to the 2nd great awakening and reform movements of the mid 1800s (sorry- I teach AP US history and it’s getting close to exam time!)
I love it! My kids have gone to three of those schools (Kenyon, Wittenberg, and Otterbein)–great experiences, in totally different ways. Still don’t know my way around Columbus, though.
Random history fact of the day :)>-
Any knowledge about theater majors at Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg, or Earlham?
My son’s a recent Witt grad who had done a lot of theater in high school but didn’t participate at all in college. His sense was that it was a very small program (the facility is somewhat modest) but that the people involved really liked it. Wittenberg has some very bright kids and wonderful faculty, along with a strong sense of community, and I think it’s one of those schools where you get out of it what you put into it. They have had some success at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in past years. The university as a whole is cutting back on some programs, but the arts seem to be well supported. Not very specific, but I hope that’s of some help. The school is definitely worth a visit if you’re interested in the small Ohio LACs.
There are different kinds of theatre BAs. Some are performance-oriented and some are not. Yale’s is not, for example.
As arwarw suggested, you have to decide what aspect of theatre you are most interested in, and study curricula.
Thanks @Times3! My D has visited twice; the first time, in the summer, we spent time with one theater prof who was great and actually, we were impressed with the facilities, especially as compared to some other smallLACs we looked at. But on the second visit more recently, she sat in on a theater class with a different prof who really turned her off, and my husband agreed that he was a poor teacher with a bad attitude. What my daughter is most concerned with is not specific curricula but degree of support and enthusiasm by teachers and students. Do the students care and show up, are the professors engaged and interesting,that sort of thing, rather than prep to be a professional actor.
Smaller liberal arts schools seem to have good Ba’s
USC, UCLA. Daughter a B.A., Acting emphasis at USC.