Acting Schools in the US: How to Choose and 14 to Consider

How to Choose Among Acting Schools

First, decide what you want to leave with. If you want a degree, look at university programs. If you want craft only, look at conservatories and studios. Then compare four things.

• Length and schedule: full time for two or four years, or evening classes.
• How the school admits students: an audition, an interview, or a prescreen video first.
• The technique: ask what the first year actually teaches.
• The city: it decides where you will meet agents, casting directors and working actors.

Visit if you can, because a campus tells you more than a website. Also, many schools hold open houses, campus tours or virtual information sessions. Ask to watch a class, and read what current students say about the daily schedule. If you only want to try acting first, a shorter route works better. Our guide on how to choose acting classes covers evening and weekend options.

However, be careful with any school that guarantees you will be cast, promises an agent, or pushes you to pay quickly. Real training schools, by contrast, tell you plainly how they admit students. Our note on how to spot a fake casting call shows the same warning signs.

Acting Schools With University Degrees

These five universities place acting inside a degree. Most ask you to apply to the university and to pass an arts review as well.

David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, New Haven

Yale’s acting program in New Haven, Connecticut, leads to an MFA and a certificate. Applicants audition, and the school also posts the cities and dates of its auditions. Read the acting program page for the requirements and the application cycle.

Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Pittsburgh

Carnegie Mellon offers BFA programs in Acting and in Music Theater. First you submit a prescreen. Live auditions, in person or virtual, are by invitation only, and the school says one prescreen can cover both acting and music theater. The undergraduate admission page explains the steps.

UNCSA School of Drama, Winston-Salem

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts runs an undergraduate BFA in Professional Actor Training in Winston-Salem, plus a one-year intensive for high school students. Besides the online application, candidates audition for the drama faculty. The drama admissions page lists the audition requirements.

The Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago

DePaul’s Theatre School offers a BFA in Acting in Chicago. Admission to its BFA programs requires an audition or an interview, depending on the major, and interviews cover every BFA except Acting. So Acting applicants audition. Applicants to the Bachelor of Arts in Theatre need neither. See the auditions and interviews page.

Tisch School of the Arts Drama, New York University

Tisch Drama is an undergraduate program in New York City built on a studio system, where students explore different approaches to acting and other theater work. Applicants use the Common Application, then book an artistic review through a personal portal. Both steps count, so do not skip the portal. The Tisch Drama admissions page has the current cycle.

Acting Schools in New York City: Conservatories

New York has the densest cluster of conservatory programs in the country. Six are below. Each one requires some kind of review before you start.

Atlantic Acting School

Atlantic’s full-time Certificate Program lasts two years and teaches Practical Aesthetics, which the school calls the Atlantic Technique. Students also perform on one of Atlantic’s Off-Broadway stages. Applicants send a headshot, a resume and a letter of recommendation, then take a Zoom audition and interview in one appointment of about 30 minutes. See the conservatory page.

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre

The Neighborhood Playhouse sits at 340 East 54th Street. Its Two-Year Professional Actor Training Program is a full-time certificate conservatory grounded in the Meisner Technique. Moving into the second year is by invitation. If selected, applicants complete an artistic review, interview or audition by Zoom, and prepare a one to two minute contemporary monologue. Details are on the Two-Year Conservatory page.

Stella Adler Studio of Acting

The Studio, at 65 Broadway, runs a Professional Conservatory of two and a half years. The school describes it as training in imagination, text analysis and character work for both stage and screen. You apply and then audition. The studio also holds appointment auditions in other cities. Start at the Professional Conservatory page.

Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute

The New York campus offers a Two Year Conservatory, a certificate program built on Lee Strasberg’s Method Acting, with 22 hours of classes per week. Admission works instead by interview. The school says the interview is not an audition but a chance to talk about which program fits you. The program page has the details.

Circle in the Square Theatre School

Circle in the Square is at 1633 Broadway and offers a Two Year Conservatory, along with other programs. To apply, you send prescreen audition videos, letters of recommendation and an application. For the acting track, the school then asks for two monologues, one contemporary and one Shakespeare. See the how to apply page.

American Academy of Dramatic Arts

The Academy’s New York campus offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting in a three-year or four-year pathway, and an Associate of Occupational Studies in Acting that takes two years. The BFA is described as training for film, television and theater. Every applicant auditions, and the audition includes a personal interview. The school posts its audition cities and dates and the audition requirements.

Film, Improv and Technique Schools in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York

These three programs serve different goals. One is a film school, one trains improv and one teaches Meisner in the evenings.

New York Film Academy, New York and Los Angeles

NYFA offers Acting for Film as certificate programs of one and two years and as degree programs. Also, its campuses are in New York City and Los Angeles. Applicants audition for the performing arts programs, in person, virtually or by self-tape. The degree and certificate auditions ask for two contrasting contemporary monologues, one dramatic and one comedic. If you choose the self-tape route, our guide to how to record a self-tape helps. The details are on the NYFA audition page.

The Second City Training Center, Chicago

The Second City’s Conservatory in Chicago trains improv and comedy performers, and you get in by audition. The school asks for about a year of improv training at Second City, or a year at an approved school plus one acting course after high school. Second City will confirm whether you can audition. Read the Conservatory audition page before you plan. For warm-up ideas, try these improv games.

Playhouse West, Los Angeles

Playhouse West, in North Hollywood, teaches the Meisner Technique in person, with beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. However, students must be 18 or older. The registration page offers beginning classes for new students and does not mention an audition. See the class registration page.

How Admission to Acting Schools Works

Most of these programs ask you to perform. A typical audition packet includes two short monologues that contrast in tone. First, choose pieces you understand and can play at your own age. Our list of monologues for auditions can get you started.

Some schools ask for a video first. Carnegie Mellon and Circle in the Square, for example, use a prescreen. Keep your self-tape simple: a plain background, good light and clear sound. Others use a short interview, and the interview can matter as much as the monologue. Then come ready to explain why you want this school and what you hope to learn.

Plan ahead, because dates fill early. Several of these schools hold auditions months before the program starts, and some run auditions in other cities. Read each page carefully, because the rules differ from one school to the next. A short acting resume and a current headshot help even when a school does not ask for them.

Which Type of Acting School Fits You

Think about your starting point. If you are finishing high school and want a college experience, a BFA at a university gives you both. If you already have a degree, a conservatory or an MFA is the better fit. And if you work during the day, a studio with evening classes lets you train without quitting your job.

Think about your goal too. For example, do you want to work on camera? A film school or a studio with on-camera classes helps more than a stage-only program. Love comedy? Then look at improv training. Not sure yet? Try short classes first. Our pages on acting classes in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago list other ways to start, and acting classes near me helps you find options in your own area. Teens can read how to become an actor as a teenager.

Acting Schools in Other Countries

Thinking about training outside the US? We have separate guides to acting schools in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Spain. Each one explains the local system and links to official school pages.