OverviewAdmissionsProgramsCostsFinancial AidUndergraduate OutcomesClassroomHousingServicesResearchStudent BodySchool Finances
Overview
Founded in 1969, American Conservatory Theater is located in a large city with a population of more than 250,000. It is in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley CA area.
Highlights
Largest undergraduate program (53): Acting
Institutional Control
American Conservatory Theater is a private not-for-profit organization.
Student Focus
Single-sex: men
Fewer details
Accreditation
Accreditation provides important oversight over a school's instructional practices and institutional stability.
American Conservatory Theater holds an accreditation from one of the seven regional accreditors, which should ensure that credits earned transfer easily to other schools.
Accreditation History
WASC Senior College and University Commission (Accredited March 6, 1978 - present)
- The accreditation was recently renewed on February 16, 2018.
- The next accreditation review was scheduled for February 13, 2026.
Undergraduate Students
Not all students attend their first college full time to completion. While some schools are focused on those that population, many schools focus on transfer and or part time students. What types of of student does this school support.
Admissions
Context: Average High School GPA
American Conservatory Theater did not report the average high school GPA of it's students.
Fewer details
Admissions Details
Here are some important dates and little tidbits. Please double-check this information on the American Conservatory Theater's webpage for the most up-to-date and accurate answers! We update this information with each school's annual reporting, but information can change unexpectedly. Select any item to view the details.
Admissions Criteria & Qualifications
Application Fee & Common App
Programs
American Conservatory Theater program offerings
What award level are you pursuing?
0-1 Year Certificate
Acting
A program that prepares individuals to communicate dramatic information, ideas, moods, and feelings through the achievement of naturalistic and believable behavior in imaginary circumstances. Includes instruction in voice and acting speech, stage dialects, movement, improvisation, acting styles, theatre history, script interpretation, and actor coaching
Note: The name and definition of this program are based on Department of Education CIP code descriptions, which ensures uniform reporting across schools in the US. Please check this school's website for detailed program information and their specific course descriptions._
Choose how to look at program completions
By Level
By Race/Origin
By Gender
Completions in Acting by award level
Master's Degree
0-1 Year Certificate
Recently College Scorecard released data on starting salaries and cumulative federal student debt for each school/program combination with sufficient graduates to allow for privacy concerns with data releases. Shown in the box plots below are data for all schools offering drama/theatre arts and stagecraft (which may contain several related fields) by award level. If a value is reported for American Conservatory Theater, then that is shown in blue.
Starting Salaries
Cumulative Federal Student Loan Debt
What can I do if I study Acting?
Below we list the careers that the US Department of Education suggests are best fits for people who studied acting. You can get an idea of salary and the level of education you'll need, as well as whether this is a growing or shrinking career field. Sometimes this list of recommended careers doesn't match what people who earned this degree are really doing. Our acting program page has much more information about the interplay between study in this field and possible careers. Select any table row to learn more about listed career.
Occupation
Follow these links to learn all about this career!
Costs
Undergraduate costs
Here's a quick summary of costs to attend American Conservatory Theater. You will find the most up-to-date information at their website for admissions.
View
All
Charge
Annual fees
Annual tuition
Estimated books and supplies
Miscellaneous (living off campus)
Miscellaneous (living with family)
Off-campus room and board
Per-credit charges
Cost
$221
$30,235
$500
$5,706
$5,706
$14,670
$464
Fewer details
Historic Annual Costs
See how this school's published costs have changed over the years, and how their cost trends compare with other private schools.
Published costs may have little to do with what you actually pay
It's important to remember that a school's published costs may not be indicative of what it will actually cost to attend. Time magazine wrote about this in their article Yes, you can get a college to cut its tuition price. Nonetheless, this inflation-adjusted look at the historic annual costs for tuition, fees, books, and supplies can give you an idea of the costs you might expect in the coming years. Comparing the total costs inclusive of room and board (if applicable) with the annual net price estimates in the previous tab will help you determine the financial aid package to expect.
Private and public universities' charges are difficult to compare due to the in-state and out-of-state price differences of public universities, and therefore we only compare American Conservatory Theater to other private schools within your chosen context group.
Undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and supplies over time
Financial Aid
Financial aid overview
Understanding the rules and process that determine who gets financial aid can be intimidating. Here are some quick links to help:
- Visit American Conservatory Theater's Net Price Calculator for the most accurate estimate of your anticipated costs. Every school publishes a Net Price Calculator that does its best to give you a fair estimate of what you might expect to pay. Many calculators consider your high school record as part of the calculation. This will be far more accurate than any of the averages or published tuition values that you see here.
- FederalStudentAid, a government site that will walk you through the federal financial aid process. There are a number of kinds of student loans and other aid, and this site can walk you through all of the choices you will need to make.
Undergraduate Outcomes
Fewer details
Context and trends: Repayment Rate
How much progress do you think you'll be able to make towards paying down your college loans seven years after leaving school? In our research, we discovered that a surprisingly large number of students don't default on their loans, but also aren't making progress in paying down their principal amount. The percentages here count alumni who have decreased their loan amounts by at least $1.
Context and trends: are the loan default rates as small as possible?
The default rate is the percentage of students who are already delinquent on their loans within three years of leaving the school. If a school has a high default rate, that sends an alarm out that the students' educations are not sufficient to earn enough to repay those loans. Read below for details on the typical loan burden, and keep in mind that a low default rate may be more important than loan amounts in predicting your future success.
Loan burden
At American Conservatory Theater, 100% of full-time degree-seeking freshmen receive federal student loans, averaging $7,500 each in just the freshman year. We have much more details about the full loan burden students experience in our Cost and Financial Aid Section.
Context: Percentage of freshmen with federal loans
Context: Average freshman federal loan amount
Not so much?
Classroom Experience
Student attention at American Conservatory Theater
Schools are required to report the ratio of students per instructor, but look for a small number of students for every full-time instructor as your best indicator of personal attention and a modern well-integrated curriculum.
Fewer details
Full-time and long-term instructors at American Conservatory Theater
Full-time faculty are mostly likely to be on campus and available for interaction, and to craft up-to-date courses and programs. American Conservatory Theater has 16% full-time instructors, and 92% of the context schools have a higher percentage of full-time instructors. Faculty with multi-year contracts provide additional stability and commitment to the school and its students.Within the full-time instructors at American Conservatory Theater, none have multi-year employment contracts. Of the context schools, 72% have instructors with multi-year contracts.
Full-time instructors
Long-term instructors
Not so much?
Faculty Diversity
Here's an opportunity to explore the faculty's diversity. For many schools, attracting a diverse teaching faculty can be a challenge. It's important to judge their success with the reality check of what their peer schools have accomplished.
Number of full-time instructors
The chart shows male instructors to the left, and female to the right, with the races/origins included along the bars. Select the context graph to see how this diversity profile compares to the schools that interest you.
Housing
Activities and Services
Undergraduate services offered
- Academic/career counseling services
- Employment services for current students
Research
The library is the backbone of academic learning and research
A rigorous academic program requires that students and faculty alike are engaging in independent research, and that activity requires strong library support. You can get some useful information here:
- How strong and how balanced between traditional physical books and easily-accessed (but expensive) electronic journals and other resources is this library?
- How much is this library borrowing from other libraries? The number of interlibrary loans received can indicate the school's commitment to getting the resources on-campus researchers need, and also of the research activity on campus.
- How big a resource is this library to other libraries? A large number of outgoing interlibrary loans speaks highly of the value of its content.
The presence of a library in and of itself is a good thing. Increasingly, libraries are comfortable and inviting spaces for individual and group study sessions. Librarians can be incredibly friendly guides in your quest to find materials that aid your learning.
Comparison of library resources per student
How do the per-student library resources at American Conservatory Theater compare to other schools?
Comparison of library loans per student
A small library could make up for a small collection by allowing a large number of interlibrary loans to be received. An excellent library can show its strength by its number of loans given.
Research funding: the best indicator of post-baccalaureate academic rigor
Any school that reports at least $150,000 in research and development expenditures in a given year should have submitted out the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey to the National Science Foundation (NSF). We did not find HERD data for $American Conservatory Theater, so there would at most modest graduate-level academic scholarship campus-wide.
Student Body
Undergraduate Study Types
All undergraduate students are full-time. No undergraduate students take distance education courses.
Undergraduate Full-time
Undergraduate Online classes
Context: Student body size
American Conservatory Theater enrolled 98 students over the past academic year. The the student body size is smaller than 96% of the context schools.
Undergraduate student gender
Is the gender balance of American Conservatory Theater undergraduate students important to you? You can see the breakdown in this donut chart.
Gender
Men
Women
Undergraduate student race/origin
American Conservatory Theater reports that 18% of undergraduate students are minority, which is near the middle of the context schools. Similarly, this school's 0 of international students is near the middle proportion of international students within the context schools.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Hispanic
Not Reported
Fewer details
Context: Gender Balance
It is very difficult for many types of schools to achieve a gender balance, and this context is valuable in evaluating the balance at American Conservatory Theater.
Context: Percentage of women
With 64% women undergraduate students, American Conservatory Theater has a higher percentage of women than 68% of context schools.
Context: Undergraduate student race/origin
Here is how American Conservatory Theater compares to the rest of the context group in terms of diversity in the student race and origin.
Freshman residences
A high proportion of international and out-of-state students speaks to reputation and offers an opportunity for diverse interactions in and out of class.
Freshman residence
In-state
Out-of-state
International
Not Reported
Undergraduate student age distribution
The age distribution at a school can tell you a lot about its mission. If you're looking for a traditional undergraduate experience, you may prefer to see students who are mostly younger than 25 (lighter shades), but if you want support as a returning student, a large number of students 25 and older (darker shades) may better suit your needs.
Age range
18-19
20-21
22-24
25-29
35-39
50-64
Unknown
School Finances
American Conservatory Theater: What its budget can tell you about classroom quality
Where a school spends and collects its money can suggest a lot about the educational experience it offers. The tabs below offer a look at spending that is important for the quality of your experience if you attend.
Instructional spending
Student services spending
Context and trends: Instructional expenditures per student
Instructional expenses are primarily the salary and benefits paid to the heart of a school: its full-time instructors. High expenditures in this area suggest care in hiring enough highly qualified full-time faculty to provide personal attention and up-to-date subject-area excellence.
Fewer details
Does incoming revenue consistently cover expenses?
American Conservatory Theater is a private not-for-profit school. Along with publicly-controlled schools, not-for-profit schools do not have the goal of annual profit, but they do want to have healthy finances with adequate revenue to meet all expenses. On the other hand, private for-profit schools have creating a profit for shareholders as an annual goal.
Total revenue and expenses by category
We divided revenue and expenses for American Conservatory Theater into categories to give some insight to what may have influenced peaks and ditches in the chart above. The purple shades correspond most directly to student education. The blue shades, auxiliary expenses and revenue, are often related to room and board. We show investment gains and losses in apricot.
Investment gains
Independent operations revenue
Tuition and fees revenue
Government appropriations etc.
Private and capital gifts
Educational sales revenue
Other revenue
Investment losses
Independent operations expenses
Instructional expenses
Student services expenses
Academic support expenses
Institutional support expenses
Public service expenses
Other expenses
Not so much?
The power of a large endowment
Related to the previous question of whether the annual revenue stream is stable is the question, "How deep are this school's pockets?" For many schools, a major source of annual income is investment growth. Schools with large endowments have a built-in revenue stream, although you'll see in the accompanying graphs that this revenue stream is highly dependent on the nation's economy. You can choose how to examine the depth of American Conservatory Theater's resources by selecting from the buttons below.
Choose asset category
Net Assets
Total Endowment
Endowment Growth Rate
Net Assets Per Student
Here we examine assets at American Conservatory Theater in context, and it seems most fair to adjust for the size of the institution. We examine the assets per full-time-equivalent student so that we level the playing field for size.
There's a catch to these assets, though. Many gifts to a school's endowment have strings attached; the money is restricted to a specific purpose. Assets shown in green below are unrestricted, and are very important to a school's ability to meet its financial obligations. Some assets are the land and buildings that a school must have in order to function, and these may appear as green (unrestricted assets) but are nonetheless less helpful in meeting annual financial commitments. This look at assets is only a piece of the puzzle as we decide if a school is stable.
Restricted net assets
Unrestricted net assets
Context: 2019 net assets per student
