<p>OP, if you are open to larger schools, there are several that have wonderful theatre programs (some BA, some BFA) and also excellent academic courses. You should take a close look at NYU (BFA audition), UCLA (BA audition), Northwestern (BA non-audition), CMU (BFA audition), Fordham, Vassar (BA non-audition)… and I always put in a plug for USC (both BFA audition and BA non-audition). There are more, so I don’t mean to leave other great schools off the list. This is off the top of my head. These schools, among many others, are extremely competitive so it’s likely you’ll want to apply to many more schools to account for the unpredictability of both the academic selection as well as the audition component. In addition, if you feel your grades/test scores put you in the top top range to try for highly selective colleges, you will get an excellent academic experience at all the top schools. Btw, Yale is renown for their MFA theatre program and schools such as Brown and Penn have excellent theatre majors as well. But when you add in LACs, you might love Kenyon which has a great rep as well.</p>
<p>All these are in addition to the wonderful conservatory-style BFA theatre programs which are not in traditional top ranked academic schools, but among theatre folk are beyond excellent. </p>
<p>One of the great difficulties of being in your position is the work required to audition (huge commitment of time, travel, money, scheduling) plus the work required to apply to highly selective colleges (huge emphasis on test scores /retakes, essays, college visits to show interest) can be almost too much during senior year. So it is a bit stressful and you will feel much better once you make some decisions about your focus/direction.</p>
<p>P.S. I’d have to suggest that getting a later start did not seem to hamper Meryl Streep.</p>