In my opinion, Oberlin is too isolated. It is in tiny town. Yes there is an opportunity to drive to bigger city.
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I think this is going to be a big consideration for any program. Don’t ask if a non-theater major (or non BFA student) can audition for parts, ask how many actually GET parts, and how many of those are female.
I think it will be a problem at schools that have BFA and BA students, and that have some in MT and others who aren’t.
If getting performance opportunities is important, focus on that when picking a school.
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@twoinanddone I think you hit on what troubles me about the whole list. Just because a school HAS physics and MT opportunities does not mean it is at all realistic to participate in both.
Many of the listed schools are selective, large public universities where it is competitive to get into majors, participate in clubs, participate in performances. To try to compete in multiple areas that do not overlap seems like a very tall order. I question whether it would be worth out-of-state tuition if the student is serious about continuing both interest areas because what is theoretically available is not likely to be practical.
I’d be inclined to pare down the number of large public schools on the list. Or at least ask if what the student is contemplating is doable and whether it’s been done before.
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I doubt anyone would deny that.
My response was to someone who commented about MT performance opportunities.
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I was pretty much responding that since there is no MT and it is in tiny place, I am not sure it is the best fit for OP.
Thank you!
Thank you! It is so cool seeing people’s ideas on our list.
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Thank you for this, and for sticking with this long thread. It is genuinely appreciated.
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I apologize if this has been answered, but are you planning to visit some schools once you reduce the list?
Your daughter may be surprised to learn more about likes/dislikes and the list may cut one, add another etc.
One of my kids was all set to attend a college with 30,000 students and chose a school with 5,000.
My other one stated that she would not attend a school with 5000 or less. This was confirmed through visits.
There have been a lot of great suggestions, but now it’s up to you (cost) and your daughter (fit) to decide what feels right.
There are schools that allow theater classes for non-majors (Mason Gross-Rutgers). Would that work? Not work? Your daughter needs to go through all of the nuances of these schools and decide.
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Well my RBS student was able to participate in theater at Rutgers, it’s a huge school with a lot going on.
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Yes, for sure. I have done (overdone 
) my part, now she needs to spend the time really digging in and thinking about what matters most to her. We do plan to do visits, but the schools are like a distributed scatter plot over the whole U.S. and almost none of the schools are within driving distance, so I hope to narrow it down a lot first to reduce flights, or even save some of the visits until after acceptances come out.
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You might get to the closest first. Or a group where you can do multiple at once.
Waiting til after acceptances and offers is ok but you need to have one you love because there will be some you visit after acceptance that the student is like no way. That happened with us. Sounded good on paper.
And if you’re in an area - like Boulder - go to a neighboring school like Denver 45 minutes away - to get a 2 for one, even if Denver isn’t on the list. And heck while it only has student run theater opportunities throw in a school like Mines since you are there - for size It’ll give you perspective at least.
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And that’s fine. If the OP and daughter are touring Rutgers and ask the question whether majors and non majors equally get parts or can participate, the answer would be yes. At many schools, the answer would be the non-majors CAN audition but if pressed the answer to whether they get parts, or major parts, might be ‘rarely.’
I’m saying there are productions outside of the BFA major, this organization is run by students. https://www.rultc.org/
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OP’s D wants to be a theater major. She may not want or have time to be in student led productions. When my D was in the theater dept, she had a certain number of hours she had to put into department productions every semester, even if she wasn’t cast in the production.
Does the student still plan to double major in physics and theater? I am under the impression that that has changed, and the major will be physics with an opportunity to do theater as a non-major. Maybe I am wrong.
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Of the schools the OP listed above, they all have “enough theater” for the daughter’s purposes. And since some don’t have a MT program at all, I don’t think a double major with physics is necessarily in the running anymore.
@UTmeritseeker is that correct?
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That’s what I thought, physics major with theater opportunities, not major/minor.
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This is certainly a “different” approach. These are outlier cases. For example, I’d love to see data on the universities that are supposedly bringing in poorly paid adjuncts AND having them teach small classes. Not a realistic example.
Re: class sizes. Please don’t equate those with the size of the college. I went to a college with 900 total students my freshman year. My freshman psych 101/102 course had well over 100 people in it. It was required for just about every major. Because it was a small college, many of my required freshman classes were 50 or more.
I transferred to a large public university and I had only two classes that had over 25 people in them and that were statistics and history of Ohio (again…required both required by just about every major).
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