Acting schools are vocational training institutions that specialize in courses related to theater arts, motion pictures and television arts. The specific curriculum varies rather widely from school to school, but generally you can specialize in the following areas.

- Acting
- Contemporary Theater
- Stage Acting
- Acting for TV, Film, and Radio
- Specials performance skills
- Stunt Acting

All students are given a broad base education in the fundamentals of acting regardless of their desired area of concentration. A good fundamental background is necessary to understand the basic role of each specialized vocation in the theater arts.

Most acting schools have a 1 year course that is broken in 3 or four sections that include the fundamentals, focus on and acting specialty and a project that is not only related to the selected specialty, but also includes acting in a theater production.

Since most acting schools are private institutions they are not eligible for government grants and loans. There are scholarships available for the most deserving students and some schools fund work-study and internship programs to help the students fund the cost of the tuition. Special “Career Training” loans are also available for qualified students.

Tuition varies from school to school and program to program. If you are interested in a specialized 8-week workshop you should expect to pay around $4,000. A one year total emersion program can cost as much as $30,000 not counting supplies and equipment charges. There are even some acting schools that charge by the unit (usually around $1000). Nearly all acting schools provide a diploma to completing students and some even issue BA degrees.