<p>The University of Texas at Arlington is a school that several of my daughter's theater/voice friends ended up at, and they are at all of the audition events. They recruit very heavily. They have both a BFA and a BA - the BFA does require an audition but the numbers are much much less oppressive than most of the competing schools in Texas, they had a much longer call back list than just about any of the other schools at the big Collins audition.</p>
<p>It is not an MT degree but for anyone considering possibly doing a regular theatre degree and working on their MT stuff outside of it, it's worth a look. They certainly go after students they know are interested in MT and I know that some students here do end up going to schools for a straight theatre BFA so if that's something you've considered, it might be an option.</p>
<p>They aren't on everyone's tippy top list, I think, for one reason, because it has a reputation of being somewhat of a commuter school. However, it certainly does have plenty of traditional freshmen students. It's an affordable school, and it's in the Dallas/Ft Worth area which has lots and lots of theater opportunities. It has a very serious solid program - not at all a "token theater" program.</p>
<p>I am also becoming more and more convinced that a lot of schools which aren't as selective and therefore really hard to get into, shouldn't necessarily be crossed off the list just on account of that, because if the training is good and the faculty is caring and dedicated, that is going to be a bigger possible factor than how tippy top the other 10 kids who got in were. Not saying that the really selective schools don't give a good education because clearly they do, but I do believe that the success rate of their alumni is skewed by the fact that they can and do select only the absolutely most cream of the crop candidates for their program. Being an early bloomer probably works really in favor of the audition system also and there are lots of talented kids who aren't that, also. We know that there are many many very talented kids who just didn't fit into any of those very few selective school slots at the end of the year because of the luck of the draw, and of course we are always on a quest here for a list of good programs for those kids, and also affordable options for any kid.</p>
<p>My daughter is happy where she is but it's one of those schools we didn't consider much at the time (a little too close to home for her-) however - I keep running across things about it and their people now and think it deserves a closer look - I keep finding out things about alumni and faculty that make me think it might be a really good candidate for a nice safety or match. No auditioned program is ever really a safety of course, but having a few schools like this to look at is a good thing, and there is a BA program. It is one of those which everyone starts out as a BA and BFA is by review. I personally am very very much in favor of that kind of program.</p>
<p>I thought it was an essential part of my "Get Hip Pop Culture Crash Course" that my daughter watch "Young Guns" on tv the other night :D and she became (as I thought she would) rather enamored of Lou Diamond Phillips (like mom like daughter HEH HEH). Well guess where he got his BFA in Drama? Yeah!</p>
<p>So - I didn't familiarize myself with all the specifics for you, but if anyone is interested, I think this might be one of those rather hidden gems for some kids. Here is their theater website. UTA</a> 2012 - 2013 Undergraduate Catalog: The Department of Theatre Arts</p>