Hey, so I’m currently a sophomore at a state school studying for a BA in Theatre and a minor in music. I really want to transfer to a BFA musical theatre program. However, I don’t know if it is worth it at this point since I’m already in my 2nd year of undergrad. My current school and area offer some really awesome opportunities time to time, but overall I’m not really happy with where I’m at, and worry that my voice and dance skills will not be refined enough to compete in the real world once I graduate. Also if I were to transfer to a BFA musical theatre at this point it’s a lot of extra money (college is already expensive). Also, I would need to most likely take an extra year to complete my undergrad. Should I just stick it out for the next two years or try to transfer to a new school? Help? Anyone with similar experiences?
Without knowing much about your program, I would encourage you to think long and hard about abandoning something in which you will have already invested two years of time and money. Most BFA programs are very prescripted 4 year curriculum plans so even as a transfer student you would have to start over which will be an additional commitment of time and money. Perhaps it would be better to stick it out with the program you are in and make the most of what is offered there and maybe take some extra dance and voice training on the side. And then you can always consider pursuing an MFA which might be a better use of two additional years of education than backtracking into a BFA. Just a thought!
I agree with sopranomtmom. If you transfer to a BFA program and have to spend an extra year or two (or more) in college, that’s $20,000 or $30,000 (or more) a year extra. If you finish your degree and then take singing and dance classes on the side, it would be MUCH cheaper.
As a comparison: we’re in New York, and my D’s singing teacher charges $100 an hour. (You can find less expensive teachers too, but let’s go with $100 for this example.) So if you took one singing lesson per week (and practiced all week between lessons), that would be $5200 per year. As for dance: let’s say you wanted to take dance classes twice a week, so that would be 100 lessons per year. In New York, Broadway Dance Center offers a 20-class package for $370. So if you bought 5 of those packages per year, that would be 100 dance classes for $1110.
So for a year of singing lessons and dance classes, that would be $5200 + $1110 = $6300. MUCH more affordable than an extra year or more of college at $20,000-$30,000 per year!