<p>What do you mean by less traditional?</p>
<p>Well some focus on teaching about the history of theatre while others focus on the craft of acting.</p>
<p>There is nothing “traditional” about teaching about the history of theatre. All good performance based programs for acting should include theater studies (which includes history of theater). </p>
<p>What you need to do is understand the differences between a BFA degree (a professional training program) and a BA degree. Also, some BA degrees offer a performance/acting concentration and some don’t. There are many paths to becoming an actor and each of these are viable but have different curriculums. You need to closely examine the program and curriculum at each college.</p>
<p>Totally agree with soozievt. I’ve re-read your posts, ajrover, and I’m still not exactly sure what you are looking for in a school. What kind of experience do you want from your college program? If you can define that more clearly, perhaps we can help point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>I agree with onstage that people can’t help you if you have not articulated what you want in a college program and haven’t explored a bit to be able to say what appeals to you or not. Just wanting a “ranking” is not the way to go about this AT ALL. Some of the things you have posted are quite unclear to me such as:</p>
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</p>
<p>and</p>
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</p>
<p>What does that mean? Can you clarify?</p>
<p>Also, it is not a matter of finding colleges with strong theater. The colleges need to match up with your personal qualifications, which you have not touched upon. You can’t just create a college list of schools with good theater programs but you must be in the ballpark academically for these schools, and if there is an audition component (which BFA programs have), have the artistic skills and training to be competitive. Nobody can help you here if you don’t share a bit about your own background, qualifications, and college selection criteria. “Best Drama Programs” are the ones that fit YOU the best.</p>
<p>ajrover…I have read some of your other posts on CC now. It seems you are interested in Journalism, Political Science, or Constitutional Law and you are attending Junior Statesmen at Georgetown this summer. Already, that leads me to believe that a BA path is more suited to you than a BFA and NYU would not be an appropriate school for you to apply to. I also read that you want to apply ED to Columbia but want to know if you could back out of it if accepted. You should only apply ED to a school if you are 100% sure you would attend as it is a commitment to attend. Do you have the stats for Columbia? In another post, you wrote about not having SATs anywhere near the level that another poster with high SATs stated that he/she had. Make sure your college list is not simply made up of schools with good reputations but that your own qualifications meet up with those of admitted students. And if you have interests for college majors besides drama, you are more suited to a BA school, not a BFA one. You may like a school that has strong theater extracurricular opportunities.</p>
<p>You also wrote in a post that you are not familiar with Ivy League schools. Please do not apply to ANY college Early Decision until you have explored them so thoroughly that you know without a doubt that you will attend if accepted as ED is a contract that is binding.</p>
<p>Note: I just talked to a friend who applied to UCLA and she said that they were adamant about not letting students work/be employed in theatre throughout the duration of their 4 years at school. I feel that’s also something to consider when looking at a school(how important do you consider experience in the theatre?)</p>
<p>I don’t mean to hijack onto this thread, but I’m definitely looking for the same thing ajrover is looking for. I do feel like I want a BA and then an MFA, for the education and also for the double major bit which will placidate my parents 
I might end up auditioning for some BFAs as well, but I really am trying to find right now good BA programs(that arent’t overshadowed by BFAs, Musical Theatre, or Graduate programs) and I’m not sure I want a BA with no audition, so just anyone who feels like it can get in and I’m in classes with people who are just don’t care(a Butler University professor came into my theatre class and taught a bit and said our class was better(more attentive and well-behaved and willing to learn) than all of hers that she taught in college). </p>
<p>Right now, I’m looking at Fordham U. in NYC(I know a girl who goes there and loves it),Northwestern(huge stretch, but we’ll see), and after that I’m lost. I’ll probably end up trying out for BFA at Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and Juilliard(Just for fun) but after that I have no idea. Academics are important to me, but so is good theatre training. University of Evansville is supposed to be great, but it’s a BFA, and it’s really SMALL(about 2,000 in the whole school, which I’m not big on). And my parents are making me try out for Ball State University and Indiana University(I live in Indiana).</p>
<p>Anything come to mind?</p>
<p>I don’t have time to reply to everything in your post but will comment on one part of it. You wrote:</p>
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</p>
<p>Most kids who attend intensive theater programs or even college in general, do not have time to do outside theater while in college and to audition for it either. I do not agree at all with you statement about how important theater experience is…because while IN college, if majoring in theater, particularly in a BFA program or an intensive BA such as UCLA…you will be getting a LOT LOT LOT of theater experience AT COLLEGE! My daughter just graduated NYU/Tisch (BFA program) and was immersed in theater 24/7 all 12 months of the year for the past four years! She was always involved in a show and other performance experiences throughout school and also in summers! She NEVER auditioned to be in shows off campus during the school year and she was in NYC. She did not want to audition as it would have forced her to leave school if cast and she valued the four years of training and four years of production work during school at school and in summers. She wasn’t looking for professional jobs during the school year. That’s not why she was in college. She would have had to leave if cast. But going to college doesn’t mean you don’t get experience in theater! You get TONS of it. Then, when you graduate, you audition for professional work! The idea is not to audition for work outside of school during the school year while in college. If you want that, don’t go to college and just audition. College is about the training, the education, the experiences and the many productions you will be in at college and also in summers. Time enough to audition for professional work once you graduate. That’s what my kid is doing…graduated, got an agent, got cast, will become Equity. She wasn’t looking to do that while IN school.</p>
<p>This is for Bokitch, post #19 who wrote:</p>
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</p>
<p>Dramatic Arts is a SECONDARY FIELD at Harvard (meaning you study something else AND Dramatic Arts). So, they do offer courses and a secondary field in this area. Further, Harvard is known to have a wealth of theater as an extracurricular activity with many productions. There are over 60 productions per year. </p>
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</p>
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</p>
<p>Link to Dramatic Arts:</p>
<p>[Secondary</a> Fields:](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield/Drama/program-desc-drama.htm]Secondary”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield/Drama/program-desc-drama.htm)</p>
<p>Link to Secondary Fields (that also has a FAQ link within it):</p>
<p>[Secondary</a> Fields](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield/index.html]Secondary”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield/index.html)</p>
<p>Link to the starting point of all the Theater opportunities on campus at Harvard:</p>
<p>[Theater</a> at Harvard](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~theatre/]Theater”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~theatre/)</p>
<p>About Theater at Harvard:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~theatre/about/about.html[/url]”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~theatre/about/about.html</a></p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Do you have to audition for the schools with notable BA programs??? If so, do they hold them at the unifieds??</p>
<p>Most BA programs do not have auditions but some do. And it is not by which ones are notable or not. In other words, auditions do not make it a more notable program. </p>
<p>Examples of BA schools with no audition:
Brown, Northwestern, Yale, Skidmore, Brandeis</p>
<p>Examples of BA schools with auditions:
UCLA, Fordham, Chapman, American</p>
<p>Most BA schools do not attend Unified auditions. Many BFA programs attend Unifieds but many notable BFA programs do not attend Unifieds.</p>
<p>Which schools do attend Unified auditions? Is there a list somewhere?</p>
<p>Here is the site about Unified Auditions:</p>
<p>[National</a> Unified Auditions](<a href=“http://www.unifiedauditions.com/index.html]National”>http://www.unifiedauditions.com/index.html)</p>
<p>Here is a list of BFA schools that participate:</p>
<p>[National</a> Unified Auditions](<a href=“http://www.unifiedauditions.com/universities.html]National”>http://www.unifiedauditions.com/universities.html)</p>
<p>Here are the locations and dates for 2010:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.unifiedauditions.com/locations.html[/url]”>http://www.unifiedauditions.com/locations.html</a></p>
<p>I also suggest that you use the Search Function on College Confidential and Search the Musical Theater Forum which has more on it than the Drama forum (yet there is much overlap of topics and information) and there are many threads and discussions about Unified Auditions there. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thank you, Soozievt.</p>
<p>what’s the difference between a BA in drama vs. a BA in Theatre/or acting???</p>
<p>There is not a difference necessarily in a BA Drama and a BA Theatre and it often is just a matter of what each school calls their department or degree program…ie.) theater, drama, dramatic arts, theatre arts, etc. </p>
<p>Where there IS a difference is the curriculum from program to program. Some BA theater/drama programs have a performance track/concentration such as acting and some don’t and are just theater studies (study of theater) or else have some theater studies and some acting classes but not a particular acting/performance concentration. So, you must examine all BA programs and what their offerings are. </p>
<p>But don’t get caught up on the words “drama” or “theater” in the degree name. I can’t think of schools that have a major called “BA Acting” but some have a BA Theater or BA Drama that has an “Acting” track/concentration option. The degree is not “acting” per se. </p>
<p>But BFA programs are professional acting training programs. But even some of those are called BfA Acting and some, like Tisch or CMU are called BFA Drama (but are acting degrees).</p>
<p>The name is not what matters but what is offered is what matters and also BA vs. BFA has major differences.</p>
<p>Soozievt-</p>
<p>Oops. I’m sorry, I worded things wrong and my mind was mushing together two different conversations. One conversation was about the importance of getting experience onstage INSIDE of a school(which a school with a strong graduate program would inhibit slightly) and the other was about how my friend wanted to work OUTSIDE of college as well and UCLA would not allow her to do that. For some reason I saw them as the same and that’s why I said what I did. I realize that the experiences in college will probably be the only ones I get due to time constraints. They were completely separate convos and I’m sorry for wording it like that. I wish your daughter the best of luck with her career!</p>
<p>My daughter is attending UCLA and yes, they do not allow you to work OUTSIDE while you are in their program. Their philosophy is that there will be plenty of time for that later on when you hit the real world. They see the four years in their program as your chance to hone your craft and there is so much to do there is hardly time for outside work.</p>
<p>As for the rankings, I don’t put much stock in rankings either. I put the rankings from Princeton Review because I see so little on these posts about UCLA, or frankly, on any of the Southern California schools. There is a definite East Coast bent on these pages, and I think it is time that people talk more about the four outstanding programs here on the west coast: UCLA, USC, Cal Arts and Chapman. Yes, East Coast is great. But if you think you may want to be in film or television, you must seriously consider west coast schools because the connections you make at these four schools will help you for the rest of your career and the East Coast schools may not be able to give you that. (When we were at Carnegie Mellon auditions, they actually said “if you want to be a film star, this is not the place to be.”) </p>
<p>There is no denying the status of the film schools at UCLA and USC (and the animation department at Cal Arts.) The actors at these three schools work with the students in these programs, making connections that will last a lifetime. </p>
<p>Soozievt: Don’t forget USC. They have both a BFA and a BA and require an audition.</p>
<p>araby…OK, thanks for explainin’. One thing…you mention schools with a strong graduate program would inhibit opportunities for production work for undergrads and I think this is not always the case and you would have to inquire at each and every school. For example, at Tisch, where my D graduated with a BFA, the graduate program is entirely separate and all the productions for undergrads and grad students are separate as well. There was no impact on undergrads by the fact that there was a grad program at this university. There are likely other undergrad programs that have separate productions from their grad students. But there could be programs where the casting is mixed grad/undergrad and so you would have to find that out for schools that ALSO have a grad program. But it is not the same at every school. That’s why you have to explore each one thoroughly. </p>
<p>Production work outside of school is truly not needed as a student will be busy day and night with theater activities at school. I know with my D’s school, which was in NYC, that those kids who auditioned outside of school for shows that were NOT summer shows, usually had to leave school if cast and that is why a student needs to think through if they want the four year education and work professionally in summers and after graduation or if they are just trying to get cast from age 18-22 and if so, perhaps they don’t need to be in college. My own kid has chosen to wait to audition for outside work (not including summer work she has done) until post graduation and actually in her particular case, she graduated college at age 20 and so now she’s working professionally and she has her whole life to do that. She thought of college as the time to get her training, her education, do a variety of types of production work and so on. </p>
<p>chrissyblu, I know about USC and recommend it frequently to students. I was only giving examples of BA schools with and without auditions but that was not nearly a LIST. I purposely left off USC, in fact, so as not to confuse anyone in the point I was making that fewer BA theater programs have auditions than the no auditions and if I put USC in there, someone might have gotten confused since USC ALSO has a BFA degree program. </p>
<p>I think the schools you mention in the LA area are good for those seeking film careers as there are also some good film programs at those schools. But, for instance, NYU/Tisch has a very well regarded film program too and so undergrad acting students have opportunities there as well to act in student films and so on. </p>
<p>As far as CMU…while it trains actors, and not necessarily film acting, the fact is that they do their senior showcase in both NYC and LA and students from CMU can and do go into film. Students from Tisch, while trained in drama, also can and do go into film. It is just that the training is not “film acting” per se.</p>