<p>At the moment I'm still on the waitlist for my top school (DePaul), but playing on the safe side I'm trying to choose between a </p>
<p>BFA in Acting at Cornish or a possible BFA at Ball State.</p>
<p>I really love the Cornish classes and program and the faculty seem welcoming and experienced. However many of their alumni I see only go to work as teachers/only work in the Seattle area or in experimental theatre work. Which is not what I want to do at all... </p>
<p>Ball State I'm not in the BFA program, but was accepted into the BA and your allowed to audition for BFA again a couple months into your freshmen year. I LOVE their BFA a lot! But is it worth the risk of not getting into it?</p>
<p>I have a friend who dropped out of Cornish after a year. He said it felt like they cared more about money than actually teaching their actors. It seems like a better place for visual arts, but not acting. On the plus side, Cornish students sometimes get to be intern performers at the 5th Avenue Theatre. With all the world premiers and pre-Broadway runs they have, there is still a chance to get discovered and get out if Seattle. For example, 4 of the 5 male chorus members (who were local actors) from “Catch Me if You Can” have all made it to Broadway in the past year. None of which were Cornish students though.</p>
<p>Cornish is catered to a different kind of actor, yes, but I don’t see why they would be “experimental”. Students learn about a lot of different styles of theatre while at Cornish. You learn more than just acting but also how to create theatre and ensemble performance. Looking at alumni some do choose to stay in Seattle only because that is where Cornish has most of its connections. Not that it is a bad thing because Seattle has an amazing theatre community. I know people who attend Cornish and say that people do leave because its not what they expected, but the people who stay are the ones who knew what Cornish was before they got there because the Cornish B.F.A. is unlike any other actor training program in the U.S.</p>
<p>As to where you should attend, I have no opinion. But if you are ready to create and work outside the norm of the average theatre curriculum I would say that Cornish is the best suited to you.</p>