New to CC, first post :). BFA vs BA with minors?

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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<p>New to CC first post, thank you in advance for answers, guidance and hopefully some sanity :)</p>

<p>Looking for a college where my son can spend the next 4 years continuing to grow up in a safe environment, gaining a college experience, doing what he loves...musical theater. That said, we are looking at BFA as well as BA programs where he can get training in singing, acting, and dancing. </p>

<p>With little dance experience I'm wondering if we should focus on BA programs in acting where they offer dance and music(performance)as minors.
Am I wrong to think that a BA in theater with a concentration in musical theater with a double minor in dance and music performance would be similar to the training from a BFA program, but still allow him more of a traditional college experience?</p>

<p>Here is some general information about him</p>

<p>GPA 3.4, without an issue freshman year with a horribly demeaning teacher, would be about 3.6, she no longer teaches there.
SAT 1550 - taking again in Oct
ACT- taking in Oct</p>

<p>Experience
Member EMC with 16 points towards equity
Very large vocal range, lowest and highest male voice in his school
Member of select choirs
Acting since age 10, leading and non leading roles
Some local professional theater experience
Very little dance experience, a class or 2 here and there but no real training.
He can read music, sight sing, and has taken AP Music Theory</p>

<p>We are not looking at anything in NYC as he wants a traditional small-medium campus. He can always get a masters in the city later :)</p>

<p>Right now his top choices are Montclair State in NJ and Rhode Island College, both very different programs. Here is what we are looking at so far :)</p>

<p>Connecticut:
WCSU
CCSU
Hartt School of Music</p>

<p>Rhode Island
Rhode Island College </p>

<p>New York
Wagner
SUNY Purchase
Hofstra</p>

<p>New Jersey
Montclair State</p>

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<p>Yes, you are wrong about the BA with minors vs. BFA experience, Theatermom14. You’ll want to read as much as you can here but I will try to give you a quick overview.
A BFA is a very training-intensive degree where almost all of the coursework will be in theater, with a few general education credits and very little room to explore other subjects. </p>

<p>Most BAs (there are exceptions) offer only a few real acting/singing/dance classes…an a minor in dance or music would likely be focused on modern dance or ballet, and on classical music rather than MT. </p>

<p>It sounds to me as if he really wants a BFA, which would be training in all aspects of Musical Theater. His lack of dance won’t help him, but it may not hurt too much as there are many boys in that situation. </p>

<p>Hartt, Wagner, and Montclair State are the auditioned BFA schools on the list. I don’t know much about Wagner but my D is at Hartt and I’ve heard great things about Montclair. Hofstra is a nonauditioned BA with option to audition into the BFA sophomore year. </p>

<p>SUNY Purchase is only for acting, no MT. If you’re looking at Rhode Island College, look at U Rhode Island too-- they have a nonauditioned BFA Acting with MT minor-- a very traditional college experience and the academics are probably the most diverse and challenging among these choices. URI is maybe closest to the ‘BA’ you describe. </p>

<p>D is having just an incredible experience at Hartt. I’d start by looking there, since it sounds like you’re in CT. This is a drawn out process though, so he wants to get going on applications and setting up auditions as soon as possible! Great luck to you both!</p>

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<p>I want to echo Gwen’s comments. He absolutely should not avoid an MT program because of lack of dance experience. MT programs – even the best ones – take many guys who can sing and dance and have little or no dance training. </p>

<p>I think we are friendlier bunch over here in the Theater forum than the MT forum but you might want to post there as well for suggestions. </p>

<p>I will throw one other program out for your consideration which is the one my daugther goes to UNCSA. While it is an acting program and not an MT program, they do a lot of MT work within the program. Dance and voice lessons are incorporated in the training. A decent number of kids out of the program have gone into MT with more than a handful playing on Broadway. My daugther says most of the guys there don’t have much dance training. They try to take about 19 guys and 9 girls. This year it is 17 guys and 11 girls.</p>

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<p>My son is in his first month of a MT program and had never taken a dance class in his life. He is at Ithaca, which UNTIL THIS YEAR didn’t have a dance component to its auditions. I believe that now it does. But oddly, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has DROPPED its dance audition for MT. It’s different for guys, in any case, as the above posters mentioned.</p>

<p>You should have your son read some of the “Freshman Experience” threads here from past years, which can give a good idea about what the schedule is like for students in a BFA program. It is very different from a typical undergraduate experience.</p>

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<p>Wagner is an auditioned BA program, and has more gen ed course requirements than a BFA. You complete your application to the school and are invited to audition. They have one audition date (last year it was the first weekend in March). Sounds intimidating, but I think your son will fit their academic requirements just fine. Beautiful small traditional campus, nice people, views of NYC, but not IN the city.
And I’m from the MT forum (go back and forth) and we are friendly over there too! ;-)</p>

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<p>Thank you for your reply Gwen, I was actually thinking the BA with the double minor from a Rhode Island College standpoint, since their BA is with a MT concentration and they have a school of dance and music as well. He really liked the school and loved Providence. My first thought was that their program might not be enough for him, so I was trying to come up with ways it could be.
We haven’t really considered non audition programs but Hofstra and URI might be looked at now.
We are in CT and Hartt is on the list to audition for, but with the lack of dance we were thinking auditioned BFA programs might be a reach, but he’s still going to try.</p>

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<p>Didn’t even know there was a MT forum, I’ll head there too, thanks.</p>

<p>We have been to Wagner and he liked it and will be applying, but it’s not his top choice.</p>

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<p>I get the impression that some schools would rather have no dance training than bad training. One of my son’s dance classes at Ithaca seems intently focused on teaching the students to do everything in the most correct way to prevent injury.</p>

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<p>TheaterMom14, your S should not be deterred by his lack of dance experience from applying to BFA programs. I have known a number of boys who have had little to no dance training going in and they have done just fine in their auditions. If he can take a dance class or two just so he can become familiar with some of the terminology before auditions begin, that would probably be helpful, but it is really not a deal breaker in many cases. As someone above noted, CMU has gotten rid of their dance audition (they claim they can teach kids to dance once they get there). If your S can impress with his singing and acting, then he will still be in strong contention at many BFA’s even with a less than stellar dance audition. Of course he will be required to take dance classes once he gets there!</p>

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<p>In addition to Wagner, other BA programs that are auditioned and where there is focused training in Musical Theatre include: Temple in Philly, James Madison in VA, and American in DC… and, I think University of Alabama.</p>

<p>I agree that he should not be worried that lack of prior dance training would automatically put him out of the running for MT programs.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone, he is looking to stay in CT, RI, NJ (near NY), and NY, not in the city but a campus close by. </p>

<p>Thanks for the info and advise so far. It doesn’t matter to me if its the best program, just the best for him. I want him to love college and the 4 years he is there. He loves to sing, loves to act, and knows he needs to learn to dance. </p>

<p>I’m sure he will audition for the BFA program at Montclair and Hartt, the BA program at Wagner, Rhode Island College, and WCSU, and apply to URI and Hofstra for their non auditioned programs. </p>

<p>Keep em coming, it’s all much appreciated :)</p>

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<p>Hey, ActingDad, we’re friendly over in the MT forum too!!! :-)</p>

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<p>When we visited Syracuse, our MT tour guide told the story of one of his friends who came to Syracuse MT with very little if any dance. When he left Syracuse, he scored a part in the touring company of West Side Story which is HEAVY dance. He was trained while in school. I know college is different and I am going through the process now with a daughter, but I’ve auditioned for musicals and while I could not do everything in the dance audition having learned the combo in a short period of time, I gave great smiles and lots of enthusiasm and was cast. I wouldn’t be surprised if colleges take enthusiasm and a willingness to learn into consideration as well.</p>

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<p>I second GSOMT regarding enthusiasm and smiling being valued. My son attended CMU’s MT Pre-college for MT this summer. We visited for Parent’s Weekend, and his teachers for Jazz and Ballet were positively effusive about him, not because he danced well, but because he worked hard and put himself out there and did it with gusto.</p>

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<p>That seems crazy that these kids can’t take dance classes as electives. Is that because there is not room in their schedules?</p>

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<p>Is there a post in this threat you are responding to Bisouu? I don’t see a post in this thread about not being able to take dance classes as electives.</p>

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<p>There was but she deleted it because it wasn’t answering the original question. And I don’t know how to delete mine now :)</p>

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<p>No problem. I was just wondering if you maybe had posted in the wrong thread.</p>

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<p>It’s a great question though regarding dance electives. I was just talking today with a school regarding dance electives fitting in to the schedule. The answer was they could count towards the Gen Ed courses. This is for a BA program of course :)</p>

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<p>TheaterMom14 – I suspect you’d be fine fitting in Dance electives in most BA programs though things like that always should be checked. Where the dance elective issues comes up more often is with BFA acting kids particularly in a school that has both acting and MT. In some of those, it becomes more problematic both from a resource issue within the school and/or lack of time on the schedule. My daughter’s UNCSA schedule has virtually zero room for artistic electives but thankfully dance is part of the core curriculum.</p>