<p>Can anyone tell me anything about some non-audition BFAs that I've been finding. Generally speaking are these BFA programs good or bad? I've been searching the biglist and although there are only a few, there are some non-audition BFAs.</p>
<p>University of West Florida (I re-checked the website, it is a non-audition BFA) </p>
<p>Shorter College- The info on the website makes it sound impressive but its in Georgia... are there theater opportunities in georgia?</p>
<p>Northern Kentucky University</p>
<p>Avila University</p>
<p>Marietta College</p>
<p>Ohio Northern University?</p>
<p>I am particularly interested in Shorter College and the University of West Florida, does anyone know anything about them or in general non-audition BFA programs.</p>
<p>I have worked with a number of students from Shorter (althought this was about 4 or 5 years ago)... they were talented and well trained. Great to work with.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is a wonderful collaborative pianist who works down there. She seems to like it. She is terrific to work with and works with both the MT and Music programs.</p>
<p>Not a lot of info, but.... :) Hope it helps</p>
<p>NKU's (northern kentucky) program is growing very rapidly, probably why they needed to start auditioning. They pick up a lot of students who want to stay in the region but do not get into or do not WANT to attend CCM. They just received a large grant to the theatre program for an endowed chairship so the faculty is also growing also.
The university as a whole has had a rapid increase in students and is (according to local papers) trying to determine if they need to raise their academic admissions standards. I would classify it as a regional program, that as of now does not draw many students from a great distance. </p>
<p>In addition the Cincinnati- N.Kentucky area has a lot of very good theatre opportunities for students in the summers. NKU has a summer dinner theatre series which is helping to grow its program.</p>
<p>With any schools that are listed as non-audition, I would suggest that you contact the dept. directly to confirm that is still the case. When I started at JMU last year we re-instituted the audition for the MT concentration. Anyone who had checked the website over the summer and not re-checked in the fall would have missed that we were not requireing the audition.</p>
<p>EDIT -- I just realized that I mis-wrote" I should have said "anyone who had looked at the website over the summer and re-checked in the fall would have missed that we were NOW requiring the audition"... oops.</p>
<p>ohernjr8 - The question you've asked is one that has been discussed extensively on other threads in the MT forum. Do a search and you will find a ton of info. To answer your question in a nutshell, a BFA program is considered a professional training program for those dedicated to persuing performing arts as a profession. There is usually very little opportunity to take liberal arts classes outside of the department (8 classes over 4 years is not unusual). A BA program, usually (but there are exceptions), is designed to allow someone to major in performing arts while still having an opportinity to take a full liberal arts curriculum. The BFA is more in depth and specialized, the BA is broader with a greater opportunity for exposure to other subjects but less in depth training within the performing arts major than the BFA. This is just a generalized description and the other threads contain much more detailed discussions.</p>
<p>On the faq link at the top of the forum there is also a thread about the BA/ BFA.</p>
<p>Like MichaelNKat said -- "a BFA is considered a professional training program for those dedicated to pursuing performing arts as a profession". However, like he also said there is a lot of variation between both BA and BFA programs, and many who plan on pursuing performing arts as a profession also choose to get a BA. Students from both degree programs can be very successful.</p>
<p>Most BA programs have you taking 30% - 55% of your required course work outside of your major. Most BFA programs have you take from 5% - 40% of your required course work outside of your major. </p>
<p>Because you are required to take fewer courses outside of your major in a BFA you most likely will have more time to concentrate on you major courses.</p>
<p>Do a thread search like is suggested above and you will get more general information. Also -- check the websites of the schools in which you are interested directly. Almost all colleges post their course catalog with requirements on the web. If you click on "current students" or "faculty" and then "registrar", "academics", or "catalog", you can usually find the course catalog.</p>
<p>Taking the time to look at the online course catalogs, as suggested by KatMT, is very worthwhile. You can actually map out what percentage of your time would be in your major as well as outside of it. You can also read descriptions of the courses in your major to get a picture of what you would be studying. Line up different schools in a Word chart and you can have side by side comparisons.</p>