<p>I asked this in the Arts Forum, but no feedback. Perhaps you can answer my question. Penn State has a BA Acting program separate from the BFA MT program. Can someone comment as to whether students in this program take a distant backseat to the MFA and BFA program. For example, are classes taught by graduate students? If the latter is 'yes', I will likely scratch it off our list. Thanks</p>
<p>The acting classes and movement classes in the BA program are taught by School of Theatre faculty acting professors and the MFA professors (we are very lucky to have them teach us in the upper level classes!). In many classes, BA's take acting and movement along with the BFA's.</p>
<p>PSUCAT. Thanks for your feedback.I did not mean to suggest anything negative about PS. I just know some things about some of its other Schools. We are from PA, so PS would be high on our list. My wife used to be a PS Prof. and I teach in their iMBA program - we now live 3 hours south of State College and teach in small LACs). So, if I am hearing you right, their BA acting program would be on par with Catholic and Fordham?</p>
<p>I don't know what other schools you would compare it with, as I am really only familiar with other similar BFA MT programs. I know you weren't suggesting anything negative about PSU :-)</p>
<p>I understand your not wanting your S to have a majority of his classes taught by graduate assistants, but I do feel the need to say, primarily for the benefit of other readers who are not as familiar with the use of TAs as yourself, that having some classes taught by TAs is not necessarily a bad thing. </p>
<p>Last year, my D had a class in MT history that was taught by a PhD candidate. D raved about how wonderful the class was. She was very impressed by her instuctor's depth of knowledge. The instructor was a member of the Broadway cast of "Phantom of the Opera" for 5 years before deciding to return to school to pursue a graduate degree. She completed her doctorate at Florida State and is now a member of the theatre faculty at Penn State. Is she a better teacher now that she has her PhD and has a higher place in the university pecking order? I feel sure that she was just as competent last year when she was merely a TA.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad, one of the best instructors I had was a PhD candidate. He taught my sophomore level music theory class. He presented his material in a very clear and organized way. He was a wonderful teacher who provided his students with an excellent foundation for upperclass and graduate level theory classes. </p>
<p>I have taken classes taught by full professors that were quite disappointing. In fact, the worst college class I ever had the misfortune of sitting through was taught by a 60ish full professor about 10 years ago. She actually had us doing show and tell in a class on Human Growth and Development. One of the show and tell type assignments was to bring in magazine advertisements that were aimed at the baby boom generation and explain how we knew they were targeted at that age group. To add insult to injury, this woman told us that denture cream and incontinence product advertisements were good examples of marketing targeted at boomers. At the time I was taking the class, my sister, who was born in 1964, the final year of the baby boom, was 32 years old. The oldest boomers were only 51. This professor gave the traditional-age college students in the class the impression that the baby boom generation was ready for the nursing home.</p>