<p>Can anyone tell me anything about the BFA program at Southwestern? Is there strong training? </p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>also information about the faculty, how many shows they do, and if they do student-produced work would be appreciated!</p>
<p>All that information is available on their website.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to their current season - and yes they do student produced shows.
<a href=“http://www.southwestern.edu/departments/theatre/about/current.php[/url]”>http://www.southwestern.edu/departments/theatre/about/current.php</a>
We visited there a couple times and my D auditioned there. The Sarofim School of Fine Arts is an excellent school. The university itself is a very very good liberal arts school with an insanely high grad school matriculation rate - high 90 percentile. Lovely place. When we visited, the drama faculty bent over backwards to answer every question, let D sit in on a class, they were clearly very dedicated and caring.</p>
<p>You can get either a BA or a BFA; their BFA admission is at the end of the first year by review. (as I have said on here before, I prefer this kind of program.)</p>
<p>We ultimately chose a school that offered us a better financial package, but I would not hesitate to recommend taking a closer look at Southwestern. Ultimately you really need to visit to get a feel for how you fit in there, but it is a very good program.</p>
<p>Don’t know anything about the Southwestern program, but if you want to study musical theatre in Texas, have a look at the new program at Texas State University. They are building their program to compete with East Coast schools, and are offering significant financial aid to attract the kinds of top-talent students who are auditioning for more well known conservatory programs.</p>
<p>thank you for the replies!</p>
<p>i was also just wondering if anyone knew about the quality of the program, that was my main question.</p>
<p>thank you again!</p>
<p>My D has a friend who is a senior MT major at Southwestern. She has really loved being there and feels she has gotten excellent training. I have been to several productions there and have thought they were really well done. My D has worked with students and grads of Southwestern and they are definitely well trained. I have worked with students involved in their Paideia program and have found them to be thoughtful, intelligent, hard-working and eager to learn. I have a lot of respect for the school and their programs.</p>
<p>thank you for the reply!</p>
<p>Texas State’s program is really good but it is very hard to get into - so it’s definitely worth putting on your list, but NOT as a safety.</p>
<p>SW may not be an academic or financial safety as it is a fairly selective school (though nothing like an Ivy - I mean, it has high standards, but there aren’t a bazillion kids vying for every spot) and it is a private school but it is a non auditioned program (except for the money.) And yes, it is definitely a quality program. As is Texas State. Which is affordable but again, way fewer spots than kids who want to get in.</p>
<p>BTW, Southwestern is one of the “Colleges that Changes Lives”.</p>
<p>For us, the program itself was important but the overall school was too - which is a personal preference entirely - but I was really really impressed with SWU’s mission and atmosphere overall. I liked their Paideia program. But I just love a good liberal arts program so I’m biased towards them. However, austinmtmom’s reply does not surprise me at all even if I am predisposed to like that sort of college - it ended up in our short list, for sure.</p>
<p>I liked their food and cafeteria best of all the ones we visited, personally. lol.</p>