VCU - BFA vs BA in theatre?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Virginia Commonwealth University
1

<p>Hello! I am a junior in high school, hard at work trying to decide where she wants to go to college. My current top choice is Virginia Commonwealth University. It has a great School of the Arts and amazing theatre program. But, I have concerns.
1) (This may sound superficial, but hear me out) I am an A student. I have a 4.3 GPA, take AP classes and will most likely get a score of ~2000 on the SAT that I took a few weeks ago. I love the atmosphere at VCU, but I am worried that I won't be challenged there. I want a strong academic school, but it has been extremely hard to find that AND an amazing drama program. I have looked at other schools such as UVA and Vassar (my out-of-state first choice) as good options because they are academic AND offer good theatre programs, but their drama programs just dont compare/or are too far away/too expensive. HELP!</p>

<p>2) My 2nd concern is that it feels like there is some hostility between people in the BFA program and the BA program at VCU. Is this true?
I am also interested in communications, so I have thought of either double majoring or minoring in that in addition to my theatre degree. The BFA is supposedly time consuming and takes over your life, so the BA sounds good but I do not want to be looked down upon. Theatre IS what I want to do with my life, I just want to explore my other interest as well because it's college and that's what people do. I don't want to be looked down upon by BFA-ers or get an inferior theatre education. Does anyone know much about this issue? Thanks! </p>

2

<p>There are lots of excellent drama and academic schools including Vassar, Northwestern (a great communications college!), Brown, Barnard, Williams etc… All BA programs w/o BFA’s</p>

<p>Look at Northwestern!</p>

<p>I’m surprised you find VCU drama better than Vassar - but I know nothing about VCU.</p>

<p>Check out the theatre/Drama Thread on CC. Post your question there and you’ll get lots of advice. Here are some threads that may help. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1334992-ba-theatre-help.html?highlight=ba”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1334992-ba-theatre-help.html?highlight=ba&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/678469-what-top-ba-acting-programs.html?highlight=ba”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/678469-what-top-ba-acting-programs.html?highlight=ba&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“Starting the search - Theater/Drama Majors - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1381549-starting-the-search-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>if you puruse the BFA at VCU then the vast majority of your courses will be with your VCUarts cohort. These students will too be very high achieving as VCUarts has a higher academic profile than the rest of the university…the School of Engineering is a close second.</p>

<p>Being a BFA student will limit your options of electives or require you to stay longer to pursue outside academic interests as they do not mesh well into the BFA curriculum.</p>