<p>My personal opinion is, if you want to study and train in theater and don’t get into a BFA, then attend a BA school that has a theatre major (most do), but not to attend a BFA school that also has a BA in theater. </p>
<p>That said, CMU doesn’t have a BA in theater. As well, if you apply for their BFA and are not accepted, you are not accepted at all to CMU anyway. Please know that some schools are ONE process (all or nothing) and some are bifurcated where the academic and artistic admissions processes are separate. CMU is ONE process. Even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t have a BA in Drama. </p>
<p>Syracuse is also a ONE process school. You either get into the BFA or not and if not, you are not accepted to Syracuse. Even if you could be accepted, I don’t think there is a BA Drama track there as freshmen…there may be a BA track for those who do not advance in the BFA after sophomore evaluations. In any case, this is not an option there if not admitted to the BFA. </p>
<p>Ithaca…I also think may be all or nothing, but I am not entirely sure. You may be able to be admitted to the university if not for the BFA (though it is still a singular admissions process and not separate notification). I think they do have a BA. My personal opinion would be NOT to attend the BA in theater there because of their strong BFA and I feel the BA students would be secondary to the BFA ones. </p>
<p>If wanting a BA backup, I would add BA schools with good theater to the list, rather than attend the BFA school without the BFA. In many cases, you won’t even be given that option (ie., CMU, NYU, Michigan, Syracuse) because it is ONE admissions process. In other cases, you may be admitted separately to the university and to the BFA program and would have the option of attending the university if academically admitted but either the college has no BA in Theater OR it is the “lesser” of the two programs and BA student might be competing with BFA ones for casting, etc. Another consideration for a strong academic student is that many BFA in MT programs are not in very selective colleges and so if the student is going to do a BA, they may have chosen a more selective college for the BA and not the same colleges where the BFA exists but attend for its BA degree. </p>
<p>There are many fine BA schools for theater and my suggestion is to put those on the list as back up, rather than the BA at the BFA schools as the back up (as well as this is not even an opion at some schools to be admitted separately, or they don’t have a BA in Theater). There are exceptions…such as at Indiana, I could see considering the BA in the Individualized Major in MT if not admitted for the BFA in MT.</p>