Drama/Theater Thread for HS Class 08

briansteffy
Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:10:10 +0000

Today, we finally had one of those dinner table discussions with my S. I educated him, as best I could, as to the difference between a BA Theater/LAC program and a BFA program. Then we discussed the cold hard facts about how many applicants and available seats there are for the top programs.
We also talked about the reality of where he can and can not go, given his grades and our finances, etc. We are in a unique situation in that he can go to some expensive programs on tuition exchange, but not others because they do not have tuition exchange with the college I am associated with (NYU and CMU, for example, are off limits. BU is a tuition exchange college, but is very stingy in granting tuition exchange grants). We talked about the fact that many BFA programs are housed in larger affordable public universities and not smaller LACs. This is problematic, given that he prefers small LACs that are what I call ‘cruise ship’ colleges. There, however, are some nice small LACs that have BFA programs, though their status is less than others.
The one rule that we will enforce; he/we will not amass any debt to fund his undergrad education (we plan to retire in 5-6 years), but that there is a substantial pot of money available for grad/professional school if/when he decides to pursue a non-acting path. We discussed that the probability of moving onto another career is higher than the probability of making a living in the theater.
There are so many variables to consider when narrowing the list as to where to apply. It, nevertheless, was a good discussion. So many kids go through this process without good guidance. My S goes to a small, poor, Catholic HS that does not offer much guidance. A boy in his HS this past year applied to four excellent theater programs with no safeties - excellent grades. He did not get in anywhere. It’s a shame that he did not receive good guidance and was not aware of CC.