liberal arts vs. conservatory

fishbowlfreshman
Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:11:30 +0000

Miami calls its program a conservatory on their website. However, according to their [bulletin[/url] the gen ed requirements for the BFA are as follows:

I. The candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts must complete 120 credit hours with an overall quality point average of 2.0 or above as specified in departmental and program sections of this Bulletin.

II. The student must satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences distribution requirements for the Bachelor of Fine Arts by:

A. Satisfactory completion of six credits of English Composition (English 105 and 106 or its equivalent). Admission to English 105 requires a placement test score acceptable to the Department of English. A high test score may exempt a student from English 105 but not from 106 or its equivalent.

B. Satisfactory completion of the General Education Requirements from the areas of study listed below.

1. ENG 105and ENG 106

2. MTH 101 and a course in math numbered above 101. (MTH 107 does not fulfill this
requirement.)

3. Five (5) writing oriented courses above ENG 105 and 106.

4. Six (6) credits in Humanities (from Literature, Philosophy, or Religious Studies)

5. Six (6) credits in Natural Sciences

6. Six (6) credits in Social Sciences

III. Students must satisfy the requirements of a major as determined by the Department of Art and Art History or the Department of Theatre Arts. Students must maintain at least a 3.0 average in their major.

For some reason, the details of their current AP equivalencies are not included in the link from the CollegeBoard website which I assume means they’re being changed. However, I still had a link to the [url=www.miami.edu/admission/ap/]old one](<a href=“University of Miami Academic Bulletin < University of Miami”>www.miami.edu/umbulletin/und/artsci/index.htm#bfa) in my old notes. An interesting tidbit from my notes is that, at least on the old scale, a good AP language score would take care of as many as four of the five writing oriented courses. So basically, depending on how much it’s changed, it looks like you can free yourself to take a good many courses of your choice (or nothing) if you bring in a lot of AP credit. It’s also a fairly rigorous academic school and I remember someone on this list saying that her D was told during her audition that while her talent was a good match, her academic stats weren’t going to be good enough to get in. Interestingly, according to the [url=www.miami.edu/umbulletin/pdf/ASUndergrad0506pdf.pdf]complete bulletin/url, , MT BFAs don’t even begin the general education curriculum until sophomore year, so freshman year would indeed be like a conservatory. The link to the gen eds for the BM is dead, but the schedule breakdown on the [url=www.miami.edu/umbulletin/pdf/MusicUndergrad0506.pdf]complete music bulletin/url doesn’t appear appreciably different from the BFA. One other thing … You should definitely call the school on this, but it looks like you should apply for the BFA instead of the BM if you’re shooting for a big money academic scholarship because music applicants are not eligible for the ones listed on the Financial Aid page.

BTW, my complete list will not be forthcoming. I gots me a job serving Buffalo wings and beer at lunch starting Monday. “Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined …” Bleh … There are worse things I could do. Betcha never thought you’d be getting college advice from one of those girls! “All-American Cheerleader,” indeed. :rolleyes: