<p>beenthereMTdad, in many respects I agree with your comments but I think the problem you describe is not quite so straight forward. If I am a BFA MT student and after graduation decide I want to go to a grad program that looks for a concentration of undergrad courses in a particular area not within the scope of the BFA curriculum, I would need to take those courses, thereby delaying my entry into the grad program. This can also happen with a BA degree in other majors though. For example, if I majored in a humanities area and then decided to go to med school, even with the distribution and core requirements of a BA program, I probably would not have the requisite science background in biology and chemistry. There are many other areas of transition from undergrad major to grad school studies where this could apply equally to a BFA and BA degree whether the degree be in theatre or some other area. </p>
<p>Where, I think, the distinction between the BFA and BA becomes more relevant is where a student, in the middle of his undergrad education, concludes that the BFA program is not for him or her and decides to switch to a BA program in another major. There is no doubt that because of the very focused and structured curriculum of the BFA that the student will be behind the eight ball in meeting the core and distribution requirements of the BA and the longer the student has been in the BFA program, the more significant the credit deficiencies would be. This could even happen, though perhaps with lesser time delays to graduation because of the transferability of the credits in the major, where a student moves from a BFA to a BA in theatre. I fully agree with you that a student should not enter a BFA program unless the student is 100% sure that he or she wants a highly focused, tightly structured professional training program designed to prepare the student to pursue a career in theatre. If there is any doubt about that, then a BA program is probably the better choice because it generally provides the latitude to get a broader exposure to areas of study than typically found at a BFA program and provides the flexibility to change directions or majors, usually without extending the time required to get the undergrad degree. </p>
<p>My point originally was, though, that obtaining a BFA in MT or another area of theatre (or a BA) does not “doom” a student to be a “starving artist” waiting for the “big break” without any viable options, that a student with a BFA or BA degree in MT or theatre has many options available to him or her much as does a student with a BA degree in many other majors.</p>