Strong acting AND strong academics?

gadad
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:59:19 +0000

I’ve had two daughters in your same position. It’s a tough decision - you cannot have a BFA Theatre program and significantly benefit from the academic offerings of your school - the BFA will take just about all the time after your core requirements, perhaps all those and then some.

So I’m reading into your question that you’d like to be able to change out of a BFA major, if you so decide, without having to transfer to another university. Carnegie Mellon has a phenomenal acting program. Once again though, bear in mind that in their BFA you take one writing course, one math course, a one-hour computer seminar, and EVERYTHING else is all theatre, all the time. If you were to drop the major at any point, you’d in effect have to start over from the beginning.

NYU actually incorporates a surprising amount of academic coursework with their BFA programs, so you wouldn’t have to completely start over, but would certainly have a lot of ground to make up. Other notable BFAs at selective schools include USC and Michigan.

Northwestern has a renowned BA Theatre program that has produced stars including Charlton Heston and Heather Headley. That’s probably the best of both worlds if you want to try to have an academic experience as well as a top theatre experience.