<p>pacheight, the college theater programs are critically analyzed and if you read the Theater and the Musical theater forums, there is much evidence of that. You can also examine what the graduates from various theater programs are doing post graduation by asking any BFA or BA theater department. If you visit threads on this forum, I know I have pasted a list of questions to ask every theater department with many specific things to explore to help select an appropriate program. </p>
<p>Also, nobody here AT ALL has said NOT to do a BA college program. In fact, there is much support here for seeking BA theater/performance programs. I know when I work with students we discuss at length whether a BFA or a BA path is more appropriate to their college selection criteria. Both paths are viable for someone going into theater. However, I have read your posts on many threads and you have advocated that IF you go to college (and not straight to LA or NYC to “learn on the job” how to act), you have advocated majoring in something OTHER THAN theater. It is not as if you have said a BA in theater is “better” than a BFA, but rather you have suggested majoring in something else all together and learning to act OUTSIDE of college in additional classes/lessons or “on the job” seeking professional gigs while in school. You have written about being against ANY college theater programs, be it BA or BFA. You have gone so far as to say that a college theater program can DAMAGE an actor/student.</p>
<p>By the way, many who participate in D1 sports in college are not looking to become a pro athlete upon graduation. That is not a great analogy. Many who play a sport in college do so as an extracurricular endeavor and major in something else. For theater, you can major in it and it is not necessarily an EC activity. My own kid did D1 sports in college and never considered making her sport her career after college, nor did a single one of her teammates. Many of her teammates are now in med school, law school, architecture school, PhD programs and the like. In contrast, my other kid who went to college for a BFA in MT/Drama, intended to make that her career, and so far, she has, and so have many of her fellow BFA graduates.</p>