BA+BFA Change of Degree Program Instructions

No. The BFA is designed to be completed in combination with a BA, and many of its requirements are integrated with the BA curriculum. You must complete the full five-year BA+BFA program in order to earn the BFA. Oberlin does not offer a standalone BFA degree.

Yes, you will be eligible for financial aid for all five years, and any merit scholarships awarded by Oberlin will renew each year.

Current BA+BFA students can submit a request to drop the BFA and pursue the BA only; this must be done no later than the fall of your fourth year. You must meet with Julia Christensen, the Program Director of the BA+BFA, prior to dropping the BFA. Please note that you cannot pursue a standalone BFA.

In your first four years, you’ll complete 32 full courses. This includes one major (8-12 courses specified by a department or program); curriculum exploration requirements across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences; and courses with quantitative/formal reasoning, writing, and cultural diversity attributes. Often, students choose minors or second majors. You’ll also fulfill a practicing arts course requirement.

In the years 1-4, students enrolled in the BA+BFA must complete 10 practice/skills-based courses. These 10 courses may include any practice/skills-based course, including most Studio Art, Cinema Studies, Theater, Dance, and/or Creative Writing courses, along with a selection of Music courses in the Conservatory. You can search the schedule of classes for the Practicing Arts attribute and check the catalog to see what classes apply; there are hundreds of courses to choose from each year across the arts. During the 5th year, students spend an immersive arts year working and living together in Cleveland. 

Yes! The Integrated Arts Workshop is required, and counts towards your 10-class requirement. All students enrolled in the BA+BFA must take the Integrated Arts Workshop, PRAX 300, typically in the Junior year. You take one section of this course, which meets either on M/W from 1:30-4:30 or on T/Th 9-noon. Each of these time frames is offered in each semester (both Fall and Spring), so there are many options to fit your schedule.

Yes! All practice- and skills-based courses offered within the Practicing Arts count towards the BA/BFA. For instance, if you are a Theater major and take 10 practice-based acting/directing courses, those courses all count. If you are a Neuroscience or Politics major, you additionally take 10 courses with the Practicing Arts attribute. This is essentially the workload of completing a double major—a very common course of action at Oberlin. 

Yes! You’ll need to be on campus in Oberlin during one semester of your junior year so that you can take the Integrated Arts Workshop, and you should also plan to be in residence at Oberlin in the final semester of your fourth year. Your BA major determines how many outside courses can count towards your BA major. Three courses from outside of Oberlin can count towards your 10 practicing arts courses in the BA+BFA program. You cannot substitute classes in the 5th year experience. 

BA+BFA students save their Internship+ funding for the summer between years 4 and 5, which allows them to move to Cleveland in June to undertake an internship in the arts scene in the city of Cleveland. Between their 4th and 5th years, BFA students may move into their studios and rehearsal spaces at Park, and begin using the resources of Oberlin’s arts campus in Cleveland. The summer is an opportunity to get to know the city of Cleveland, start your internships, move into your studio/practice spaces, and experience all the Cleveland scene has in store for you. It’s also a great opportunity for collaboration with other artists in your cohort.

During the immersive arts 5th year, students take 4 courses per semester: Community Engagement and Professional Practice (which includes a year-long internship), Integrated Arts Conference (critique, readings, visiting artists, etc.), Individual Project (one-on-one mentoring with a faculty artist), and a course taught by one of our Visiting Professors in the arts, who will all have interdisciplinary practices in various fields. Every student will have a private studio and/or a shared rehearsal/collaboration space, along with access to digital equipment, galleries, performance spaces, and a woodshop/fab lab. 

All students will be off-campus in the 5th year, living and working in Cleveland. We have a relationship with the group of developers creating the program at Park Arts– they are Obies too! They are building apartment complexes on campus, across the yard from the studios, which will offer convenient and affordable housing for your cohort. If you choose to live elsewhere, that is fine too.