 If you're looking to get started in acting by earning a BFA, I wanted to tell you my experience because that's exactly what I did. I earned a BFA from Cal State East Bay with an emphasis on acting and dance and I'm going to tell you everything about my experience at this Cal State which should be pretty similar to going and earning a BFA in a lot of different universities around the country and the world. Let's start with a location. Cal State East Bay, the campus in Hayward is on a hill and to get to San Francisco because we are in the San Francisco Bay area but this is definitely not San Francisco. To get there it's going to be around a 40 minute drive depending on traffic. It can be a lot longer than that or you can take part. It's 35 minutes and it'll cost you $2.70 each way. So getting to San Francisco isn't impossible but it's also not just like super easy and it can be a little nerve-wracking if you've never taken public transportation before. I honestly didn't move straight to LA because I was scared of going that far, that fast, away from my family and I had two friends that were going to be coming to East Bay for business and I thought let me go to East Bay for one year and then I'll build up the courage to move to LA and I just really enjoyed my time here so I ended up staying here for my entire college career. When choosing a university to attend I highly suggest to think about where do you want to work after you have graduated. If you want to work in film or TV consider LA because everybody in LA is either in the industry or knows somebody that's in the industry and the people that you go to school with are more than likely going to be working in that market. Your professors are very likely still active in that world, in that market because for me when I went to Cal State East Bay a lot of my professors were so writing, directing, performing in local plays and they were able to also connect me to people that had annual internships that were open or jobs opening up, open call auditions so it's very important for in acting especially it's you know the people that you know and a lot of the time it's just friendships that you create or colleagues that you end up meeting along the way and mixtures in the lobby at a play different things like that so being able to make a lot of friendships during your university in a market where you will be working is super important. You also need to think about the cost of the tuition so CSU East Bay, Cal State LA, places like this are about seven thousand dollars a year for your tuition if you're in state. If you're out of state if you're coming from another state or another country you're going to be paying closer to 18-19 thousand dollars and on top of that that's just tuition on top of that you have to pay for rent and living here in general doing fun things and rent I've never paid less than a thousand dollars in in the Bay area for an apartment. My parents mortgage for a four bedroom where I grew up is like a thousand dollars so it is definitely very expensive. Going to a four-year university like Cal State East Bay for me was really important because I grew both artistically and personally I don't come from a family with a lot of money so I had to pay for my own bills I had to apply for scholarships get student loans and pay for everything myself make my own decisions as soon as I left home I told my mom like I'm not going to ask you for permission anymore that doesn't make sense for me to be like can I be in this play the rehearsal ends at 11 in San Francisco she would have said no so that allowed me to start making my own decisions and be like okay I really want to go do this like go do this now specifically the theater and dance program here at Cal State East Bay because it is a smaller program you will be able to perform a lot more than if you went to a really big competitive school so for this program you don't actually have to audition to get into it you just have to apply for the school and if you get in you get in and you choose your you know what degree you want to pursue but in this program because it is smaller you actually get more opportunities to perform so for me I performed in two senior pieces I was in the KCA CTF it's like a college competition I was in even a musical even though I'm not a singer I was in Yerma, NN 12, Savage Love, Vagina Monologues a few times, Secrets Exposed I was in a bunch of dance performances and these are just the ones that I can list and remember but I performed so much I know that other schools where it's really competitive and you have to audition to get in people would tell me other actors that I met from other universities would tell me that they didn't get opportunities to perform that much I also was in a couple of short films while I was here because there is a communications department and usually they're more like camera heavy you know like they actually use the camera versus theater we would just perform on stage but there were some communication students that were also interested in film and I was in the campus movie fest and we actually won first place for comedic even though it was supposed to be a dramatic film but that's okay after you have finally graduated college what I think you should do is to continue studying acting because you just spent the last four or so years learning a little bit about so many different things especially in the cal state system you learn about math anthropology geology ethnic studies scenic design costume design just you learn about so many different things that you don't ever just focus on acting and although you do come out of college having a general idea of what acting is that you discovered acting in school you performed a lot you still need to really hone your acting abilities I think at least this was my experience that I did feel like an actress I did feel like I could perform but at the same time I wasn't 100 confident when I went into auditions and I just didn't feel 100 confident as an actress I needed to explore more in that more of my acting abilities so learning about different techniques after you have graduated or during college you can learn about different acting techniques and then after find a studio that you really like or go to an MFA program where you can just focus on acting and really hone your abilities that will help you so much and you will always hear this people say uh to always be in a workshop or an acting class or have a coach or something because as actors sometimes you will act once a week if that and it's super different than any other career where when you're a doctor you're practicing every day well in acting you might have a while before you actually act in front of other people and get direction so you can get really rusty really fast so definitely find a studio that you love after college so you can continue to go to it and here are a few things I wish I would have done while I was in school first of all I wish I was more brave when I was in school because there were a lot of other universities in the area that had film as an emphasis people that were going to school to be directors like on camera directors or writers in the area but I just just I was scared of going on bar or auditioning for other universities but that would have helped me so much if I was just a little bit more brave and been in more student films while I was in school I would have had so much more on camera experience that's one of the things I wish I did I also wish that I would have applied for representation while I was in school because after I graduated and I finally got the courage to go and look for an agent in the San Francisco Bay Area I realized it wasn't that hard for me especially because in the San Francisco Bay Area it's very commercial heavy so a lot of the time they just need somebody that can act you know not the most amazing actor but they need a certain look a lot of clients just want a certain look and then like can they act can they take direction so I feel like I would have gotten representation if I would have seeked it during college and it would have helped me pay for some of my fees which brings me to the last thing which is I wish I was better with my money because I wasn't reckless but there were also times where I like bought concert tickets or ate out a bunch and I just didn't spend my money wisely I didn't get any funds from my family when I went to college I got financial aid and then I got student loans and a ton of scholarships that I applied for but still wasn't enough to pay for everything so I'm actually still paying for my student loans yeah and it's like unlikely that you will pay for your student loans just from acting immediately after you have graduated so it's super important to just be financially stable and smart about your money because you will have to budget a lot of things once you have graduated and especially if you're working in the acting industry so I wish I had been better with my money if you're looking for advice of whether you should go to a university to pursue acting I say yes go for it go learn a little bit about everything it's not going to be easy especially if you don't come from a lot of money and you need to work really hard to be able to afford it apply for scholarships but let me know if you guys have any other questions specifically about the theater and dance program here at Cal State East Bay I didn't go to any other university so I don't know about other programs but I would love to tell you more about this program and maybe we can do a part two and go deeper into specific things thank you so much for watching and at the end of every video I feature another channel this is today's feature Salines Estevez I have featured her in the past she also makes acting related content about being an actress in the southeast and if you want to be featured on my next video make sure you're subscribed like this video and leave me a comment