ballarat arts has never had anyone go on to be what you would call successful!! Waapa, Nida and VCA can all find a 'claim to fame' what has ballarat got? Some chick that was on an aussie soap for a few years and some extras roles... woweee

I always thought Ballarat was very successful!?

VCA doesn't want guinea pigs. It's a sausage factory. Even many of their former lecturers will admit as much. The strength of VCA, however, lies in their city location, marketing and publicity, something that Ballarat has never seen fit to attend to appropriately enough to benefit their graduates sufficiently.

And what's the big deal about Music Theatre? Why don't you train to be real actors?

I've been following this thread with a little interest. I understand how Loz214 can be frustrated: I attended Swinburne and thought the course was great. In fact, I was much happier finding out I'd gotten into Swinburne than I had been if I had gotten into VCA (I applied twice to VCA). However, Swinburne, like many other courses around the country, don't get a lot of publicity.

I'd like to add a few thoughts: firstly, you can't blame the media. Most of the articles in the media (I'm referring to arts journalism here) would be obtained via media releases sent direct to the reporting organisation. I don't know how much marketing Ballarat does, but my guess is their resources can't outpace VCA's. Secondly, with column inches being tight, preference will go to more well-known places/events; again, Ballarat can't outpace either Melbourne Uni's marketing, or the fact that it is 'Victorian College of the Arts' - more state news. Ballarat would be seen as 'local' news and of less interest.

I agree that there's a disproportion, but unfortunately, the mainstream media is just that: mainstream. Just like Swinburne, Deakin, and many of the other theatre courses aren't represented as much as VCA.

Finally, I've only ever heard good reports about the course from Ballarat. I've not met anyone from the course itself, but the fact that it's talked about online and elsewhere means that it's alive and well. Keep talking about it: best publicity is word of mouth.... And of course, just do your best to ignore VCA ('s publicity).

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