AIM does not provide on campus accommodation but it is easily located near public transport and there is usually accommodation available privately. You may even be able to contact some current students or students who will be starting at the same time as you to arrange some shared accommodation.

Both courses are of similiar construction with the exception of course that AIM can be completed in 2 years whereas Ballarat is 3 years. You of course have the advantage of being in Sydney for AIM which provides more opportunities for auditioning and building up your networks.

Both schools have advantages and disadvantages and really it comes down to your own preferences. Hope this helped!

Hey, I can't speak for Ballarat although I have heard many great things about it and there seems to be quite a few leading ladies and men in musical theatre emerging from that school.

I am about to start my second semester at AIM. I am not sure how long the course has been running but I have heard of about who have graduated in the last couple of years that have done really well, getting leading roles in Wicked and West Side Story and i believe one of them did well in Australian Idol, but I don't watch that show so not 100% on that! I love it there so if you have any specific questions about it, fire when ready!

I think one important difference between the two courses is that Ballarat's degree is a Bachelor of Arts, while the AIM course is a Bachelor of Music. I personally have had no music experience before attending AIM so the music theory is a challenge for me but if you knuckle down you can get through it. But even though it's a Bachelor of Music, music theory and aural don't overwhelm the course. I think last semester we could have done 8 hours of dance a week, and of course you have your acting, voice, singing lessons, performance studies etc on top of it. Music theory is quite an insignificant portion of the course work at the end of the day. But if you are interested in creating your own original music theatre works, the bachelor of music will not go to waste in that regard.

As for accommodation, it can be really difficult to get accommodation in Sydney, I know this from experience as I relocated from the country this year. It is also pretty expensive, and AIM does have an accommodation campus. I know some people who stay at the University of Sydney and the UNSW student accommodation campuses. I think they were the respective uni villages, so you need to google Sydney Uni Village to find it. So you could check those out... They are a good option because you are surrounded by students and places like that also tend to have good security.

As for what is a better choice, you could only get a reliable answer from someone who has been to both. I haven't, but one of the teachers at AIM worked at BAPA for a while and said that both courses have their positives and negatives against the other and it comes out pretty even. The only thing different he thought was that at AIM you get more performance opportunities as you have more concert practice classes compared to BAPA or WAAPA, i think he said that at WAAPA you got 2 a semester, and at AIM you get three, but it's a while since he was a student there so it may have changed. Your best bet is it visit AIM and BAPA and have a tour and go speak to the Course Coordinators and then you will get a good idea of what would be best for you. Good luck!

Sorry I just re-rad that an noticed a typo- AIM *doesn't* have accommodation.