NW_PILOT wrote:

They don't want to take a beginning IFR student in actual

That's actually reasonable, in my experience. At that point, actual would
largely be a waste of your time and money.

Early in your training, you're working on improving your ability to control
the airplane w/o visual reference (and then w/o certain instruments). This
involves a lot of turning and climbing and such. Unless you're somewhere
where your CFI can get you a clearance for a block of airspace, then this
isn't possible in actual.

I'm no CFI, though, so keep a grain of salt with you as you read this.

- Andrew