<p>I have just a few quick questions about NYU/Tisch that I was hoping could be answered easily. I know that it is ranked one of the top MT schools in the country, and that is why I ask this question. I know a few people who are alright, if not mediocre, performers. Not to sound mean or rude, but I truly do not consider them to be “NYU quality.” Yet, they have been accepted to NYU. Now I do not know which studio. I doubt CAP 21, but even so, they have been accepted to NYU. So my question is, are there some studios for MT at NYU that are not as competitive to get into? I understand that there are standards, but these students that I know seem very raw and unrefined. They are not quite “awesome” singers, yet they go to NYU for MT. I would love to hear some input. Also, I KNOW that NYU also has a great reputation, I too know many performers of excellent quality that are current students and alumni.</p>
<p>The only musical theater studio at NYU is (from now on) The New Studio on Broadway. Up until this admissions season, the musical theater studio was Collaborative Arts Project21, aka CAP21. The rest are acting studios, though some acting studios do offer movement/dance type training and so forth.</p>
<p>ALL NYU studios are competitive to get into.</p>
<p>And at this point, people don’t know their studio assignment, UNLESS they said they would take MT only. During the MT audition you are asked if you will accept any studio or only MT. Most people my D knows said any studio. So they may be assigned to an acting studio even if they auditioned for MT. Studio assignments are suposed to be out next week with formal acceptance packages. Just an FYI…</p>
<p>If you say you will accept all studios, will they look at you for the MT studio AFTER the kids who said only MT? Or will they take who they want no matter what and just want to help you out by accepting you to an acting studio if you fit there?</p>
<p>thisismegan - From what I understood from the info session before the audition, and from what I have read on CC, they are looking to place you into the studio they feel is the best fit for you. So if you auditioned for MT and that’s the best fit, great. If they think another studio is a better fit, they will place you there. I did not get the feeling in any way that you would be hurting yourself by saying you would accept any studio assignment.</p>
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<p>Megan, no, this is NOT the case!!! IF that were the case, nobody who wanted MT would say they are willing to take another studio! The way it works is that everyone who wants MT is considered for it. If they like your talent but don’t have room in the MT studio, you at least will be considered for another studio. But if they like your talent and there is not room for you in the MT studio and you said you would ONLY take MT, you will simply be rejected at that point. In my opinion, for the RD round (not the ED round), if you really want MT, it pays to say you will accept another studio as it increases your odds of getting into Tisch for a BFA in case you don’t get into the MT studio and you can decide when you have all your acceptances in hand at that point, if you still wish to attend Tisch and do one of the other studios where you are placed…whereas someone who would only accept a MT studio and isn’t chosen for it, no longer has Tisch in the cards. For ED, if you don’t want to take a chance that you may get an acting studio instead of the MT one, and since it is a binding decision to attend, it may make more sense to say “MT studio only.” But there is NO advantage in terms of odds of getting in for MT, to say “MT studio only”!! I can assure you of that.</p>
<p>I cross posted with austinmtmom, but agree…it will not hurt you to say you wish to be considered for any studio, though prefer MT. It can help you to still be admitted in case they don’t place you in the MT studio.</p>
<p>EJMusicMan, </p>
<p>There is only ONE MT studio at tisch. It used to be CAP21 but for new students this coming year and thereafter, that studio is New Studio on Broadway. There are no other studios that are “less competitive.” A MT applicant may be placed in an acting studio. You don’t know if your friends are placed yet in the MT studio or an acting studio. They are all competitive but have different focuses and approaches. In the end, the auditors are the judges of talent. Also, many factors besides the audition play a part in admissions.</p>
<p>In case this question wasn’t clearly answered I’d like to add that in a sense yes, MT is much more competitive than the straight theatre program, in that the MT studio takes a small number-about 25? Soozievet probably knows-but the number of theatre students other than MT is very high. IN my daughter’s studio the freshman class had about 60 students(most had auditioned as drama majors, some as MT that agreed to take another studio placement), and there are I believe 5 studios besides the MT one, of varying sizes. Though one can discuss the preferred studio when auditioning as a theatre major there is no guarantee that’s where the student will be placed. When auditioning and NOT as an MT only, one is not competing for any particular studio, as that placement is decided after acceptance. As far as competing as a drama major(or an MT willing to take any studio) NYU takes a far higher percentage of auditioning students than most BFA programs on this board, it’s a much larger program overall, numerically speaking. (SUNY Purchase for instance took 22 the year my daughter auditioned, and auditioned almost 1200.)</p>
<p>Are there really as many as 60 enrolled to each of the 5 non MT studios? Is the total enrollment of freshman drama students really in the hundreds for the BFA program? Is there agreement that “NYU takes a far higher percentage of auditoning students than most BFA programs”?. (Non MT). I wonder if this year is any different from past years.</p>
<p>I agree that the acceptance rate for the acting studios at Tisch is definitely higher than for the MT studio!! And there is a huge quantity of applicant who want the MT studio. If the applicant is worthy of admissions based on artistic review and academic review and wants MT, there is a chance of being placed in an acting studio as there are more slots available in those studios by far than for MT. </p>
<p>CAP21 took far more than 25 students per year though. It has changed over the years as the yield rate was very high. In my D’s year, almost everyone who was offered a spot in CAP21 took it and so the class was bigger than they had wished for. I recall they accepted 80 to yield 64 slots, but close to 80 came. I think they shoot for about 64 MT freshmen per year. Now, that was when it was CAP21. I am not positive if the same numbers will be used for New Studio on Broadway. The admit rate in the past for the MT studio at Tisch was about 6%. The admit rate for Acting was about 18-20% or so. There are many acting studios and thus more slots available for acting than for MT.</p>
<p>Zonamom, I cross posted with you. Tisch is a very large school. But the class sizes in studio are about 15 students in a class. If a studio has 60 freshmen, they are divided into four sections of 15. While the program is much larger than many other BFA programs, the class sizes are similar to other programs and same with individual attention. The difference is that the students do not train with just a handful of faculty over four years but have more courses and faculty with whom they will get exposure, as well as many options over the four years, and a wide variety of students with whom they will mix.</p>
<p>And yes, there are something like 300 Tisch freshmen in all the studios combined. The number who audition for Tisch is also much higher than at most BFA programs. I think some years have had 2500 audition for all the studios combined.</p>
<p>I have been reading all the post about Tisch for just a week. Our D auditioned for MT in SF and got one of those emails referred to here last Friday. She is trilled as are we but quite frankly this is all so new I am still trying to get my head around it all. Yesterday was the first time I really understood the whole CAP21 situation and the New Studio on Broadway. So my question is simply this, she said at the audition she would take any studio if she doesn’t get placed in MT then the studio she will be place in will have about 60 total freshman. What about sophmores, juniors and senior? Do they mix with other classes in the studio work or is just with other freshmen?</p>
<p>In response to numbers, if you think about it, 300 freshman at NYU isn’t drastically different than 30 at another school. Elon, for example, took 30 students out of 500 that audition- that’s about 17%. NYU takes 300 out of almost 2500- that’s about 9%. The odds are actually harder to get into NYU, especially for MT.</p>
<p>Sorry revd, I don’t know the answer to that. Just got bored and started doing the math. :)</p>
<p>revd…all the studios are a different size. Not all studios have 60 freshmen. But no matter which studio you are in, the class sizes are approx. 15 in their studio classes. In most studios, all your studio classes are with students in your own year/grade because there is a progression of courses by year that is mapped out for the BFA in the studio. There are some exceptions to that in advanced studio where a junior and senior may be in the same class in certain studio classes. But generally, in studio, you are with students in your own year. In liberal arts and Theater Studies classes (other than the freshmen required courses), they will be in class with students from any year.</p>
<p>Not all of the acting studios have 60. In fact, the Meisner studio only has 1 class of 15-18 I believe (Although I’ve been told that they are increasing enrollment at Meisner because the New Studio for Acting will be smaller)
And ETW also enrolls a number much smaller than 60, I believe it is 36.</p>
<p>This year my core group only had thirteen people in it, and it is important to keep in mind that they number of students in your studio usually decreases because people transfer to another studio, decide they don’t want to be drama majors, drop out of NYU, etc. </p>
<p>Regarding the students that get in and their “talent”. I guess this is really hard to answer. At my audition the auditor told me we don’t expect you to be fully trained performers, otherwise there is no point. We want to see potential.
Now there are people in my studio and others who from what I have heard/seen, might be a bit more “raw” and “untrained” as others. I have literally heard this from people in every studio, including CAP21. Now there may be two possibilities, the first one is that Tisch might have misjudged them and that they really are not up to NYU standards. I do not believe this as much. What I truly believe is that Tisch really saw strong potential in the students they accepted. What I noticed in my classes is that EVERYONE does something particularly well, whether it is a genre of play, certain types of roles, etc. EVERYONE has the potential to grow and become well trained as long as they are WILLING to be pushed hard by the teachers and accept what is thrown at them. After the teachers first see what your strengths are the rest of the year all you work on is stuff that you are not good at, I believe that is the point of training lol.
Now, the problem is those people who have potential but who can’t seem to be open to the training and who either cannot or are not willing to apply the training to their work. Acting training/exercises no matter straight acting or MT can at first seem weird and you really have to dive into it, and I have seen people who are just too stuck up in what they think they know to just “do it” and are not willing to take risks and really take advantage of the training. </p>
<p>Also, you have to take into account that the auditors do know what they are doing for the most part, and are really good at judging potential. You might see the people you know who got in as raw and untrained and the work you have seen them do might not be up to NYU standards, but the auditor might have seen some really strong potential and felt that the Tisch teachers would really be able to strip away all the things blocking these people from performing well and really train them into excellent performers. I myself had very limited training because I started doing theater halfway through high school, and the only really professional training I got was weekly voice lessons and a pre-college program. I felt like the first semester all my misconceptions of performing were stripped away by the teachers and all the things that really blocked me from doing what I knew I could do were taken away and this semester I finally feel like I’m understanding the training and really applying it to my work. In fact, we talked about this in a class of mine today. One of the students said that she, and in fact probably every acting student, knows that they can do more whether in a scene, a performance, etc. It’s just that there are things blocking us from taking these risks, fear of being judged by our peers, students, etc. In my class, after more than a semester of addressing these fears, I really noticed a difference in everybody’s acting. Some people who I thought were a pulling back or not taking risks (aka considered to be weaker) really showed themselves to be excellent performers. I’m also surprised and think to myself, “where did that come from?” or “where were you hiding that first semester?”</p>
<p>But I have definitely heard about “weaker” students in all the studios, and I have unfortunately seen some of this in performances. But I don’t believe it is because of talent. I truly believe that Tisch believes everyone they accept has the potential to be really good. It’s just that not everyone applies this training and unfortunately it shows up in performance as their peers become better and better.</p>
<p>And believe me, they don’t put more talented students in one studio and less talented students in another.</p>
<p>“Elon, for example, took 30 students out of 500 that audition- that’s about 17%” --I know this is a NYU thread but, I think the numbers may be off. I am not very good at math, so I checked it on a percentage calculator, but 30 accepted students out of 500 would be a 6% admit rate, I think. There is a difference between number of students accepted and number enrolled. I do not know those numbers for Elon. If they accept 85 out of 500 to yield a class of 30, the admit rate would be 17%. </p>
<p>When figuring out acceptance percentages it is important to look at the difference between acceptance stats and enrolled student (yield) stats.</p>
<p>Regardless, 6%… 17% … the numbers are all selective and quite low. :)</p>
<p>Kat is exactly right. The admit rate for Elon that was posted is not correct. </p>
<p>Also, the admit rate that was posted about Tisch is not correct as it used the number enrolled and not the number admitted. Acceptance rates use the number admitted, not enrolled. While the admit rate for MT at Tisch is typically low…around 6% or so, it is higher than that for acting…closer to 20%. The overall admit rate to Tisch is in between those. </p>
<p>But as Kat says, when you start dealing with low admit rates, there ain’t a lot of difference if it is 5% or 10% as it is low, low, low chancy odds that NOBODY can count on, no matter how talented.</p>
<p>Sorry about the incorrect stats. That was just me guessing with my cell phone calculator, based on how many had been accepted vs. how many auditioned. You guys know much more than I do. Just trying to make the point that although NYU takes seemingly a lot of people (300 or whatever, in comparrisson with 8 at some tiny schools) they have a lot more audition, and it’s seperated out into various schools.</p>
<p>clay, this is an excellent and informative post you have put together! Truly informative to the OP and to anyone considering NYU. </p>
<p>Just wanted to add that the “weaker” students may just learn at a different pace. Some people progress slow and steady while for others it’s peaks and valleys. Some people may even seem not to progress at all then seemingly overnight it all clicks hence the “where did that come from?” :)</p>
<p>I would hope though, considering the money they are paying, that everyone is at least TRYING to get everything they can out of the program!</p>