High school GPA needed for Tisch Drama

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>When we attended a Tisch drama information session, someone asked if the drama kids were expected to have the same kind of grades as a "regular" student applying to NYU. The answer we were given was "yes" they are. </p>

<p>I find this a little hard to believe. The typical academic student applying there does not have to have a "talent" or audition. Nor are they at rehearsals every night. From those of you who have gotten in recently (or your kid), please let us know. Were you/they all 90+ students?</p>

2

<p>NYU Tisch is a drama program that sets a very high academic bar. Perhaps higher than any other BFA theatre program in the US. Certainly higher than most. It is known for this.</p>

<p>My son was accepted in 2009 and did have very high grades, good SATs, etc.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>Ditto for my S who was accepted for MT in 2010.</p>

4

<p>Ditto. NYU was an academic match for my D who attends. While the bfa students do not take as many academic courses as BA students, they are still subject to the same rigor in those courses, including the theater studies classes required for the major. And, they have fewer hours outside of total class time than BA students. My D spends many hours on studio work outside of class, too, not only rehearsals, but assignments.</p>

<p>Good grades are a reflection of work habits, which is critical for these students. NYU is also committed to educating the next generation of artists, and want students who will think about their role in this regard.</p>

5

<p>Ditto daughter accepted 2009, gotta be bright and show you have worked HARD the last 4 years…be able to talk shop. Then again I agree with you, hard to believe.</p>

6

<p>By coincidence, I attended info sessions both for NYU and Tisch yesterday. The Tisch meeting was much smaller (only 4 families attending) and someone asked the question about how it works between the NYU Admissions staff and Tisch. The Tisch rep first answered that it was 50-50, but when pressed said that it is more of an art than a science. Sometimes a student who has great scores and stats will be given a pass with a less-than-stellar audition, but it also works in the other direction. </p>

<p>Also, there is a new feature to the NYU application this year: students are able to check a box if they are willing to be considered for a different school at NYU than the one where they applied (in the past it was all-or-nothing.) Presumably this will take some pressure off Tisch to admit a stellar student who may not be as promising an actor as they’d wished for, and will allow leeway students who really want to go to NYU, even if they don’t get into Tisch.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all your replies.
I was just curious because if the average NYU student had a 3.6 average in HS, and the Stern Business school kids clearly have to have way higher than that, it makes sense that there have to be kids that had lower to create that 3.6 average.
So my guess is that a TALENTED B+ student would be considered. As long as SAT’s were good and had good essays, ec activities, etc.
This forum can be intimating because it seems everyone’s kid had a 4.0 gpa, but I appreciate everyone’s input. It has been very helpful and only those of us going through this crazy process actually get it.</p>

8

<p>MOMMY5, from what I heard yesterday, a talented B+ student would not be ruled out if s/he had a great audition.</p>

9

<p>I think it’s true that it’s more of an art than a science but I think that’s the case, to a certain extent, with applicants for all of NYU’s schools, not just Tisch. The reality is, and always has been, that NYU places equal importance on the academic and the artistic review. Is it possible that some accepted students have academic stats that are a little lower? Of course. I think, though, that it’s a mistake to think that a great artistic review can make up for academic stats that are substantially lower than the median. </p>

<p>I don’t have a good handle on the most recent years but back when my D was applying, it was possible to get a breakdown on accepted students’ stats for each of NYU’s schools, even if just unofficially. Tisch academic stats were almost always second after those of Stern. That may have changed in recent years but I haven’t heard that to be the case.</p>

<p>glassharmonica, that allowance for indicating another school choice is an interesting one. I wonder what the reason was for the change and also wonder if it is NYU wide or just for Tisch applicants.</p>

10

<p>They ask on the NYU supplement if you would consider another school if not admitted to your first choice. That is for every school at NYU.
This is not uncommon and we have found this to be true on most of the big school’s applications.
It makes sense. There are many more kids with great grades, than there are with great talent. This way they can place them in arts & sciences and still get their tuition money.</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>I realize it’s not uncommon at other schools, Mommy5, but it’s not the way that NYU has ever done it. And since NYU has never had a shortage of applicants (often #1 in the nation), I’m not convinced that the motivation is to “get their tuition money.”</p>

12

<p>alwaysamom, it is a feature on the NYU Common Ap this year. So it is university-wide.</p>

13

<p>NYU is #1 in the nation? In terms of number of applications it receives, or in some other way, such as some rating system? Hmm, reading this thread makes me think my daughter should cross Tisch off her list. Her GPA is only 3.7 and her scores are with NYU’s range, but at the bottom. She was going to retake her ACT, but the testing dates have been in conflict with theater obligations. It seemed, given limitations of time, that eliminating this outlying school from the list makes more sense than making ourselves crazy over it, or wasting the application fee, if she will be summarily rejected without regard to her cv or audition. (Not that it isn’t a great school for those whose kids were accepted, but it may be out of her reach.)</p>

14

<p>Number of applicants, glassharmonica, more than once if I’m not mistaken… I’m not sure why you’d eliminate Tisch if your D has a 3.7 gpa, which is very good. Aren’t there other options as to test scores now at Tisch? I don’t recall the details but I seem to remember people talking last year about substituting AP scores perhaps? I may be mistaken about that but it might be worth checking. I don’t think that someone with a 3.7 would be summarily rejected and I don’t understand why you think that might be a possibility. :)</p>

15

<p>Glassharmonica is right and this is the first year that NYU has offered the option for students to indicate they would like to be considered for other NYU schools if they are not accepted into their first choice. It’s also the first time they are able to select the Liberal Studies Program (LSP) as an option as well. Test options have also changed for NYU. One can submit SAT’s OR ACT with writing OR 3 SAT Subject Tests OR three AP exams OR the IB diploma OR some sort of nationally accredited exam. Whew!</p>

16

<p>Glassharmonica, a 3.7 is a 92, isn’t it? That is above the NYU average for incoming students. You need not worry. (At least about that part, haha)
I was asking if anyone had below a 90 average (below 3.5).</p>

17

<p>IMO, you all are focusing too much on the grades, as if there is a cutoff line. The entire process is more holistic than that. Like many schools, nyu will look at the transcript in the context of what is offered at the school, ie, rigor, and how the gap stacks up with other students at the hs. You also do not know what nyu’s gap calculation consists of anyway. Weighted unweighted? I know some schools add points for ap, honors, etc, differently than how each hs might do it.</p>

18

<p>A few thoughts:</p>

<p>Glassharmonica, as you move through this process (and read the posts on the Theatre/Drama majors board), I think you’ll find that the audition process is so hit or miss that most students apply to every school where they might reasonably qualify academically and would be willing and able to attend. For this reason I wouldn’t rule out Tisch just yet; I agree with other posters that your child’s GPA is within the range of making it a reasonable “reach” from an academic point of view.</p>

<p>Mommy 5, I hear what you’re saying about how tough it is in high school to do a lot of drama and also do well academically. But the thing is that, at NYU at least, they will be expected to do both in a program that is demanding in both respects. At least they don’t do any performing (within the program, anyway) for the first year, but they are still doing studio three days a week for about eight hours a day, and taking eight credits of academic work the other two days. And there’s plenty of required reading and writing involved, too. </p>

<p>I point this out not to scare you or your child off, but rather to point out that there is a reason why Tisch is selective both in terms of audition and academics. My D, who was very well qualified academically (93 average, 2350 SAT, AP Distinguished Scholar) is working very hard to keep up. On the other hand, one thing she likes about the program is that most of the acting kids are smart to very smart. </p>

<p>To put it another way, there are some kids who are talented and academically oriented, and others who still want to get a college education, but are more oriented towards their professional training. For the latter group, there are some terrific acting BFA programs where the academic standards are much more flexible (Boston University, Ithaca, Emerson and DePaul come immediately to mind, and you can check these boards for others), and a few schools (Northwestern comes to mind, even though it’s a BA program) where without a first-class high school academic record an applicant is not going to make the cut.</p>

<p>In other words, I would recommend that in finalizing your child’s list of schools, you base it more on whether each school is a good fit for him or her based on each school’s academic and professional training program, and not be afraid to have some academic [realistic] “reaches” on the list if they otherwise seem like a good fit.</p>

<p>Best regards.</p>

19

<p>OneToughMommy, I am interested in your comment that your daughter, who is obviously very capable of doing well in academics, still struggles. Is this because the conservatory load plus the academic workload is daunting, due to sheer number of hours required? My sense (correct me if I’m wrong) is that what may be the issue is the ability to handle the workload hours, not so much as the ability to understand the level at which NYU academic courses are taught. It seems to me (at least from my experience watching a daughter who is in a music conservatory) that in a conservatory atmosphere academics are secondary (regrettably so in my daughter’s case, but she is so over-busy with the conservatory workload there would be no place to squeeze more into her life. I also have a daughter in an art school. With studio courses running all day long (and up-all-night homework projects the norm), it is very difficult to roster the required gen ed classes, so students tend to try to squeeze them into summer sessions. And there are a lot of super seniors.</p>

<p>By not skimping on the academics they way conservatories tend to, there is a lot more to juggle, and more danger of needing to spend extra time for graduation (is this correct?)</p>

<p>I know my daughter is capable of doing academics at NYU. She is in a young scholars program and takes classes at our local Ivy League school, no problem. But it seems the issue may be that the students are heavily scheduled in a way that those who are adept at time management under extreme pressure would be most likely to flourish. I imagine these would tend to be the kids who went to large suburban high schools, took mostly AP classes, and juggled a fleet of extracurricular activities, working from dawn until the wee hours. My daughter has some unusual items on her cv, but they are not school-related-- and she has never had to prove herself in that kind of “elite” high school experience.</p>

20

<p>There is no difficulty fitting in the gen Ed classes due to the way the schedule is set up, unless something that a student wants to take is on a studio day. NYU’s system is to have alternating studio and academic days, so that unlike at other schools, a student is not trying to fit in gen eds in and around studio classes.</p>

<p>As for keeping up: it’s just demanding on all levels - time management and academic rigor. And, as I mentioned in a prior post, at least for some studios (playwrights and NSB for sure) there is considerable studio homework to be done outside of the classroom.</p>

<p>But, there’s still time for fun, which I know my daughter is having, and she has made alot of really wonderful friends. And, seen a ton of shows!</p>