<p>Let me add this: I think that to the general public, Tisch is seen as the “best” school; i know when my daughter got in, a friend said “That’s the Harvard of theater schools.” Well, as any one of us knows once you start researching schools, you quickly discover that there are a great number of schools offering wonderful educations, fabulous training, great post-grad opportunities, and that Tisch is one of many in that regard.</p>
<p>As Tisch parents, we are not the ones saying it is the best or the only place to go, but we are the ones who speak out from direct experience to say what our children have found when they’ve attended the school – and i think that anyone who comes to CC to look for advice on where to attend would be grateful for that perspective.</p>
<p>Exactly SDonCC- and it’s great that we can PM parents and students to get real perspectives- not hearsay! I have met some truly wonderful people through this board. It’s nice being pen pals!</p>
<p>"Let me add this: I think that to the general public, Tisch is seen as the “best” school; i know when my daughter got in, a friend said “That’s the Harvard of theater schools.”</p>
<p>Really SDonCC? Sorry, but I have not seen that at all and I live in NY. If you said Julliard or even Yale (based on their MFA program, but many don’t realize that) that I would agree with, but NYU? Not from my experience.</p>
<p>Not bashing, just voicing my experience, which is clearly very different from yours.</p>
<p>researchmaven,
I didn’t have anything to do with what went on there in 2005 nor did I say a single negative thing about Tisch at the time that didn’t involve the cost. I do vaguely remember those posts that were deleted and they were more than slightly over the top. OTOH, there was also a mass exodus of long-time posters who left the forum citing a heavyhanded pro-Tisch bias by the moderators. There were also a couple of Tisch moms who some felt would often try to bait anyone who spoke of Tisch in any other than glowing terms into saying something for which they could be banned. I didn’t really agree other than I thought they were kind of annoying in that they were guilty of turning almost every single thread on the MT forum into one about Tisch. </p>
<p>I’m still waiting on the litany of negative Tisch posts by me, too. I’m sitting around nursing a cold this morning so I checked and didn’t see anything of significance. But here are some where I made positive comments. I’ll not do quote boxes. Just links …</p>
<p>Funny that I did mention the current problem being discussed here in March of 2006. I’ll even do a quote box for that one …
</p>
<p>Notice that I didn’t refrain from posting the Hollywood Reporter’s Top 25 list that included Tisch, either. I don’t have any damn agenda. But notice where this thread has gone and look at how those links I gave that could be valuable to somebody who couldn’t afford to attend an expensive BFA have gotten buried in the noise. Just like the old days …</p>
<p>In my experience, the general public knows nothing at all about theatre programs. Among the people who know a little tiny bit, you do hear Tisch and CMU mentioned a lot.</p>
<p>yes, that is the remark a friend’s daughter made, and we live in the metropolitan region. I made the point to suggest that in the general public, there is very limited knowledge of theater programs, and Tisch is one of the most familiar to the uninitiated.</p>
<p>I also didn’t intend to start a comparison of which schools are most known to the general public, but just to make the point that people say that we Tisch parents think that our school is the best, one of the very best, or the only one out there, but that in reality, it is just others who are saying this and it is not coming from any informed perspective.</p>
<p>Just as I don’t think that there is any one BA school – whether for theater or general liberal arts – that is “the best” neither do I think there is a “best” or even a “best group” of schools. It is all about what is right for the individual.</p>
<p>That is why I will never be defensive about Tisch but neither will I just let slaps at it slide by without a comment from what my daughter has experienced there.</p>
<p>SDonCC – as best I can remember, I can’t think of any post of yours that has been other than a helpful post about your own child’s personal experiences. Of course, you should post about personal experiences. </p>
<p>The issue that others have. And it comes from people like Time3 that truly don’t have a horse in this race is that some NYU posters feel compelled to defend NYU when there seems to be no reasonable basis to view it as being challenged. And I suspect people’s sensitivity to the defense comes in part from the point you made in your post that lots of people that don’t follow this closely view Tisch as THE school. We live about 60 miles from NYC and it frustrates my daughter a bit that almost no one has ever heard of the school she is going to (UNCSA) and they certainly can’t understand picking the school over Tisch. We’re bombarded externally by Tisch so it particularly feels unnecessary when parents feel the need to come to its defense when a thread isn’t being critical. This happened to me earlier when I dared suggest that Tisch was only One of the top schools in response to a poster who referred to Tisch as THE school for theater. </p>
<p>Obviously, this thread has long since gotten away from the original subject. This is a great board and has been remarkably free of the kind of nonsense that appeas across the Internet. I hope it continues to be that way. To the Tisch parents, if you don’t want to have threads hijacked like this, I’d suggest stepping back and thinking about whether Tisch is really being criticized before coming to its defense. Throwing in the random hey Ball State is great because X, Y and Z into a thread not about Ball State (which happened quite a bit for a while) may annoy people but its going to be largely ignored. To do the same thing for Tisch – the program that every casual person seems to have heard of and graduates 10 times the numbers of many programs – is a recipe to get people’s backs up.</p>
<p>And to be fair those of us (like me) who can get a little annoyed by Tisch posts that aren’t really connected to the thread topic need to sometimes let it go.</p>
<p>ActinDad, while I appreciate your kind comments about me, I’d respectfully ask you to review this thread before you say it was hijacked. It has always been about the merits of attending an acting conservatory vs. a BFA program.</p>
<p>You said this:</p>
<p>“You take the same person and put them in NYU (Adler Studio) for two years and someone who has directly gone to Adler and studied for two years and the latter has much more training under their belt and saved a lot of money. If the plan was to just go for two years – I can’t imagine any sense of going to Tisch for two years rather than Stella Adler for two years.”</p>
<p>Mommy5 posted her viewpoint based on her daughter’s experience at Tisch because she did not agree with your assessment. Hijacked? I don’t think so. Hysterically defensive? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>The thread did turn into a discussion of the value of attending college or not – even if the degree is not completed, which I think is a valid turn for the topic – and somehow posters who talked about the value of an NYU / Tisch education were put down for being defensive.</p>
<p>Review the thread – you and others who have attacked those of us with specific Tisch experience – before anyone is so dismissive of us.</p>
<p>Im out too. The spirit just isnt fun anymore. I have a rising senior son who is not going into anything related to theatre so this is as good a time as any to go. Science majors. Well I dont know anything about that either so back to the drawing board.</p>
<p>I was helped enormously by many posters in this and the MT forum several of whom have become lovely pen pals outside of the forum and a couple of whom are not yet done with their college application process. They know where to find me.</p>
<p>I started reading CC in the winter of my daughters junior year in high school. If you read enough, it certainly is an excellent primer on what the school selection and application process looks and feels like for thespians. Along the path, you develop your own sense of whose contributions you respect and whose might be taken with a grain of salt. There are gems in here which truly helped us to narrow the field of where she would apply as a well as help us to anticipate what a college audition would look like. Thank you for that. She ended up with wonderful options and chose to attend Tisch.</p>
<p>After almost a year of experience at Tisch, I am convinced at the strength of the program and that she is getting the kind of instruction that she was starving for there. I know that Ive referred to her often in my posts because I cant speak in the first person. Im not an actor and god knows, neither her father. Ive not once been in a play and the thought of it makes me a little bit dizzy. My husband has, but hed be the first one to tell you hes terrible. I love him, but Id be the second. We got sucked into this whole thing because we ended up with a daughter whose passion forced her father and me to get on board. Shes an excellent student and could have done anything she wanted to which as it turns out is exactly what has happened. Ive endeavored never to brag about her here in CC. If Ive slipped up from time to time I apologize but I think my record is mostly clean on that. But Ill go out with a bang now. She is that good. She could have gone to any of these schools you find easier to respect and absolutely would have belonged there.</p>
<p>Ive never criticized any other school here. Id be horrified to do so publically and Ive been terribly mad at myself if Ive occasionally worded something poorly that suggested that was what I was doing. It doesnt mean I dont sometimes think things about other programs that people might find hard to read, but I dont write it. I have not always seen the same courtesy extended to my daughters school in reverse and yes, it does sting. Maybe thats my own ego and I should just let it go. Sometimes some of you make it very hard though.</p>
<p>My daughter chose to attend Tisch and is squeezing the life out of the experience one year in. It has been a thrill to hear about her experiences there and she has the utmost respect for the amazing instructors she has had the pleasure of learning from. She is working hard not to suck and will keep at it until she doesnt. I suspect it will take a lifetime. No matter where we send our kids to school, I think that dedication is an outcome we can be proud of. </p>
<p>The very best wishes to all of you. This theatre stuff is terribly hard.</p>
<p>SDConCC – I don’t think its Mommy5’s post that hijacked the thread. I have a different opinion about where the thread got hijacked but I don’t think we really need a separate thread analyzing this thread.</p>
<p>I started here in 2005. I absolutely did not read Fish’s comments as having anything much to do with Tisch per se at all, and now look–this conversation has devolved once more into a discussion about how awesome Tisch is. That is what is meant by hijacking a thread. This has happened many times. I myself experienced this several years ago when I posted under a different name a simple question about nurturing schools versus tough love schools. Almost immediately the conversation somehow turned into defensive posts about how great Tisch was, and I was attacked, even though I never spoke about a specific school. It really felt awful. I still remember it.</p>
<p>I totally know that many students at Tisch are talented, many parents kind. But honestly, ALL schools are criticized, ALL schools have weaknesses. Yet it’s only Tisch that elicits these responses, over and over. I’m sorry for your perception, but what many posters here are trying to say is that is how it feels to many folks. </p>
<p>And there have been so many successful Tisch graduates who have been well placed. That’s the most puzzling thing of all to me–why feel a need to be so defensive when the program often has such good results? A big program will obviously have poor outcomes too. So what? ANd it’s good to hear about weaknesses as well as strengths. For any program.</p>
<p>^well said connections. I was thinking the same thing as I skimmed through this whole blown up discussion. It’s hard to believe someone would feel defensive about Tisch. It’s reputation speaks for itself. I also didn’t not read Fish’s original comments as an attack. It’s fascinating to watch these battles unfold though. Fascinating.</p>
I actually started reading CC in about 2002, using a different username, but lost track of the login password because I rarely posted. There was not much relevant information on CC for my older two daughters’ interests. Then I made a new user account in 2009 when my third daughter was looking at schools. I didn’t start reading the theater forums until 2010, however, so although I skimmed the archived threads, I did not pay much attention to old business. Even so, what happened ten years ago is ancient history in internet time. Those old ■■■■■■ have surely found other bridges.</p>
<p>But my kid’s school is better than your kid’s school-lol! Amen shacherry. I also don’t believe it’s defensive to correct misinformation. I will always do that if something is very glaring. There are pros and cons to every program and pros and cons to a college degree vs a certificate program. There are some amazing certificate schools in NY and California and probably other major metro cities. Traditional college isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. I know of kids who did not go that route and they are very talented.</p>
<p>There is a girl from my hometown that graduated from a traditional high school early and moved by herself to L.A. She did not go to college but went to one of the studios. She also modeled. She is part of the Twilight franchise- and has played one of the supporting roles in all of the movies. So- there you go!</p>
<p>Um, I think this was my fault. I was the first to mention NYU because I thought the OPs question of going to a BFA without graduating or going directly to a studio, lended itself to the nyu or studio comparison. ( Hell, so many people have dropped out of NYU there are actually web pages about famous NYU drop outs. )</p>
<p>I agree people shouldn’t leave cc because of this silly thread (Halfokum, I’m talking to you!). Our first hand accounts of these schools are helping people, just as we were helped in the past. And I think we should all stick to what we know, and only give advice on schools that we have first hand knowledge of, and not report on hearsay. That would really be the most helpful to the applicants.</p>
<p>So, I’ve read most of this and have no idea what the big problem is here. Some people think some NYU students don’t turn into awesome actors? Well, they take hundreds so that’s probably true. So what? And, they’re really expensive. Well, yes. And?</p>
<p>I agree with ActingDad who said somewhere up there that every school gets slammed or slighted from time to time and it’s not this kind of crises. It’s an internet forum. What do you expect?</p>
<p>Wow, what a diversion this thread has taken.
Lets get back to the OP and lets all take a moment here and think about what kind of impact this forum can have for its intended audience: the students, the overwhelmed, excited, uninformed , confused students who are thinking of studying the subject for which this forum is subtitled. Theatre/Drama students and their parents who are trying to figure out how to pay for it, how to guide their children, how to reconcile the question of should I bother going to college and just go out there and make it in the industry since it seems that many have that story of making it so why can’t I. And the reality of knowing that training and degrees can have a valuable impact on their lives and how can we convey that message and keep the kids here without overwhelming them with details. </p>
<p>Bottom line, I’ve learned from this thread, beyond the diversions, that the general consensus is that its probably best to try to go to start that 4 year acting program even if you don’t think you can afford that last year or two. The college has an investment in you as long as you are committed and things change in those years whereby the school may help you find ways to finish the degree. I imagine there are work study options and subsequent scholarships. There could be a leave of absence and finishing a degree with some online courses if necessary. Some people are saving money with starting in Community college to get some of the gen eds out of the way at a reduced cost. I heard some juniors tell me last week that they were taking a leave of absence to study at a community college for a semester and take gen eds in summer courses and packed on the acting courses during the school year to try to finish early. I’m not sure how many schools may allow that but sometimes it could be an option. Perhaps if anyone has any information pertinent to these kinds of scenarios of how more FA or scholarships or other creative situations that we’ve heard please add them to this thread so that we can leave a footprint for some positive action that could be taken for future readers with this very real scenario. </p>
<p>And Halflokum: You haven’t been dismissed, dear, get back here. You can hide but you can’t run away because you know I know how to find you <3</p>