<p>So I'll be a first year theatre-acting focus student and I only have 3 credits of Acting for Fall. Is this normal? :S
I have movement (3) credits.
And performance ensemble (2) credits.
and the other credits are not related to theatre, or acting itself :S</p>
<p>Isn't this a bit absurd?</p>
<p>Isn’t it also a bit weird that I have 9, yes NINE hours of class on Mondays?! :S</p>
<p>If I am remembering correctly, you decided to pursue the BA program at New School? In this case it may be quite likely that about 1/3 of your schedule will be theatre focused and 2/3 academic focused. As you move along and have the pre-requisits for more electives you may be able to have a larger balance of theatre classes in your schedule.</p>
<p>9 hours on Monday… are these 3cr. classes? having 3 - 4 classes in a day is pretty normal. Or do your mean you have class for 9 clock hours on Monday. That is a pretty busy Monday. Are there classes on Monday that meet only one day per week?</p>
<p>How many credits do you have total? How many classes is that? How many times per week does each class meet?</p>
<p>Performance classes tend to occupy long hours, so that could account for the nine hours of classes in one day.</p>
<p>Curricula vary widely. If you’re talking about a BA program, what you describe isn’t too unusual.</p>
<p>Some programs, especially BFA programs, have both movement and voice & speech during the first year, as well as other theatre-related classes, but that might not be the case for a theatre major in a BA program.</p>
<p>In most any BA program, you have fewer courses in your major the first year or two, and more during the last two years.</p>
<p>Reverience, I’ve had 11 hours of class a day. This semester, I have three days of class each week that are seven or more hours each. College works on a different schedule than high school 
As long as your academic adviser is reasonably competent, don’t fret too much about your schedule, just go with the flow and go to class!</p>
<p>And at least at my school, acting students spend more hours in class than, say, an IR major—but we have fewer research papers to write, too!</p>
<p>College schedules vary so widely, there hardly is a “normal.” And course availability also varies - even if you have a plan, sometimes you have to wait to take certain classes. </p>
<p>My D had 4 2-credit theatre classes, for example, in her BFA, and she had some very long days. Both of my kids - older D was in a “regular” major - often have had schedules where they had no time for lunch, went straight through the evening, etc. They also have managed to have 4-day weeks sometimes. It’s very different from HS!</p>
<p>Also, don’t downplay “Movement” or “Ensemble” classes. These are very important in a theatre program. It’s not just Acting, of course.</p>
<p>Did you sign up for these classes, or did somebody else sign you up for them?</p>
<p>If you are in a BA program, you probably will have a requirement of x% of your credits must be in your major and the rest have to be spread out over several areas of “general education”.</p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea therefore to try to make sure that x% of your credits each term are in your major and the rest “general education”. But some people prefer to get ALL their general education out of the way right up front, so they can focus completely on their major when they get closer to graduation. (Nobody seems to be happy doing it the other way–nobody seems to enjoy taking all the major courses first, then take all the gen eds later).</p>
<p>I don’t understand what your course schedule is. Is it Acting (3 creds [probably a course with a name like “Acting 1])”, Movement (3 creds), Performance Ensemble (2 creds)? Then how many creds in general education?</p>
<p>So far this seems like a normal schedule for a first term freshman in a theater BA program focusing on acting. You are taking 8 credits in theatre courses, which is probably (I hope!) more than half the credits you are taking. Usually a theatre major will only take one course per term that actually has the word “Acting” in its name. But the other two courses are specifically theatre courses for actors. Nobody except an actor needs Movement or Performance Ensemble (which sounds like it is credit for actually acting in a show, am I right?!)</p>
<p>There will be times where you will think “why are they having me do this, this seems silly”. But the program is using some particular approach to acting training, and the faculty will have found that it works. Jump in enthusiastically to all of the Acting exercises and Movement exercises (and into whatever role they give you in the Performance Ensemble), and remember that you are having a lot more fun than the poor schmucks who chose to major in Nuclear Physics or whatever. You will find that your skills as an actor keep improving, even from doing the “silly” things.</p>
<p>When a college student signs up for classes, they can sign up for specific times and days. They can say “I would rather be in the Thursday section of this course than the Monday section.” Or the afternoon instead of the morning. Or whatever. But first picks are usually given to the upperclassmen, with freshmen getting the last choice. So this may be why you got stuck with nine hours on Monday. (I hope that there is another day in the week where you have no classes?). Most schools have a process called “drops and adds” which allows students to make changes to their schedule. But you can’t always get the schedule you want.</p>
<p>But this is just how a “typical” college works, maybe your college is different.</p>
<p>Yes, going to college does mean that you are going to really have to learn how to manage your time. Your day will not be as structured and organized as it was in high school. And the days of the week will commonly each have different amounts of class hours. (I take it Monday is your only 9 hour day)</p>
<p>It also occurs to me that if “Performance Ensemble” is acting in a show, than it will have a rehearsal schedule set by the director, but they may have just put 2 hours on Monday just for the sake of putting something on the schedule.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting in, and best of luck with the program. And don’t forget to enjoy yourself studying theatre!</p>
<p>KEFP</p>
<p>Different schools work their credits differently. At the school where I teach, a course is the same as a credit (so a typical freshman takes 4 or 4.5 credits, .5 for a lab.) Many schools count credits by credit hour, with a typical course being 3 credits. So a freshman might have 12-15 credits. </p>
<p>My daughter was assigned 18 credits, which seems like a lot to me. She has two theater courses (Acting I and Collaboration I), Italian, a sociology class, and Composition II. She has not started on her second major. It’s so many credits that we got an additional tuition bill (which caused me to make a flurry of phone calls, and the extra tuition was waived.) I think all theater majors at her school run into this because the school is a BA program. This is what she wanted-- she believes that to be a stronger actor she needs to continue to pursue academics for now. I think she is going to be quite busy. And I hope the theater classes end up doing most of their work in class (i.e., not a ton of homework and papers) so the workload is manageable.</p>
<p>At my son’s BFA program, it’s common for Theatre Arts students to carry credit overloads. After freshman year, they often take two-credit electives, which can add up. </p>
<p>There is generally little homework in many of the theatre classes.</p>
<p>Credit overload waivers, which excuse the student from paying extra tuition, are easily obtained by students in my son’s School of Theatre. The student submits a form, and the department approves it</p>
<p>This semester, my son - who is a senior - has a two-credit “acting for the camera” course and a two-credit directing course. As a dance minor, he is taking three one-credit dance courses. Credit total for the semester: 19 credits. Some semesters, he has carried more than 19 credits.</p>
<p>Your daughter will be fine, I’m sure, glassharmonica. Eighteen credits sounds slightly heavy for a freshman, but presumably it’s standard for the program she is in?</p>
<p>I went to a university where a class was a class, with no credits assigned, so I’m not used to this, either. But having seen my D’s experience, I think this all seems pretty normal and understandable.</p>
<p>GH, my D has been taking about half of her classes in academics, too, and she has had to do credit overrides as well. I agree with NJTheatreMom that the theatre classes aren’t always as time-intensive, although I will remark that at Adelphi you have reading assignments and write papers in every class (for example, she wrote a paper nearly every week for her Movement/Dance class last semester). </p>
<p>However, even with 4 2-credit Theatre classes, 2 Honors College seminars and a lab science (total of 19 credits) she is managing to have Fridays “off” this semester. Of course they will be filled with the other work she plans to do - production for a mainstage play, starting a costuming internship, homework, and a job.</p>
<p>That reminds me, most BFA freshmen are assigned 5-10 hours a week of tech. It’s a busy life!</p>
<p>
I couldn’t get anyone in student accounts to tell me if this is normal, but I think the 19 credits (she has 19, not 18, I typed it wrong) may have to do with her starting from scratch with a new language instead of trying to place into a higher level (she really wants to learn Italian) and an eventual double major. I was told that students are allowed 12-18 credits, and above that they are charged…and when I expressed astonishment that I had not been told in advance and was also being charged a retroactive late fee for not having paid the bill three days before I received it, I was instructed to call her dean. The next day the charges were gone-- whew! Anyway, she is very much looking forward to starting!</p>
<p>it’s really hard to say. with my program, they downsize on the bfa credits so we don’t reach the allowed credit maximum by the university…
so we get stuck with getting 2 credits for voice, 2 credits for movement, and a WHOPPING 3 credits for acting in our first 2 years here.
and our guthrie mondays and rehearsals were all lumped into the acting credits in addition to 7 hrs of acting class a week for sophomore year.
according to my university…you’re supposed to put in 3 hrs of work for every credit…and 7 measly credits should be 21 hrs of work & class. in BFA-land however, that probably translates to way over 50 hrs of actual classtime/rehearsal and personal work.
it got even worse for me this year when i decided to take on the challenge of minoring in music…ear training gets me 1 credit. haha.
and then you got people every semester STILL credit overloading. usually they’re the inhumane robots who are amazing at time management and juggling, or they just don’t sleep. when i credit overloaded a couple semesters ago…i definitely didn’t sleep and barely even talked to my friends.<br>
so i don’t know how it is at your university the way they give out credits, but i’d say don’t worry. you’ll be busy enough… if you’re not doing as much theatre as you want to you, you’ll find a way to do something outside of your curriculum. also, you’ll be a freshman. let yourself live a little and have some space to breathe. you’ll learn just as much from your life outside of the classroom…actually if not more.</p>
<p>i’ll disagree with you NJ on the statement that there is little homework required for theatre classes. i’d agree for movement classes…but voice/speech and acting have plenty of homework that’s necessary for class projects. dialect work takes a ton of time especially if it’s a solo dialect piece that requires a ton of research. and i’m always spending every waking moment (and the occasional sleeping moment) thinking about character and scene work if i’m not already working on it…even if i’m not aware of it…it gets to be even more time consuming when it’s an actual show…</p>