Hi everyone, I was accepted to several bfa acting programs, and these three are the ones I am considering the most. Obviously, Tisch is much more well renowned, and it seems like it should be an easy decision. (Money isn’t an issue here because NYU would give me 35,000 dollars per year. Northern Illinois is the most cost effective out of the three, if it matters.) I want a very rigorous acting program, and I am not that interested in taking academic classes. I went to an extremely academically competitive high school, so I would like to fully immerse myself in acting as much as possible. However, I can handle academic classes if need be. I’m not worried about the difficulty of tisch gen eds, just the amount. I know Tisch isn’t really a conservatory and is 50/50. I also really love the programs at shenandoah and northern illinois, which are less academically rigorous. On the other hand, I also love Tisch’s acting program. If i go to tisch can I still get the rigorous conservatory training I might get at shenandoah or NIU? Or is it better to go to a less renowned school with a bigger emphasis on acting?
NYU has a HUGE emphasis on acting. But - it is a 60/40 split - and academics are a big part of your time there.
@procrastin8ter Have you visited all three and ask those specific questions for the academics? You could also do a blind curriculum test by having someone else print all three schools’ acting and academic class requirements, hide the names and see what you like best. You sound like a level-headed person who can look beyond name recognition to find the best fit for what you want so go for it!! And congrats!
Do you want to be in the city, or do you prefer a real college campus? Are finances a concern at all? $35,000 is nice scholarship amount, but NYU and living in NYC is very expensive. My older D graduated in 2017 (MT) from an affordable program and lives there now. She loves it and is very happy, but could not afford to be there if she had a lot of student loan debt. If that’s not an issue, think about where you want to live for the next 4 years, look at the classes offered by each school (I’m a fan of the blind comparison), and go with the one that offers you what you want. And let us know what you decide!
Congrats on the wonderful acceptances. The large scholarship at NYU is also amazing. When my D applied we did a spreadsheet of total direct costs of schools (tuition and room and board and fees) and then subtracted out all scholarship money or grants (no loans included) to get a “bottom line” cost for each accepted school that we would still owe.
It was a bit eye opening. At schools that gave the most money we still owed the most as they were the most expensive schools to start out with. When a school starts at 76,000 we realized we still owed 35,000-40,000 after large scholarships. Every family has a different number they can afford but that is a large annual bill for many. I would suggest looking at that bottom line number, the curriculum of each school, and a visit to do a true comparison.
Congratulations on having good choices.
Additional note: some schools “award” you the student loans (as if it is a gift-lol). My daughter misunderstood some letters like this and thought it was all scholarship money. But in a few cases much of the “award” was actually a loan. Just a word of caution for students reading these award letters.
No money is definitely a concern but not for which school I’m going to go to. They all cost approximately the same, although Northern Illinois is cheaper than the other two. It actually is not a loan, I get discounted tuition because my mom is NYU faculty. I love new york and everything, but I live pretty close to the NYU campus so it would be nice to have a change. However, I also don’t think I could survive living in the middle of nowhere, being a born and raised city kid. Im still mostly focused on the programs themselves. I think I’m going to wait to find out my studio assignment for NYU, and then base it off that. I’m hoping for Meisner or Atlantic!!
As I understand it (freshman mom) depending on the number of credits you bring in, Tisch can be less than 40% academics. Required studio classes are 50%, GEs are 25% and electives are 25%. But GEs are reduced by APs and electives can be artistic. Even with 75-80% of your classes being non-academic it would not be a conservatory program. Honestly, I would look at how you’d enjoy leaving the city for the “middle of nowhere”. My LA kid would only apply to city schools because she just couldn’t hack 4 years in the suburbs or country.
I would probably be bringing in very few credits. I like the idea of a city school, but I think I could find a way to be happy on a campus school. I really want a conservatory program/a place that will best teach me acting. I suffered for 6 years at a rough high school, so I am not totally looking forward to taking a lot of difficult academic classes. unfortunately, because my school is weird, a lot of classes that are college level aren’t APs so I couldn’t place out (anything 2nd level just doesn’t get you a credit :neutral: ) Moneywise, I have an update. NYU and Northern Illinois will both cost me 20,000 dollars per year. (yes NYU, I know, its crazy). Shenandoah would cost around 35,000 dollars. Is it better to go somewhere that is more a conservatory program? Or are those two schools even that much more acting focused than NYU?
My D graduated from Tisch and although it is not a “conservatory” you will spend probably 75% of your week acting (between classes and rehearsals)! The level of training is unbelievable, you will be learning from professors who are currently involved in the business, and the connections that you will make at NYU to continue acting after school in NYC can’t be matched at Shenandoah and Northern Illinois. (And even though you have to take rankings with a grain of salt and they don’t mean everything, even though it is not a conservatory NYU is still ranked higher than the other 2 you are considering). I understand that you might want a change from NYC and a different campus experience and those are valid concerns and those should be the reasons you choose a different program than NYU, but not based on the training you will receive.
For 20k i would choose NYU. Although maybe not a “conservatory” it is a wonderful school with a great reputation. You will have academics and they are tough from what i hear. But you can hopefully choose those of interest.
I don’t know Shenco or Northern Illinois other than through these boards but my daughter goes to NYU. I would agree with jbcat that IF you choose not to go to NYU it should be because you want a smaller school or a non- City environment. Eliminating Shenco for cost probably makes sense - 80k is 80k. You will have smaller cadre Northern Illinois and that might be a pro or a con for you. I can’t imagine making that decision thinking you’re going to get more training or better training there but you might get more personal attention simply because the program is smaller. You have two great options but they’re really different. I think you really need to ask yourself what you want out of 4 years of college. With two such different options one should feel more like a fit.
I’ve been looking at the Gen Ed requirements for NYU also. @procrastin8ter You’ve probably already looked at this, but I’ve been curious and hope it might be helpful for you too.
The website for Tisch Drama has the degree requirements broken down as follows:
A minimum of 48 credits of Professional Training
A minimum of 28 credits of Theatre Studies
A minimum of 32 credits of General Education
A minimum of 20 credits of Electives
https://tisch.nyu.edu/drama/about/degree-requirements
Says any NYU course can count as an Elective except those offered through the School of Professional Studies (SCPS). So if all of those Electives can be in Tisch Drama, then it seems like only 32 out of 128 credits are truly Gen Ed requirements
That 32 credits of Gen Ed is broken down further:
Expository Writing - 8 credits (looks like 2 courses??)
Humanities - 2 courses for a total of 8 credits
Sciences - 2 courses for a total of 8 credits
Additional credits of Humanities and/or Science to reach the minimum General Education requirement of 32 credits
So that looks like 8 courses (4 credits each) of true Gen Ed requirements. Maybe someone can confirm if I’m reading the number of courses (vs credits) correctly? Because that would average only 1 Gen Ed per semester. I thought the Tisch Drama students weren’t at Tisch 2 of the 5 days per week. Can you take all your Electives at Tisch Drama?
Gen Eds are theater often related. There were several history of theater classes as well a what I would call “theater studies type classes. (Freshman year that included tech theater and crew assignments). She had st least 2 academic classes a semester. She came with lots of APs so only had to do TRUE gen Eds with writing the essay freshman year (2 semesters - and you CANNOT place out) and Science Gen eds. (She took one in astronomy, and one on the science of happiness. With the extra room from APs - she minored in stage combat and became a certified actor combatant
@ctaylors6 - you’ve got it about right but as @toowonderful says, many of the GEs are met through Tisch or with APs. One clarification - the Tisch Drama Students are in Studio 3 days a week. Electives, Gen Eds and Theatre Studies are taken in the other days and you need a minimum of 6 semesters of Studio(48 credits). That doesn’t mean the students aren’t at Tisch for classes on the other two days.
It’s actually a very flexible system so two actors the same degree might end up with very different allocations of their coursework. The “basics” are the 6 semesters of Studio plus 7 theatre studies courses plus meeting the GEs. There’s a lot of flex to add on from there built into the curriculum and if you carry more than 16 credits or bring in APs or do any summer school you end up with even more room in your schedule to do whatever the heck you want.