Hi,
I have a D going to Atlantic this fall as a freshman. She is very excited to be in this studio. It would be great if current students or parents of students could share experiences and advice about the studio along with an idea of the daily schedule Atlantic has. It is three days per week, but we were wondering how many hours per day and how that shifts each year when you add rehearsals? Thanks!
Hi! I have just finished my first year in Atlantic and I remember not being able to find a lot of info on here about it, so I’m happy to help! First of all, congrats. Atlantic is an incredible studio.
Ok so what you need to know is that this is a very intense studio, with huge amounts of hard work and dedication required. I was tired out of my mind this past year. But I have had the most beautiful and amazing year and I wouldn’t change it.
Yes it’s three days a week - freshman year you will be there Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It is an 8.30am-6pm day. Now depending on which group you are in, you may have a later start or an earlier finish, but that is not guaranteed. I had 8.30-6 both semesters. The schedule is fixed for the semester, it won’t change or alter. You have two classes per week each of: movement, speech, voice, script analysis and performance technique. Each of those is a 90 minute class. You have one 2 hour class called moment lab - go into it with an open mind and you will grow so much. You also have one hour of games class, in the fall, probably on a Friday. In the spring, this will instead be a 90 minute improv class. Tuesday and Thursday are very full on. Fridays, you have less classes because 4.45-6pm is guest class, where they bring someone in to talk and take questions, it’s really interesting.
So that is studio training. What you will also have, Monday and Wednesday, is writing the essay and its or itp - you take them alternatively. The semester that you do its, you will have a crew assignment at Atlantic. The semester that you do itp, you will have a crew assignment at Tisch or at one of the campus-based studios: experimental theatre wing, new studio, playwrights horizons (and I think meisner too maybe). Monday and Wednesday will not be 8.30-6 days! Avoid signing up for 8am classes, unless you’re just a super morning person; you will want to sleep, especially when studio and nyu homework assignments pile up it starts getting really intense, and trust me, you’ll need the sleep. For instance in the fall I had classes 12.30-5, with a break between them, and in the spring I had 2-5.
Now when I say campus-based studios, I mean the ones that are literally on campus or extremely close by. Atlantic does not fall into that category. Atlantic is on 9th avenue and 15th street. You will be living (depending on dorm) between 8th and 14th street, and 3rd, 4th, Broadway or 5th avenue. It is about a 20-25 minute walk depending on where you live. It’s fine but when it gets super cold (New York gets COLD) you will not want to walk, and if you do attempt it, walking tends to take longer in the cold anyway. It is accessible by subway, so you’ll need to budget for that - because also if it’s one of those days when you’re running late or you have a ton of props, you will end up getting the subway. And sometimes the train gets messed up and you and your friend end up desperately trying to hail a cab 20 minutes before class starts and praying you make it on time. So bear in mind you will subway sometimes, and yes, believe me, you’re going to end up in a cab a few times too. The distance isn’t too bad, it’s just annoying when you have friends in other studios who don’t know your pain. My suitemate is in playwrights and she didn’t have class until 9.30, and it would take literally 5 minutes from our dorm. Meanwhile I’m up at 6.30 on studio days! But honestly I don’t even mind most of the time because Atlantic is really worth it.
The distance thing means that you won’t be back home until a little later, and then you will probably want to shower (because you are going sweat so much in movement class!) and get dinner, so by the time you’re done with all that it’s probably 7.30pm. Stuff that needs doing outside of studio: speech homework and voice practice, learning lines and analysing. Set aside a good chunk of time for analysis: do not try and make it up in ten minutes. Then there is rehearsing, which (especially once you move onto fuller, more complex scenes) requires a lot of hours each week. Crew also takes up so much time. It’s annoying and tiring but we have to do it. Depending on what task/area of crew you do, the timing will be different. First semester, I was doing Atlantic crew, and had crew 6.30-11pm every night for two weeks, plus two Sundays 10-2. It was really irritating, I won’t lie, I could have done without it. This semester I did Tisch crew and it really wasn’t too bad - two hours per week, whenever I could come, and three Sundays 10-12. That was fine.
Then you have homework! I’ll say it straight up: writing the essay is going to consume so much of your life. That’s the truth of it. Some people decided not to make any effort with that or our other academics and they got a terrible grade (I know some who failed) and it messes up your gpa and plans for future - they will make you retake writing the essay the following year. Writing the essay has one lecture per month in the fall, and a shorter lecture every week in the spring. Two classes per week, an hour and fifteen minutes. Itp has a lecture (which you will see for yourself is ridiculous) on Mondays, and a seminar on Wednesdays. If you have a specific area of interest in the technical side of theatre, there are specialised seminars offered. I would reccomend signing up for the stage management seminar, it’s awesome. There’s not a lot of homework for itp so I would recommend taking it in the spring because that is when studio gets more intense. Its is very different depending on your teacher. My teacher was great and we had no exams but we got assigned lots of papers. Some teachers don’t assign a great deal of written work but they will do quizzes and exams. It just depends how you prefer learning as to what experience you’ll have.
In terms of rehearsal for other stuff - you’re not allowed to take part in the Tisch productions as a freshman. You’re also not allowed to go out and audition for other stuff in the professional world in your first year. (Obviously you can and as long as they don’t know, they can’t stop you - but there’s a chance they would find out somehow so it’s not worth the risk). What you can do is audition for the stuff like the college of art and science student theatre, and you should also keep an eye in the Tisch Facebook group because there are always film majors looking for actors for their projects. Make friends with film kids and make friends with writers - they are always looking to people to do table reads or staged readings of plays.
anyway. That was a lot of info! I hope it helps somehow. I am happy to answer literally any questions you have, if you want more stuff about Atlantic I can provide that too. Whatever you need I’m happy to help! 
Hi:) it was so wonderful of you to take the time in sharing all this great information about life in Atlantic and the other classes your first year! So glad to hear you enjoy Atlantic and knowing how busy the program is will help her prepare in advance for the expectations and time commitment. She is very excited to join Atlantic and Tisch next month! Sorry we are getting back to you so late but when no one answered our inquiry in the beginning and then we went out of town we were not checking back as often. What are your thoughts on being a double major of Tisch and a CAS major? Is it something other kids try to do? Again thank you so much for your terrific reply and all the time you spent on the details! You are great!