There are so many factors at work. You have a lot of kids who will do the de-fault method of applying to MT and will not say “don’t consider me for other studios” because they feel it lessens their chances in some way. So some of these kids don’t make it into MT, are accepted into a different studio and decline it because they only really wanted MT all along. But to counter balance that, you do have a lot of kids that see NYU as their dream school and will accept a spot in another studio even though they had not applied to any other straight acting program.
I think the real numbers are not clear because we don’t know how many kids are applying to MT only, so I agree that the only way to figure out comparable odds for schools would be to do what soozievt suggested and look at all the theatre related programs that kids can get into at a particular school (i.e. BA, BFA, straight acting etc.) and lump all those numbers together to get a percentage that is comparable to saying 600 out of 2000.
I also think that the high stats required for the 50% weight of academics will prevent some MT applicants from auditioning at NYU, while anyone can hope to get into CMU with outstanding talent and quite mediocre stats.
Here’s the thing about talking about “odds” for college admissions in general, and specifically for MT. Since applicants are NOT identical and are NOT selected randomly, the concept of “odds” is virtually meaningless.
For the kid who is quickly admitted to CCM, one might say their chances of admission were always 100% for CCM, yet that very same kid might not have been remotely who CMU was looking for that year and thus their chances at CMU were always 0%. If that same kid had very low grades and test scores, one might correctly say their “odds” of getting in to NYU approach 0%.
It’s honestly not that different from discussing the “odds” of being cast in a particular role at a particular theatre. The fact is it makes virtually NO difference how many people are seen in open calls, since in the end the person who lands the role was whatever fit the director was seeking.
There is no Golden Ticket school, and there is no school incapable of graduating Broadway’s next big thing. There is also NO school that every kid interested in MT applies to, and virtually every program was someone’s top choice for their own unique reasons.
My SIL who has been a college councillor for over 30 years has always said any school with admission rates below 25% is a crapshoot, and in my mind that is where virtually all MT programs fall.
@dusing2: OK, so you ARE attempting to state the rate for acceptance for just MT at NYU/Tisch. But you said the admit rate is 16%. Isn’t 60 out of 1000 equal to 6%? BTW, I do agree that they accept more than the slots available. I only know that in my D’s year, they accepted 80 for 64 slots. So, that would be about a 8% admit rate for the MT studio. Yes the rate is higher to get into ANY studio at Tisch since there are 7 other studios besides the one MT studio. Likewise, at most BFA programs, the acceptance rate for Acting is higher than for MT.
@NotMath1, you have posed this question before on this thread and I attempted to address it. The numbers of applicants for Tisch Drama provided by Chris Andersson would include both RD and ED. Most colleges when providing the number of applicants, give a total of ALL applicants. The number of spots available in all Tisch studios (400) is including for both ED and RD too.
@dusing2, you mention that one consideration in choosing a BFA in MT program might be the acceptance rate. I feel similarly to @MomCares that I would not weigh that in choosing a BFA program since the admit rate to almost all MT programs is between 2% and 9% and so the differences in acceptance rates are quite negligible. If weighing the “selectivity” of a program, other factors come into play. For example, the overall talent pool at one program may differ than at another program. These things have all been discussed a lot on this forum in the past.
Also, the criteria for admission at Tisch, for example, differs than at many other BFA programs…such as the academic review counts 50% of the admissions decision and that is not the case at some other BFA in MT programs. This doesn’t even include the fact that the academic “bar” at NYU is higher than at many other BFA in MT programs (the university itself has a fairly low acceptance rate). These things all affect the “odds” of admission.
When my D applied to 8 BFA in MT programs, we thought the odds of getting into any one particular program were very difficult given the low acceptance rates at ALL of them.
If people want to believe that it is much “easier” to get into NYU/Tisch than other MT programs, so be it. When my D applied, she certainly didn’t think of it as the “easier” school on her list…not by a long shot.
It’s not just that the odds of getting into NYU are based 50% on talent and 50% on academics, it’s that the bar for academics is set so high. Oldest D had a 98.6 gpa (top 5%) and a 2130 SAT, so I wasn’t worried. However, I really did sweat it for younger D who had a 90.1 gpa and a 2000 SAT. (And she had a very solid 720 V and 35 English score, but lower math stats 610 and 25.) As a matter of fact for younger D we decided to let her to apply ED to up her advantage (although that is not necessarily true) and gave up the chance for her to get any merit money.
So I do think there is a certain amount of self-selection that is involved that brings down the number of applicants.
@soozievt, sorry if I seem dense. And thank you for attempting to explain. I guess I still don’t understand the ED thing and how/if it affects the admit numbers. Maybe it doesn’t have any effect. At this point, I am dizzy from all these posts. I will just sit back. Thanks!
I know what I posted in #91. Where did you see that I said it was 16%. In your post #105 you claimed that I said it was 16%. I have never said that and I would appreciate you getting your facts correct about me!
@Dusing2, I apologize for misreading your post #91. I was reading it as percentages (which is how most acceptance rates are stated) and I now realize you literally meant 1 out of 16 and I just went to percentages in my mind since that is the common way that acceptances are stated. My apologies. So, I think you meant approx. 6%, which is what I think is a close approximation for the MT studio at Tisch. Sorry for misreading or misinterpreting the way you stated the information.
I have a question that isn’t really related to the acceptance rate.
I have been reading threads from around 2010 about accepted students getting an email about the accepted students weekend before getting their official acceptance.
Actually when D applied in 2008, there were post card invites sent to many accepted students regarding accepted students weekend. They seemed to be sent directly by the departments of some schools. I have not heard any mention of post cards (or emails) for several years. I know that some students this year were accepted early and received invites for certain scholarship functions (MLK and Dean’s Scholars).
Its funny though, when you break it down to actual acceptances per applicants, as Dusing2 has, one can see the significant difference between an acceptance rate of 6% and 3% : Taking CCM and NYU as an example, one sees that CCM takes one in 32 applicants, and Tisch, takes one in 16 applicants, or about double the applicants!
And it is true, the overall talent pool probably does differ between Tisch and others because most applicants don’t “self-exclude” based on test scores or family income. Rather, the majority of schools (there are some exceptions which I am sure will be promptly pointed out) give you a chance to showcase your talent first and foremost.
This is not directly related to the OP, as it pertains to SO many comments creeping up recently on the MT board on cc, but…
Would it be possible for everyone to simply accept the fact that their child may be drawn to different programs than other kids, that every kid here probably has very unique and special talents and that no one (not even the kid who was instantly admitted to every program in the country) is the one special snowflake who will have every future role to be cast everywhere, and above all to discontinue any mean-spirited comments?
For many many years, the CC MT board has been a kind and supportive environment for like-minded people to share advice and support. It would be really great if it could get back to that!
I would make the argument that talent is the prime component at every audition program. It is known that schools which do take grades into consideration (Michigan, NYU, Boston etc) can go to bat and get some “wiggle” for an exceptionally talented kid. I have never heard a story where a BFA program was pressured to take a kid they didn’t feel met the talent criteria b/c their grades/scores were so amazing. Talent is always part of the equation- grades sometimes are, sometimes aren’t
Which brings me to another thought- slightly off topic. D has a friend from her high school who is currently holding 8 BFA acceptances. (the family is not a part of this forum) Obvious talent. I worked extensively with this kid on their list of schools, and we had to get creative- b/c grades/scores were NOT there, so we had to make sure all schools chosen were places where that wouldn’t matter. (under a 2.0 and under 20 on act). There were a lot of schools, even those not known for intensive academics, that had to be off the radar, and kept the kid away from most of the “big names”. Again, this isn’t really on point for the overall topic of the thread (differences between Tisch and steinhardt, or the intricacies of NYU as a whole) but it does serve the idea that not all students are a fit for all schools- no matter their talent level or size of class
@MomCares, I very much agree with your sentiments. I’ve been on CC for 13 years. The MT Forum, in particular, has been a very supportive and kind environment. Some of the mean-spirited posts this year are very rare to see on the MT Forum and haven’t been the case in past years hardly ever. Before this season, it was super rare to see posts on the MT Forum that dissed other members or particular schools. I really hope the board can go back to maintaining the respectful, positive, and supportive environment it always has been until recently. I have gotten a lot of kind and thoughtful messages from others lately who are wishing the same thing. People who have been here a while really don’t want to see the tone of this forum change.