Hi!
So I’ve been reading a lot about these two schools and I can’t figure out which one offers the best mt program.
I do think that personally they are both a good fit for me, but I was hoping that someone who attends any of these colleges can briefly explain the main differences beetwen them.
Thanks!!
Unless you happen upon a poster who has transferred from one program to the other, or a parent who has had kids in each, I don’t think anyone can really explain the main differences between the two programs. They can tell you about the program they know about.
So I’ll attempt to point you in the direction of some info about the program I do know something about (Tisch, NSB) and then suggest the things you may want to investigate further to draw your own conclusions.
Both schools require 128 credit hours to graduate. Pace requires 80 credit hours earned in studio and 44 from core curriculum but that indicates some of the credits can come from dance so I don’t know what that even means. Anyway, the link to that info is here: http://pace.smartcatalogiq.com/2014-2015/Undergraduate-Catalog/Schools/Dyson-College-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Undergraduate-Degree-Programs/Musical-Theater-Major-BFA
NYU requires 76 credit hours in studio and as many as 96 can be earned if electives are done in studio classes. There is no equivalent document that I have ever seen which details out the class descriptions for the MT studio classes at Tisch like the link I provided above for Pace. If you ever come across one, I’d love to know about it. You can get an idea of the program requirements here by clicking on the link to the Tisch Bulletin to the right under “downloads”. Go to page 45. http://students.tisch.nyu.edu/page/acadservices.html
One thing you can’t know is how exactly the word credit hours translates to actual time spent in class. It varies from program to program and unless someone can chime in with the data from an actual Pace MT schedule, I don’t know how you’d get that info. (Maybe call the school and ask?) As far as NSB goes, I posted this in a thread that I started last year. It breaks down the actual hours spent in studio and non studio. All studio classes add up to 8 credit hours at Tisch every semester. I don’t know how that works at Pace. I also don’t know if things at Tisch NSB have changed from when my daughter was a freshman or not so take this with a grain of salt. (She’s a junior now.) Anyway, it’s a start. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1550827-studio-training-contiuum-conservatory-not-and-everything-in-between-p1.html
I would assume that both schools, being located in the city that claims Broadway, would have excellent access to top notch adjunct faculty as well as core faculty. I know the Tisch faculty is overall, extraordinary. I’d assume the same for Pace but I don’t actually know. (So find out.)
The MT studio at Tisch is around 60-64 students. I do not know how big the Pace program is. NSB students are divided up into classes of around 15 or 16 for all studio classes. Dance classes are leveled. Music theory classes are leveled. Acting classes are not leveled. I don’t know how either size nor leveling compares to Pace. Something to ask.
You are assigned a primary training studio for your first two years at Tisch. So if that assignment is NSB (which is the only MT studio), you stay in that studio for two years or all four if that is your preference. However, if after two years you decide you would like to shift your focus to other areas (Playwriting, screen acting, straight acting, classical etc.) you can apply to transfer to a different studio track. No matter what studio you are in, you earn a BFA in Drama. Can you shift your training focus at Pace at any point in the program and still earn a BFA degree? Something to ask.
The NYU Tisch admission process takes academics into account 50% according to everything that is ever written about it and the targeted standard is high. To my knowledge, Pace does not have the same focus on academics but of course that doesn’t mean there are not very academically capable students that attend Pace. Only making the point that it doesn’t appear to be part of the admission criteria for Pace’s program so it could lend itself to a wider variety as far as academic track record goes. I do not know if this is the case or not but if it is something that is important to you, find out. Related to that, I’ve heard that Pace is far more generous when it comes to merit money for academically capable kids than Tisch is. If true and that describes you, that’s a big plus for Pace. Tisch gives very little in non-need merit scholarships.
Hope this helps. All the best!
Both MT programs are really, really hard to get into. Really hard. So if you think they are both good fits, apply to both, and if you are one lucky individual who gets into both, and can afford either, go visit and attend classes and spend as much time as you can at each school in April. FYI NYU is a LOT harder to get into academically, and if you don’t pass their academic muster, they won’t even look at you for MT. They also don’t give a whole lot of financial aid. Pace is easy to get into academically and gives a lot more financial assistance. Pace actually encourages kids to audition professionally while in school; NYU discourages it and really cares that you go to classes.
Thanks for all the info! It was really helpfull 
NYU costs close to 70K year. Pace I believe is around 50K. Pace has academic merit aid. Scholarships can be 20K or more. NYU might give you some money, but who, why, and how much seems to be a bit more mysterious.
delete. Need more time to get this comment right.
Pace total cost estimates are closer to 60K and they surely do have a better reputation for non-need based merit scholarships. Pace estimates can be found here: http://www.pace.edu/admissions-aid/undergraduate-admissions/freshman/cost-attendance. The Tisch estimates are here but note that some of the placeholders for things like books and personal expenses is more generous in the Tisch exhibit. I suspect at the end of the day, you can expect those extras to be more or less the same at either school. http://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/financialAid/documents/tuitiontisch.pdf Is the Pace tuition for their BFA program, which likely has more instruction hours and smaller class sizes than other majors at Pace, the same as one would pay for any program at Pace? Could be but I don’t know. At NYU they vary. You pay 4K+ more in tuition to attend Tisch than any other of the NYU undergraduate colleges.
C’Mon, halflokum and vvnstar, spit it out! 3:-O
Haha - no secrets here! Others had already posted what little I knew about each program. D didn’t apply to either, so thought I would erase my comments and leave it to those who are more well-informed on the subject than I
And I was just copying vvnstar’s trendsetting and informative post
Unfortunately once I’ve typed in a response, even if I don’t post it, it seems to be there for ever unless I actually delete it all and post nothing. Has anyone else experienced this?
@vvnstar Yes!
@vvnstar ~me too!
If I’m being completely honest, I just wanted to know how vvnstar got that line thing working. If you look at post #5, I myself ran into the Jeopardy time clock music running through my head while I was attempting to fix something I was trying to say but had posted and did a “meh… I’m out” sort of a lame wordy thing to make it just disappear. But the line… so elegant and sophisticated. I felt jealous and just wanted in. So I practiced. Some day you all may be as cool as @vvnstar and I are now. Keep working it. Many of you have a long long way to go. 
Irksome since, usually, when I write something but don’t post it it’s not appropriate for the venue but every time it pops back up I am tempted all over again.
I fight my demons sometimes about the same thing. For those of you who don’t remember the older days of CC, you always had more or less the same amount of time to edit, but there was no auto saving of any draft you worked on. The downside of that is you could write the most brilliant novel, making points you thought would set the CC world on fire and make you the superstar of the forum… only to realize that you had blathered on so long thinking about whatever the heck you were working on that you were dumped out because of the time limit and everything you wrote, was lost forever.
Blatherers like me eventually learned to compose in Word and then cut and paste out of fear of the time clock. I think the blathering police in the IT department in CC designed the new version of CC to take their revenge and are saving our blather forever in a format that cannot just be left to be fixed until morning. Well played. I know I at least deserved the spanking. Now if you could design some sort of functionality that would allow us to delete what we wrote late the night before after a glass or two of wine when we have morning after regrets. Some of us might pay for that fix. Think about it but please prioritize putting those yellow dots back in the school specific threads that indicated activity first. Crickets are chirping over there because of the loss of those dots.
Yes! I definitely miss those yellow dots. Unfortunately, the usefulness of the MT Schools section is no where near as great as it used to be because people don’t post much in each school’s forum; they know most people won’t look at it to respond. Anyone listening to this, mods and admins?
Also, does anyone else have a problem with constantly having to log in over again, as is several times in one session, on their smart phones? That never happened to me before the change, and now it always does. Very frustrating…
Back on topic, I’m sorry, but I don’t have too much to add. For my D, Pace didn’t make her list, but Tisch is on it. My D is a legit soprano and belt, but we were told and received a vibe that Pace wouldn’t appreciate her legit, classical strength as much as other programs, and that they were more “edgy,” which is not my D. D wanted a classical base vocally, at least in the first years of a program. We’ve surmised and have been told that Tisch has the approach she’d like.
You all know you can click on drafts near the top of the left column and delete those drafts forever… Right?