<p>Hi,
My D was seriously considering PACE and I went online to check if there were any reviews on the school. I came across this site and was shocked by some of what I read. Does anyone have any experience with this school?
<a href="http://www.**************.com/NY/PAU_comments.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.**************.com/NY/PAU_comments.html</a></p>
<p>bisou - there are rules as far as attaching links to your threads. Sometimes the moderators remove them. Just an FYI.</p>
<p>I posted the link wrong sorry…</p>
<p>I used this search engine for the other schools my D is interested in and there were very few negative reviews for those schools. The amount of vehemence against PACE was a bit shocking. Over 51% were unhappy and were not going to return.</p>
<p>Pace retains around [78%</a> of full time freshmen](<a href=“College Navigator - Pace University”>College Navigator - Pace University). That’s just slightly lower than average for private universities which typically post a [retention</a> rate of 80.4%](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37240178/why-freshman-retention-rates-matter/]retention”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37240178/why-freshman-retention-rates-matter/)</p>
<p>Pace’s masters degree program is excellent. It is called the Actors Studio, and was just ranked in the top 20 drama schools.
We went to visit last summer for the undergrad program. We did not think it was a bad school by any means. It seemed like a school in transition from a BA to a BFA. They are building a new building as well as changing their program. My D’s acting teacher, who lives in NYC, said she would not apply now as it is a growing program. I think it will be a much more consistent program in a few years. We decided to take it off our list for those reasons.
It is not in the most attractive area of the city either. Safe enough but kind of ugly.</p>
<p>D has a friend who is thrilled to have transferred from Pace, and another who is thrilled to be transferring to Pace. It’s all about fit, as you will hear over and over here. Even with something as specialized as a BFA acting, there are a million different criteria. Don’t let stuff on some website keep you from making your own decision.</p>
<p>Agree with Gwen. We visited. it seemed very nice. the kids we met and granted they were promoting the school, seemed happy there. I don’t know any students there personally so I can’t comment on that.</p>
<p>My D and I visited the NYC campus a few weeks ago and loved it. Our tour guide didn’t have to tell us how much she loved it because she actually showed it. It just came through. Pace definitely became a fave of my D.</p>
<p>Funny, I initially felt the same as the OP about seeing the reviews and my first impression of the environment. After the audition, which for my daughter was her 11th, no correspondence from any other school mattered. She loved the area, the central location of the subway system, the proximity to any kind of an internship, proximity to seaport, financial district, food establishments, the resources in the building, the newly renovated Performing Arts building and most of all, the down to earth, helpful and non fake nature of the actual student body assisting with the auditions and when its your 11th, audition, you can tell the difference. She particularly loved the ingenuity and youthful nature of the faculty,how in touch they were with the dynamic industry and how they were either working artists or completely in touch with the working artists in the industry. And moreover, she was delighted that Pace encourages the kids to get real life experience, getting out there auditioning rather than discouraging them from auditioning while in the program. Yes a few of their programs are quite new: the film/tv/vo acting program, the International Performance Ensemble BA program and the Commercial Dance program but what an exciting environment to be part of, she can’t wait! </p>
<p>You are not guaranteed a thing when attending a tried and true program. I hear stories all the time about changes in department heads and treasured faculty who leave and beloved popular acting teaching methods changing directions in established programs completely changing the culture of the entire department. There are no guarantees. </p>
<p>Keep in mind when reading the reviews, that you are reading reviews of disgruntled students. There are a lot of kids who fall in love with Pace’s environment and opportunities and attend after being rejected from the Performing Arts program but are disenchanted and resentful prior to entering as freshman: It winds up being not what they were envisioning. Also, its not a campus school its a city school which is hard to swallow if your academic goals are not in sync with that kind of campus. The school is not for everyone. Be careful what you read on the internet even the positive reviews about certain colleges are sometimes instigated by college contests and internal paid college part time jobs.</p>
<p>m2g…thank you so much for this…I was hoping to find some positives and you have mentioned a lot of them. We may need to rethink things :)</p>
<p>D has visited 2 times already and loves the atmosphere. Kids were really enthusiastic classes we observed were full of students who looked like they were having a great time. She also loved that some of the Design Tech people were getting internships on off Broadway shows!</p>
<p>I know several kids who are currently attending and love it. As Gwen Fairfax noted, it’s about FIT. If PACE seems to FIT what your D is looking for, then why not keep it on the list?</p>
<p>Is it just me or is there no information about the new BFA on the website. I’m looking to apply in the fall as an alternative to Chapman (the only university that currently offered a BFA in screen acting - correct me if I’m wrong) as Chapman is religiously affiliated so not for me.</p>
<p>It’s a new program and I am not sure if it’s been approved yet. When my D was accepted they said BFA Acting or BA acting for screen and television pending approval</p>
<p>It’s probably not approved yet. They have started a bunch of new programs in the past couple of years and can’t officially talk about them until they are approved by the state but they still held auditions and there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t happen. That’s my theory, anyway.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the religious concerning Chapman, I’ve heard that is a non issue. Chapman and USC are excellant choices for you Z. Call Pace Performing Arts and ask the status of the accreditation of the film program. They are moving forward with a full class of students for that program for Sep 2013.</p>
<p>Chapman is not a religious school at all. When Southern California students want to go to a Christian school, Chapman is almost never on the list.</p>
<p>Final approval is “any minute” from what I’ve been told recently. </p>
<p>It wasn’t even close for my D. she had visited maybe 5 or 6 schools (3 in NYC) and wanted Pace above all.</p>
<p>She accepted the offer to the Film, Commercial and VO BFA and starts in September.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, the return rates for Pace University and Pace Performing Arts are different. In Performing Arts, we rarely lose folks from freshman to sophomore (this past year, we lost less than 10 across all six majors, or about a 96% return rate), and even less later on. What CAN affect the graduation in four years, however, is booking a gig that requires the student to be on tour or on set for an extended amount of time. We are, however, very good at keeping these students working toward a timely graduation by completing their academic courses online, and granting internship/directed study/independent study or other forms of college credit if it is appropriate for the experience.</p>