<p>Fish makes a very good point. Without seeing actual schedules, it’s still difficult to compare the amount of time spent in theatre related classes vs. non. Further investigation yet would be required to determine which academic classes are actually theatre related, and, of course, the ability to fill elective spots with even more theatre classes. The number of hours in the day spent in each, by having a look at actual students’ schedules will give prospective applicants a better idea of which type of program will suit them. A comparison of curriculum is/should be one of the most important parts of the research involved in various programs. Simply looking at percentages won’t necessarily give you enough information in order to make the determination. Credits are counted differently from school to school, which is another reason to seek out an actual schedule. </p>
<p>KEVP, it matters because some students want the bare minimum of any type of class other than those that are theatre related. Some want a good amount of academic coursework. No one is making a judgment in either direction here, simply attempting to get the most accurate information to those who require it. I think we’ve all seen comments on the forums about this program or that program not being a true conservatory. I applaud halflokum for starting a discussion that, if others will share their kids’ schedules, could be enormously helpful to future applicants.</p>
<p>Also, programs change, for example at Northwestern the freshman schedule had more theatre classes in it by the time my daughter was a junior. It’s important to research current information and not rely on former students.</p>
<p>@KEVP (forgot how to make those quote boxes) quote: "Does it really matter?</p>
<p>If you are getting the training you need and want and that fits your learning style, does it matter whether the program calls itself a “conservatory” or not?" </p>
<p>NO! It never mattered to me and in fact when I kept reading people referring to NYU as not offering conservatory-like training I honestly didn’t know what they were talking about. I only knew what went on at NYU, I didn’t know how that compared to any of the schools that people here refer to as true conservatories. But a friend asked me to elaborate on that and I realized I didn’t have an answer. So I decided to do the math and share my findings because I was still puzzled even with the data.</p>
<p>@Fish I had at least attempted to search many of the schools on your list to look for the sample schedules. UNCSA has one of the cleaner websites to find it (go Pickles) and I had added up the time taking out that film seminar class which NYU would have considered a non-studio class and thought, “huh, yes ActingDad is right. At least a second semester sophomore at UNCSA would spend about 1 hour and 45 minutes more in studio than my daughter just did at Tisch.” Now Tisch students probably need that 1 hour and 45 minutes to walk to class with studio space and housing from SoHo to Union Square (and even Pearl Studios in midtown for upper classmen). So thank goodness for that 1:45!</p>
<p>I also agree with amtc above. Programs can change as time goes by and also a student’s approach to their program can change at least at schools like NYU and NU where there is some flexibility in how “theatre heavy” one decides to set up their schedule. For example this semester, my daughter is spending an hour less in studio because she’s taking a theatre education class in Steinhardt for her education minor.</p>
<p>amtc, I was hoping you’d chime in, as my D is only a rising Sophomore and so has more limited experience. She is not planning on doing any MT related classes, though, and she will be minoring or double majoring. </p>
<p>The point, I think, is that a non-conservatory BA/BS college does allow more flexibility in scheduling, from 50%-75% theatre, and allows the student to focus on their interests. For instance, since my D is very interested in strengthening her classical acting, she took Shakespeare voice this quarter, and took a ‘regular’ class (with English majors) in Shakespeare textual analysis last year. This summer she spent doing an internship at a strong regional Shakespeare THeatre, with intensive classes. She will continue to take classes that speak to her interests, just as amtc’s D did. Again, this is just something that is good to know going in.</p>
<p>This sort of schedule - great for my D - would be really bad for my S.</p>
<p>Connections and AMTC, I assume that the classes they take are picked by them and can be arranged to have a day of no school or a few hours in between classes. I’m looking for programs like that in CA and NY.</p>
<p>One thing I noticed is one of the BA theater programs I researched will not allow the kids to take any of the classes that are offered to the BFA kids. So it is almost impossible to take any extra classes in theater beyond the required courses for the BA. :(</p>
<p>Most BA programs work like that. BFA’s are more structured.</p>
<p>Bisou - There are a plethora of BA’s with lots of theater electives available to everyone but it is true that if the school has a BFA Acting that’s probably not the best school for someone who really wants a BA.</p>
<p>@shacherry–Yes, if scheduling several hours off or a day off is very important to you, it’s possible to schedule it in a BA program, although a full day off is not guaranteed. </p>
<p>@bisouu, it depends on whether the college has a BFA program alongside the BA program. Northwestern, and many other colleges, do not.</p>
Do you mean second semester freshman year at Tisch that came to 19.5 in your D’s studio or did I miss you listing sophomore studio hours? I thought those remained somewhat constant through the first two years. Or did you mean total hours??? Those 23.5 weekly studio hours for freshmen and 32.5 for second years at UNCSA I calculated don’t include the film seminar or rehearsal time. It’s NFL opening day and I just got back from the pub with a couple of pints in me, so sorry if I’m missing something. </p>
<p>But yeah … I have heard of Tisch students supplementing their regular studio training with electives in things like masks, stage combat, dialects and audition technique once they got their gen eds done. Another thing that makes them such an enigma to classify and an exception in almost any discussion is that there is an apparent disparity in class hours between the different studios themselves. Maybe something has changed since 2010, but there was some discussion about that back then between a Tischie and a kid who’d done like I suggested and dug into the Course Catalogues and class schedulers … <a href=“NYU Tisch Studio Class Hours - Theater/Drama Majors - College Confidential Forums”>NYU Tisch Studio Class Hours - Theater/Drama Majors - College Confidential Forums; </p>
<p>Another big gray area in calculating this for a lot of schools is whether or not to include rehearsal time. At some schools like Juilliard, Purchase and UNCSA, casting is guaranteed, roles are assigned and it very much counts and is graded as an extension of studio hours. In fact, that’s pretty much all they do by senior year other than seminars with industry professionals, “physical conditioning” and whatnot. Then at other schools, casting is by audition, there are no guarantees and it’s more of a bonus than a graded requirement. It was like that at the first school I attended and I wrote a little about what that can come to mean in this old thread … <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/745268-schools-allow-freshman-audition-4.html#post8490221[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/745268-schools-allow-freshman-audition-4.html#post8490221</a> Not completely on-topic, but that was actually part of the unhappy “fishbowl” I found myself immersed in freshman year before I transferred home to my State U and then on to conservatory after going through all this mess a second time that has me still posting on a college board years later. :)</p>
<p>Hartt is a conservatory-- casting, which starts in the second year, works as Fishbowl describes above, with 20 hours a week spent in rehearsal as well as voice, movement, and acting classes. There are very few academic requirements, maybe 8 classes in 4 years. But the concept of rehearsal and performance as an essential part of the curriculum, with the directors as professors, is important there, (and very time consuming!).</p>
<p>Yes I did mean second semester freshman at Tisch. Realized the typo after it was too late to fix it. That was the time my daughter spent in studio classes spring semester last year. The 1:45 difference I referred to at UNCSA was because I added up that same sample schedule to 22:15, not 23.5 but in any case, my point was that yes, seems like more studio time in one vs. the other. And I didn’t even look at subsequent years because at the time I calculated it, I didn’t have a second year at Tisch’s schedule to compare it to. (Which I do now.) </p>
<p>If there is a disparity between studios, I can’t speak to that. I can only speak to a day in the life of someone in New Studio and in the case of my daughter, she’s also an MT. </p>
<p>I can say that it seems (so far anyway) that the gen eds that my daughter has taken to cover requirements at NYU seem to still have some sort of relationship to theatre. For example this semester she has “History of the American Musical” and as well as a teaching drama in secondary classroom class which is actually a grad level class taught in Steinhardt (where one can major in Theatre Education). </p>
<p>I thought about the question of rehearsal time variation between programs where casting is mandatory etc. vs. programs where you just have to get lucky enough to get cast. But to be honest that gets into the whole, “let’s out ache each other” factor don’t you think? Then we can get into, which program has more homework, papers, reading etc. and the reality is, there is no objective way to really classify any of these things. So I thought focusing on time in studio & academics was the way to go. Even that I find has no simple answer because of things like what is considered studio training in one school could be considered PE in another. Or what is studio in on school might be a history class in another. </p>
<p>So the real value in all of this in my mind is not to try to compare schools but simply to report on what it’s like on the ground as far as class time goes. And let’s face it, last I checked no matter what school you attend or where it is located, we are all talking about the same 24 hours in a day. I don’t think any of these students are sleeping much from the sounds of it.</p>
<p>Traveling all day today, and my iPhone type is just too small for my eyes anymore! The New School does count the core classes towards the 120…what they do is fufill a lot of the general eds within the Drama dept. For example, their science requirement is filled by a special class created for the Drama BFA program and only these kids can take it (it is a technology course that goes right over my head). As with most BFA programs, the BA theatre kids cannot take the BFA theatre courses, but the BFA kids can take the BA courses. My son is taking an Improv class in the Eugene Lang School this semester. As was explained to me, it is 75% BFA and 25% Gen Ed.</p>
Oh, [I</a> don’t think it’s about that](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vDjZmb4lE]I”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vDjZmb4lE). It’s just a gray area that will differ between schools that has to be given some consideration in trying to get an accurate picture. It’s just another one of those things that refuses to conform to the tidiness we’d like to impose. </p>
<p>But there’s no doubt that you’d be hard-pressed to find a BFA acting student who isn’t perpetually busy. The differences between what would generally be considered a conservatory or a more liberal arts oriented BFA are mainly in the mix of what students are busy with and it’s good to have a thread where that can be examined.</p>
<p>Really, the true conservatories are the UK schools where their accreditation standards call for keeping bankers’ hours for training and then rehearsing all night. And they don’t even call them conservatories. Just “drama school.”</p>
<p>I don’t remember how her schedule breaks down exactly day to day but she has a digitial media class and a composition class both of which are over by 10 and acting classes go till 6 most days. Unfortunately FBF – she doesn’t have any AP class credits so she’ll be stuck doing all of these. It basically works out to 2 academic classes a semester for the first 3 years and none in the 4th year. There is usually a break to grab lunch and that is about it. They have crew responsibility some percentage of evenings – but it is not as much as it will be in later year where they are rehearsing constantly.</p>
<p>FWIW, my daughter is in the BA program at Fordham (an auditioned BA) where she spends the day in classes and long into the night (I mean really really long, often into the wee hours) in rehearsal. She is both an actor an playwright and is in the throes of casting her first play there, for which she is the writer and producer (she will be graded). There is a professional director, but the all of the designers are students. In addition to her own productions, she also has crew and shop responsibilities and has (when not in production) opportunities to AD other productions. It’s at least as busy, from what I can tell, as a BFA. Certainly she is busier than the average BA student at an LAC (I teach at a selective university so I have some sense of workload.) Fordham accepts very few AP credits (hers were only good for electives, i.e., useless) so she has to take things like language and math in addition to her theater classes. In the end that’s one of the reasons she chose this program, because she wasn’t ready to sign off on academics entirely at 18.</p>
<p>This will all depend. College classes tend to be on a M/W, T/TH, or M/W/F schedule. Freshmen tend to have basic level coursework that is more tightly prescribed, so it could be very difficult to get the preference of a full day off or a large specific time off for a full time student. Many performing arts classes may have only one or a few sections to choose from, and these will be scheduled for a specific time.</p>
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It’s just a gray area that will differ between schools that has to be given some consideration in trying to get an accurate picture. It’s just another one of those things that refuses to conform to the tidiness we’d like to impose. </p>