Tisch Acting BFA in Three Years?

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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<p>Somewhere on this forum, I think I recall reading that it is possible to earn an acting BFA from Tisch in 3 years. I can't find the post(s) now for the life of me, and I can't find anything about the topic on the school's website either.</p>

<p>My son was thrilled to receive an acceptance notice recently, but we are not expecting anything very great in the way of financial aid. </p>

<p>I assume that <em>if</em> it were possible for a student to graduate in three years, only three years' tuition would need to be paid. That would be nice. :-) But would those savings be offset by having to pay sizable amounts for summer school tuition and housing??</p>

<p>And would the student be able to audition for senior showcase?</p>

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<p>I searched for posts about “early graduation” in the NYU/Tisch MT forum (you access that forum through the schools list at the top of the Musical Theatre Majors page), and I learned that there are indeed a number of students who graduate from Tisch in three years to save money. </p>

<p>In addition, I learned that it is possible for acting students to audition for senior showcase in whatever year they graduate. On the other hand, it takes seven semesters for MT (Cap21) students to qualify for their program’s showcase.</p>

<p>If you have not yet discovered the great resources of the CC MT Forum, I suggest you check it out. There is a lot of info about acting programs as well as MT.</p>

<p>The MT Forum also offers current acceptance lists (by school and member name) to theatre/drama programs as well as MT programs. Very interesting reading. :-)</p>

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<p>NJtheatremom, I think that although there are a few Tisch kids who graduate in three years, it’s still pretty rare. The student would have to have entered with several AP credits in order to do this, particularly if they don’t want to do summer courses. There are other things to consider before planning on graduating in three years, the most important, in my opinion, being that the student would be missing out on the myriad of opportunities for a variety of training at Tisch. Exploring another studio is common. Taking summer classes <em>may</em> cut into the opportunity to do theatre-related summer work. Graduating early puts the student out into the ‘working world’ a year ahead of their peers, which may or may not be a positive thing. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a negative thing to graduate early but in my opinion, money should not be the number one deciding factor.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Alwaysamom. My son will have AP credits, and I believe he would be willing to go to summer school if it turned out that graduating early were the only way it looked like he could stay in Tisch because of financial considerations. At this point, he is very interested in classical theatre. Hopefully if he “had” to graduate in three years he might still have a chance at a semester in London and/or a semester in the classical studio at Tisch?</p>

<p>One question for you…how could graduating ahead of one’s peers be a disadvantage?</p>

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<p>I don’t have a child at Tisch but have had two others go through college—one at a large state university and one at an engineering university. The actual tuition is based on credit hours; the tuition figure on the website is based on the average courseload that students would take under a normal, four-year plan.</p>

<p>Taking more courses results in higher tuition per semester, and that is true at every college within my sphere of experience. There is not one set “semester” tuition which is the same regardless of how many classes are taken. Thus, a student could accelerate through the program—maybe, if all the classes are offered in the summers in the order in which they would have to be taken----but the total cost would remain the same.</p>

<p>Exceptions to this would be the programs in the United Kingdom. Their undergraduate degree is a three-year course where ours’ in the States is four years. The recently fallen dollar makes this option very attractive and certainly more affordable. However, the cost of living is still higher in the UK, and the cost of travel is very unpredictible and could, over the course of three years prove to outweigh the tuition savings.</p>

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<p>Skipsmom, thanks for that clarification about cost per credit hour. I can’t believe I didn’t know that. </p>

<p>Well, better to ask a dumb question and learn than to stay dumb. :-)</p>

<p>So the savings from early graduation would only be room and board savings…that is, provided the student could wangle super cheap housing during summer school.</p>

<p>I guess another consideration is the idea that the student could receive pay for professional work sooner. However, that seems so far in the murky future that it is difficult to imagine.</p>

<p>I have no idea whether many Tischies who graduate in four years earn substantial money from acting work during the summers???</p>

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<p>NJTheatre MOM, there are NO dumb questions----I am CONSTANTLY telling myself that :slight_smile: </p>

<p>My son is a high school junior now and we are just starting the process. My “plan” for his summers is for him to come home and get a job so he can help with his expenses to some small degree. Of course, if he got a great part in a play that paid nothing, or a pittance, I would find it hard to say no!</p>

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<p>I believe I did read that four years of studio are not required for the Tisch BFA in acting or MT. If that is true, the question is: what would be required in terms of extra tuition/credit hours in order to satisfy all of the other academic requirements in three year?</p>

<p>I may have to ask the people at Tisch about this if our financial aid package leaves a lot to be desired.</p>

<p>Still don’t understand what alwaysamom meant about possible negative aspects of being out in the working world before one’s peers. Just a maturity thing, or…??</p>

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<p>njtheatremom, sorry I didn’t get back to this thread til now and hadn’t seen your question to me. My comment was more one focussed on graduating early, rather than the issue of graduating earlier than one’s peers. In my opinion, if a student is fortunate enough to be able to gain entry to Tisch to study, then that student should take full advantage of every and any opportunity that that education provides. If a student has to take summer courses in order to fulfill requirements to allow for early graduation, then those summer months are lost to other possible theatre-related activities or work. I can only speak for what my D’s experience was and I can’t imagine ever wanting her to finish early, strictly due to financial concerns. I’m speaking honestly when I say that if finances were of such a concern, and I didn’t want her taking on student loan debt, we would have looked at other schools and a better financial fit. </p>

<p>She actually double-majored so she took full advantage of the academic offerings at NYU as well as the artistic ones. This obviously is not for every student, although many of her studio-mates did so, as well. Her opportunities during the summers, theatre-related, were important to her and to her education and training, and eventually led to what she’s currently doing, in addition to another job offer (she was fortunate enough to have three at graduation) which she took for a year prior to the job she has now. If she’d been in a position to have to take summer classes, she would not have had the opportunity to do what she did in the summer. Is it possible that she’d still have booked work upon graduation? She still would have had one offer because that came from a contact who had known her since her h/s work, but the other two would not have happened. There are so many things she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do if she’d not been available for theatre work during the summer months. So, obviously I’m looking at the issue through that filter but I don’t think that she’s unique in that regard. </p>

<p>The other issue, which is a more general one, is that it’s difficult for new grads to book work. Period. Let’s face it, this is one tough profession in which to earn a decent living, and most actors don’t, without other work. Doesn’t matter what college they go to, how much training they’ve had, how talented they are, the difficulty is there, for kids who want to do MT or legit theatre, even more so for legit theatre, where being young is not necessarily an advantage. Graduating a year early is only likely to exacerbate the issue. </p>

<p>You’re right that four years of studio are not required but the ability to do either advanced study in your primary studio or to audition for entry to another studio is one of the true highlights, in my opinion, of Tisch. Not being able to explore advanced studio options would be a shame. If you want to discuss the credit/tuition issue, along with this possibility of early graduation, I’d recommend you call and speak to Garrett Eisler, particularly as they(your questions) are related to studio work. He’s very nice and I’m sure he could help you with your questions. 212-998-1838.</p>

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<p>Thanks very much, Alwaysamom. My son has not yet heard from three of the schools he has applied to. NYU/Tisch is the only one where he has been accepted so far. We feel that CMU is an extreme long shot, Boston University is maybe a tiny bit less of a long shot, and Montclair State is at least a possibility at this point…though you can never tell.</p>

<p>Right now, we are hoping we could afford four years at Tisch for him. If, hypothetically, the only other program where my son was accepted was the BFA acting program at Montclair (where he has already been offered a full ride academically), I honestly believe that he would prefer three years at Tisch to four years at Montclair. </p>

<p>We have been looking at the minimum degree requirements on the Tisch web site. It is a little bit confusing because they use the term “points” instead of “credit hours.” If they mean the same thing, then it looks like a 4-point course might occupy half a semester. I’m not sure. </p>

<p>The “Sample Course of Study” page shows a typical semester as being an 18-point semester – 16 points plus two points for an optional elective. Beats me what kind of class a two-point elective would be. :-)</p>

<p>When your daughter double-majored, I’m assuming she was quite heavy on credit hours. Was it difficult to carry as many credit hours as she did during years when she was involved in rehearsals for productions at Tisch? She must have worked incredibly hard to achieve a double major without summer school.</p>

<p>I appreciate your recommending Garrett Eisler as someone good to talk to. Once we hear from the other colleges my son applied to and know what NYU is offering in terms of financial aid, we may or may not need to examine this subject much more closely.</p>

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<p>Picking up on what AlwaysAMom wrote, my daughter did not want to attempt to graduate early from Tisch. However, she has several friends who graduated in 3.5 years this past December or in other years in December, and that is not THAT hard to do. Graduating in three years is hard to accomplish. The kids who graduated in 3.5 years, had some AP credits and/or a summer session, etc. Also, Tisch Drama students carry 18 credits every semester (or at least the CAP kids do as they have Private Voice). So, the credits add up. </p>

<p>My own daughter graduated HS a year early (as well as entered K early) and so entered Tisch at age 16 and is about to graduate at age 20. She didn’t have AP credits (our HS barely had any AP designated courses when she attended and she also did not do senior year). However, she had NO interest in graduating Tisch early because like AlwaysAMom writes about, she truly wanted to take advantage to all that Tisch offers and not cut it short. She would not do summer sessions as she worked in her field every summer and these were very good experiences for her. Also, she took advantage of doing a different advanced studio for her final three semesters. She also wanted to write her own musical and produce it which is something she is doing in her final semester but would have been unlikely if graduating early. I really think she has taken advantage of so many fine opportunities offered her at Tisch and it was worth going for four years. I understand the financial dilemma. Perhaps if this is the make or break issue, your son may graduate in 3.5 years which saves some money and may not affect his summers either. It just is not the kind of degree program you would want to miss out on the opportunities that come with the four year plan. In that way, it is not like a BA as much (btw, I graduated my college in 3.5 years). </p>

<p>In my D’s case, since she already graduated HS so young, she didn’t want to rush college as she is aleady just gonna be 20 when she graduates this May. Perhaps someone else, however, would feel differently. Hitting the professional audition circuit early doesn’t have any advantages, that is for sure.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your perspective, Soozievt. Yes, my son would indeed want to take advantage of senior studios. He is interested in classical acting and would love a semester in London and/or a semester in the classical studio (there might be an element of redundancy in doing both??)…something that might be doable in 3.5 years, but probably not in 3 years as he would be absent from Tisch while in London!</p>

<p>Re the summer opportunities in theatre enjoyed by your daughter and Alwaysamom’s daughter while they were at Tisch…I assume that these were not paid gigs, but rather opportunities for experience and growth? </p>

<p>By the way, a few minutes ago I checked my son’s e-mail (which I do with his permission to track last minute rehearsal changes and such while he is busy at school or elsewhere) and discovered that he received an announcement of acceptance to the Montclair BFA Acting program at the same time that I was writing about Montclair on this thread.</p>

<p>Montclair has a good program. My son especially liked his auditioner there, and he is pleased by his acceptance.</p>

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<p>NJTheatreMom, congrats to your son on his Montclair acceptance! It is nice ot have options. </p>

<p>I cannot speak for what AlwaysAMom’s daughter did during her summers while in college. </p>

<p>For my own daughter…her summer after freshman year, she did summer stock theater and was paid a stipend and had free housing. She didn’t truly make money out of it but it was a professional experience at a small Equity theater. This is one common thing that many college theater students do (some gigs pay more than others, but many do not pay that much, but at least pay something and may provide housing). My daughter did not want to do summer stock theater after that summer. The past two summers she chose to work in her field in NYC. Her jobs were for pay and she had to support herself over the summer (we do not pay for our kids’ summers if they work away from home and they always work away from home). She also was in shows in NYC that didn’t pay but those were in addition to her paid theater jobs which actually paid a professional rate of pay. Last summer, she also netted a significant amount of money after her expenses and so this savings is helpful to her as she is now graduating. So, she has worked in her field every summer and yes, for pay. And since her paying jobs in theater were in NYC these last couple of summers, other opportunities arose that she was involved in for no pay but these were on top of her paying jobs. This summer, it is not really entirely thinking “summer job” as she will now be hitting the audition circuit as a recent graduate. But she has to fully support herself while doing it and has an offer for a professionally paying job that she did last summer again and she may do that to earn her keep (and she enjoys it) while auditioning. She did not want to do summer stock and wanted to remain in NYC, which is truly where she lives year round.</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks Soozievt. I had no idea that BFA Acting students could get paying acting jobs in the summer. My son would be in seventh heaven to have a summer like you described, with one gig for pay and a simultaneous opportunity that was not for pay but for growth and experience.</p>

<p>I’d have to assume that there are companies looking for students to cast in summer shows, since everyone talks about what a challenge it is for young’uns to get paid work in general…</p>

<p>New York is best for this, perhaps? (Another advantage of attending Tisch?) Or might there be similar opportunities in, say, Boston or Chicago? </p>

<p>Since my son was accepted at Tisch, he says a lot of people have told him that Tisch drama students can get free tickets to any Broadway play or show. Is this true?? He was awestruck.</p>

<p>My son has received a lot of congrats from friends and acquaintances on facebook, many of which run along the lines of “holy ****!!”…perhaps because he has done mostly community theatre work so far, and not everyone was aware that he was in the “NYU league.”</p>

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<p>paid summer theatre work happens all over the country. If you look on the musical theatre board you will see discussions about SETC, NETC, Strawhat… these are audition conferences where actors can audition for many theatres (from all over the country) once. This is one way that college students and young professionals will audition for work. Many theatre companies from around the country hold auditions in NY, Boston, Chicago, etc… to hire actors to come and work for them in the summer (and year round in terms of people who are no longer in school). Being in or near NY can make auditioning at open calls in NY easier, but I think that Sooze has mentioned before that the attendance policy for studio classes at Tisch is very strict, so it still might be difficult to audition, because going to auditions might require the student to miss class. </p>

<p>In terms of credits per semester… most schools have a maximum number of credits that the semester tuition covers, and then students would have to pay per credit for an “overload”, or to take summer classes. Depending on the school the maximum number of credits usually ranges from 18 - 21 credits per semester. Many schools also have GPA requirements for students who want to take an “overload” of credits in a given semester.</p>

<p>Congrats to your S!</p>

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<p>Thanks very much KatMT. I had heard of Summer Stock and always thought of it as something for older actors…a la “Summer in Ohio” from “The Last 5 Years.” :-)</p>

<p>I also had the image of summer theatre as mostly musicals. (My son is primarily a straight actor…he can sing and dance well enough to obtain leads in community theatre and amateur youth productions, but he could never compete against the high powered MT students from the top programs for summer stock musicals.)</p>

<p>It’s great to know that there is summer work in existence that pays more than a small stipend plus housing…though even that kind of gig might be just fine, for the experience. </p>

<p>Re credit hours, I appreciate your helping me see that I need to ask NYU what the maximum is that the tuition covers.</p>

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<p>NJTheatreMom…I think the max at NYU is 18 per semester. Also, knowing the BFA schedule as I do, and the fact that the BFA credits/classes are many more hours than in a BA college, it would be nearly impossible to take more than 18 anyway. </p>

<p>Summer stock is filled with many college aged actors. Some summer stock indeed includes plays/dramas. The Straw Hat auditions include auditions for actors who do not sing. </p>

<p>But there is a lot of OTHER summer jobs in theater that is not summer stock. My D doesn’t choose to do summer stock but is paid to work in her field. Many of her peers work in jobs in the theater world for pay, and these are not all acting jobs. While summer stock often doesn’t pay that well (some do, but most do not), a lot of other jobs in theater can pay well and my D has been paid quite well for other jobs, not summer stock ones.</p>

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<p>Oops sorry Soozie I missed your most recent post and started a new thread about the jobs. </p>

<p>Probably you are right about the 18 credits. It is just a little confusing. I get the idea that there are students at Tisch who double major AND don’t attend summer school AND spend endless hours each week in rehearsals after freshman year. How could that be possible?</p>

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<p>Depending on the BA program the number of actual hours in class may also make it nearly impossible to take more than 18 credits per semester. It all depends on the student, and the time required in and out of class (I know where I teach there are 1cr. major courses that require as much [if not more] work as a 3cr. course). Tallking to the faculty and current students might help get a better sense of how this will play out at each school. I graduated from a BFA program and teach in a BA program. The students in the BA program where I now teach do not have any more time than my peers and I had when studying in the BFA program. My guess is that this all depends on the program. All BFA programs are not a like… nor are all BA programs. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I know a few students in Tisch who graduated in 3.5 years. One with a double major. She had a large number of AP credits and took summer courses. </p>

<p>The pay at summer companies will vary from “you pay us” to $400/ $450 per week (VERY rare!) depending on the contract. Some will offer room and board, which makes a lower salary doable for some. Many of my students choose to work in non-performance theatre jobs in the summer, because these often [not always] will pay better than performance jobs. This all depends on the students skill set. </p>

<p>Best of luck!!!</p>

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<p>Hopefully if my son attends Tisch, he will have a very good adviser to help him select his non-studio, non-core courses for next fall and every other semester. </p>

<p>It really helps to be aware of these variables and considerations. Thank you!!</p>