tisch_arts_rep

Hey so...

Since these forum threads seem to be getting cluttered, I thought I'd create a new thread devoted entirely to specific questions about NYU/Tisch. Whether you're an incoming or prospective student, feel free to use this thread as a way to connect directly with someone who can answer your questions first-hand in regards to the studio system, study abroad/internship opportunities, housing/board, first-year classes, auditions, anything!

If you feel like your question is of a more personal nature, please do not hesitate to contact me through the private messaging option. I read this forum every couple of days and try my best to respond to all of the questions.

me'smom

My D is having ulcers over being waitlisted for NYU/Tisch. What are the actual odds of her being called in May? Should she send info about new awards earned since her original application? A letter from an artistic coach? As per instructions, she asked only academic teachers to write for her in November.
On a related theme: she has been accepted at a couple of excellent MT programs. If she does not get a call from Tisch, she plans to work hard and apply ED for a transfer. What are the stats on accepting transfers? She indicated CAP as her first choice, BTW, but told her auditioner she would take a different studio.
thanks so much

alwaysamom

me'smom, I'm not sure what the odds are on getting off the waiting list but I doubt that they're good. Tisch accepts more than they hope to yield, for instance, in Cap21, it's usually about 80 accepted with the hopes of about 63-65 enrolling. This current freshman year, if I'm not mistaken, almost everyone accepted ended up enrolling. Kids on the waitlist would have to hope that more than about 20 kids didn't accept the offer of admission so that they would then go to the waiting list. I don't know what it's like in Cap but my D who is in Atlantic doesn't know anyone who got in from the waiting list.

Perhaps tisch_arts_rep can give you exact details on transfer numbers, I'm not sure how many are admitted but I do know that transfers canNOT apply E.D. Early decision is only for freshman admissions.

me'smom

"always..." thanks so much for the straight skinny although, naturally, it's not exactly what I wanted to hear! I had no idea Tisch over-accepted, and we didn't go the ED route initially for a number of reasons. So - maybe next year. At least D has options, and we're very grateful for that. Any thoughts on OCU vs. Webster?

sissy

Webster without a doubt!!! Their acting training is phenominal!!! Private voice is classical training, which I believe is the same training as OCU. But the acting training your child will receive is exceptional!

Sporti2005

me'smom --

i was waitlisted last year for NYU/Tisch, also. i was told that the OVERALL waitlist for NYU ends accepting around 10% off of it.

you're very lucky that your daughter has other choices.

soozievt

Me'smom, congrats to your daughter on her acceptances! Tisch Arts Rep is being WONDERFUL to field questions. Just so you know, he/she is a STUDENT, not an official adminstrative rep for Tisch. He/she is a student rep for Tisch, sort of like an 'ambassador'. To obtain any official information, you should contact Tisch directly. Advice or information from a student's perspective is what is really wonderful to have people like TischArtsRep participating.

AlwaysAMom explained the difficult odds of getting off the waitlist. Tisch, like many schools, accepts more students than slots available. Most seniors have more than one acceptance and so can't necessarily attend each school to which they were accepted. So, schools will accept more students to eventually yield the number they wish to have in the entering class. Your D might be considered for any studio. But as AlwaysAMom wrote, traditionally Tisch has accepted approx. 80 students for CAP21 for about 64 slots in the class. So, even if not every student takes the offer, they still do not necessarily have to go to the waitlist to get their 64 students. Last year, all 80 took the offer. Colleges tend to establish a number they need to accept to yield the number they need based on a historic pattern from past years. Some years, conceivably less enroll than slots available and then a college will go to the waitlist. A school cannot provide you with odds for THIS year to get off a waitlist. But some schools can provide you with the total number on the waitlist and how many they took off it in the past five years, to give you some idea.

A student put on the waitlist can put some efforts into contacting the college and reiterating their interest in attending and why. If the school is the student's first choice, he/she can say so and that they would attend if accepted. One should only say that if true. Otherwise, it is best to say one of my top choices. Honesty is important. A student can send updates of achievements and activities since they sent their application. Additional recs could be sent if they DIFFER from the kinds of recs already sent. In your D's case, that could happen since you say she only sent academic teacher recs and no artistic recs. She should not send additional academic recs now. She could send artistic ones. In my view, not that this would have changed the outcome, she should have sent artistic supplemental recs with her applications, beyond the academic teacher recs. She also could have a guidance counselor contact the school on her behalf. But ALL that aside, it is very important that your daughter, and yourself, look at the situation realistically. She can put in these efforts as they cannot hurt. But after that, she must psychologically move on to the acceptances she DOES have. Move forward as if NYU will never come through. She can put some thought into the slim chance that she gets off the waitlist, what she would do in that situation but then let it go. Her focus now should be on the wonderful options she has.

She should brainstorm all the facets she likes about both OCU and Webster, any drawbacks, or any other criteria. It may become clear which school matches what SHE wants in a college best. That is what it is about, not what we think of OCU vs. Webster. If possible, she should return for accepted student events and often those help a student decide which feels like the best match. Talk to as many students and faculty at each school if you can.

Also, your D could not apply ED to Tisch as a transfer. I believe transfer students audition for Tisch in March. I would have your D go to whichever school she chooses with open eyes and not with a preconceived intention to transfer. She should experience that school. ONLY IF after six months there, she is unhappy, then entertain other options. But do not assume she could only be happy at Tisch. I feel quite certain that a student could be happy and thrive at far more than one school. It is not one school or nothing. With such difficult odds with BFA schools, it is best to not focus too much on a dream school. In fact, once your D is enrolled in OCU or Webster, it may feel like a dream six months from now when she loves it. Wait and see!

Good luck,
Susan
(by the way, I am a parent of a CAP21 freshman but I am also a college counselor)

kaysmom

Me'smom,

Last year my daughter's friend got off the waitlist for cap21 in May. She told them that was the only studio she would take and found out mid-May that she was accepted of the waitlist. She had already committed to Elon and decided just to stick with that decision and has loved Elon! So it is possible! Good luck to your daugher!!!

Kaysmom

jasmom

me'smom,
Please note that your d. probably increased her odds somewhat by agreeing to studios other than just CAP.

soozievt

I agree with Jasmom's statement in #9.

theatermom

Soozievt,

Are you absolutey sure that EACH and EVERY one of the 80 students who were offered admission to CAP last year accepted the offer? The fact that Kaysmom knows someone who was offered a spot off the waitlist suggests that there may have been SOME melt in CAP #'s. Clearly there are quite a few students who apply ED, who WANT to and MUST go when accepted. But of the students who applied and were accepted RD, does it make sense to you that not one of them would have been offered and accepted admission to another program, if only for financial reasons?

If this statistic is correct, i.e., CAP had NO melt last year, that must be some kind of collegiate record.

soozievt

Theatermom, no I have no direct information from CAP and have not spoken to anyone there to get that information that you seek. I have read several times about how they ended up with 80 this year and did not expect to have that many and had hoped to yield about 64. Even the information session we attended spoke of accepting 80 to yield 64 which is what has happened in the past. I was surprised to continually read that 80 chose to matriculate, implying no melt, like you say. I interpretted it as the state of elite BFA admissions and many taking these offers.

For instance, at UMich, didn't most who were offered as spot in the class of 20 or so take them last year? I recall the previous year Brent Wagner saying a year ago how they accepted 14 boys for 10 slots (current sophs) but all took the offer (14 boys enrolled) and so he was going to have to readjust last year (my D's year) and accept a smaller number like 12 to yield 10 and then if need be, go to the waitlist.

So, I was just interpretting that maybe last year at CAP, the yield was higher than normal as well. Now that Kaysmom mentions someone getting off the waitlist last year for CAP, that doesn't gel neatly wtih the over abundance in the yield. This would be a great question to find out from Tisch though!

Almost all colleges must accept more students than slots available. But we do see schools like CMU, for instance, or Otterbein, who accept JUST the number of slots available and then if need be, go to the waitlist. Like last year CMU took 3-4 girls for MT. I don't think any of them came from the waitlist and they also did not accept extras to yield that number. They explained to us that they do not use that practice. They accept the number they need and if they do not enrolll, then they utilize the priority waitlist at CMU. So, it appears that at some of the BFA schools, the yields lately are very high (percentage wise).

I just assumed that was what happened last year at CAP21 given the state of elite BFA admissions these days. But I honestly have NO direct information and only know what I hear and this has been mentioned by several people now. It doesn't make it fact, I realize. Maybe Tisch Arts Rep knows or can find out!

Susan

theatermom

Yes Susan, UM has had an extraordinarily high acceptance rate for the last three years. The hard info that I have yields an acceptance rate of approximately 94% for the classes of '07, '08 and '09 (80 offers, 75 acceptances). But that is 80 offers over three years, not 80 for one year. And with regard to the two other schools you cited, we're talking about an annual sum total of 18 students in TWO programs (10 MT's at CMU and 8 MT's at Otterbein). And from reading CC it is clear that Otterbein has already gone to its waitlist this year and CMU has done so in the not so distant past (cmujohanna's D). Clearly a 100% rate of acceptance of admission offers of that magnitude for a single year (as you guessed was the case at CAP) would be out of the ordinary. I have to believe that they accepted more than 80 students and for whatever reason decided to increase the size of the freshman class. Could be that they saw so many talented applicants they couldn't bring themselves to say "no." Kind of how I feel when eating chocolate........I've never met a Hershey bar I didn't like...... (I'm a cheap chocolate date - none of that "good stuff" for me..... Godiva? Yuck.......Lindt? You can have it all....)

soozievt

I simply don't have the answers and only related some things that were facts and then some things that were what I have heard several state about this year's class but that part is not clearcut or factual. In a post on CC earlier this year, Arthur Bartow stated accepting 75 to yield 64. Two years ago at a Tisch info. session, they discussed accepting 80 to yield 64. What happened for the class of '09, I am not sure, only that 80 enrolled and the word is that they yielded a higher number than predicted and a higher number than was optimal. Other than that, I don't have the answers. Kaysmom says someone got off the waitlist. Perhaps Tisch Arts Rep can ask someone at Tisch to clarify how many were accepted to CAP last year that resulted in a yield of 80. I can't answer that as I don't work there.

My discussion in my last post was simply inferences about several programs with which I am familiar and/or visited and their acceptance numbers and yields. I totally realize those are smaller programs. I was speaking in terms of percentages when it comes to yield. I was inferring that there was a trend of high yields in the last couple of years in the elite BFA programs and perhaps that explained last year's CAP numbers. It was an inference, not on total numbers but on yield percentages.....those who got into so called top BFA programs tended to take the offers, from observations the last couple of years. Brent addressed this at UMich and their adjustment in subsequent years to how many they would accept so as not to yield a higher number than they optimally wanted. It was merely discussion.

Maybe we can get a definitive answer. Until now, I only know what many have mentioned about the high yield rate for the class of '09 for CAP. I know that 80 is not their optimal number. Even Arthur Bartow stated here that they were looking to have about 64 CAP freshmen. That correlated with what we were told in an information session two years ago. What happened with the class of '09? I don't have the actual facts.

TischArtsRep....might you inquire?
Susan

alwaysamom

Here's a link to Arthur's post from late 2005 about the numbers accepted and ideally enrolled.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...63#post1369063

So, I would assume that if, for the current freshman class, for some reason they did, indeed, accept 80, it would appear that all did enroll. I suppose it's possible that they may have accepted a few more than that, but it's unlikely that it was very many more, simply because their goal has been in the range of 75 for a yield of 64, at least since the year before my D auditioned. When we first visited Tisch in 2001, we were given those numbers and they haven't changed since then. Maybe tisch_rep can inquire about it and also as to how someone was taken from the waiting list when the yield was already very high.