jessiehl

I saw on the Tisch website (which I looked up after my little sister got accepted in Dramatic Writing) that Tisch students can double major in something outside of Tisch.

Does this mean that they get both a BFA and a BA? Or does the outside major get lumped under the BFA?

The context for why I am asking is here: Employability of BFAs

Summary: Sister is deciding between Tisch and another school (a very good school, but one that is not known for her field). Sister wants to go to Tisch. Mom is worried that Sister's BFA will make her unemployable if she needs a backup career (the issue is not the major - Mom was fine with the major until she realized it was a BFA). Someone on the thread suggested that Sister could double in a non-Tisch major. Which is an interesting idea, but doesn't resolve the problem unless it means that she gets a BA in addition to the BFA.

NOCCA Junior

You don't get both a BA and a BFA if you double major at NYU (some schools, like the University of Michigan, do that, but not NYU). If your little sister double majors, but was first and foremost accepted as a Dramatic Writing major in Tisch, she will solely get a BFA in Dramatic Writing (her degree will be officially called a BFA in Dramatic Writing and whatever else she majored in), and her other major will be shown on her transcript. But either way, it's definitely recognized that she double majored...it doesn't really matter if she has both a BA and a BFA, if it's grad school you guys are worried about. You can go to grad school with any degree, including a BFA...in fact, a lot of grad schools like to see variety. She can always put on her resume or job offer thingys that she double majored. In my case, for instance, though it's more because I'm highly interested in the subject than for practical reasons, I'm a BFA Drama major and I'm double majoring in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies next year, and taking Arabic language as part of my course requirements. I plan on going to grad school while auditioning, and will definitely get a lot of scholarship money from the government because Arabic is a critical language. Sooo...I guess you just have to be creative in these sorts of things.

jessiehl

Thanks for the info.

Grad school isn't the concern. It's that my mom is worried that a BFA (as opposed to a BA) will make her unemployable, if she needs a backup career. This has been discussed pretty helpfully in the thread that I linked to. If it had been the case that the double major would give her both sorts of degrees, I was going to suggest to her that she offer to double in some BA-granting major like dramatic literature as a compromise solution.

blaneyboy

I'm pretty bleak about the employment issue in general. There are tens of thousands of unemployed engineers in the United States, while engineering jobs are outsourced overseas, amidst a corporate PR campaign arguing that there aren't enough engineers in US. One rarely sees the reality behind that: a corporation can hire ten engineers in China and about 9 in India for the cost of one in America.

Beyond that, it has been apparent for a long time in any major American city that a bachelor's degree has replaced the high school diploma as the basic entry-level credential for office work. Ask any receptionist you encounter and there is a very good chance he or she is a college graduate.

The entry-level job is the key there. That's just to get you in the door. After that, your career depends on you ability.

So, BFA? BA? I don't think it matters. Indeed, my son who was hiring for dotcoms during the dotcom bubble once told me that when push came to shove, he always hired people in the arts, or people who had served on the newspaper or yearbook, since they knew how to work in teams and understood that the show must go on and deadlines must be met.

StickerShock

Truth is, the BFA is likely to be admired by some employers & scorned by others. There is no real way to predict which employer will have which reaction. The same goes for schools. The prestige schools like ivies on the east coast will not be a big draw in every situation, either. Sometimes the big state U has more prstige in an industry or a particular region.

JennyD123

If you double major in something out of Tisch you get a BA also. An example - my friend just graduated with a BFA in Theater and a BA in English Literature.

NOCCA Junior

Jenny D, you don't get both a BFA and a BA if you double major in the CAS. You only receive a BFA when you graduate, but it's a BFA in the two areas that you studies in...your friend graduated with a BFA in Drama and English Literature. The reason why I know this is because I've talked to several Tisch advisors recently about my double major that I plan on taking on next year (my sophomore year). It's also in the drama specific handbook, though it's obnoxiously difficult to find for some reason on the Tisch website. Some schools, like the University of Michigan, specify that you can indeed earn both a BFA and a BA if you apply and are accepted in both your BFA program (Acting, Musical Theatre, etc.) and their equivalent school of NYU's CAS, which is where one would earn their BA. But this is not the case at NYU/Tisch.

JennyD123

Oooh really? Then I should tell her, because she definitely thinks she has both!