@Notmath1 Chris is the head of the Department of Drama. It is one of the departments in Tisch under the umbrella of the Institute of Performing Arts. There are 2000 applications for the 7 primary studios in the Department of Drama that incoming students can attend. The MT studio is New Studio. The other drama studios are Atlantic, Stella Adler, Meisner, Playwrights Horizon (also directing), Production and Design and Lee Strasberg. Anyone attending NYU Tisch as part of the Department of Drama will get a BFA degree in Drama. Students have different focuses depending on what studios they audition for and are assigned to during their time at NYU. There are no separate majors–they are all attending Tisch in the Department of Drama. As upperclassmen, students can choose to switch into other studios and there are 2 studios that are only for upperclassmen.
When one applies to Tisch’s Department of Drama they will choose what they want to audition for, but placement is done by the school. There are different requirements for different artistic reviews. One can have an artistic review in Acting, MT, Directing or Production and Design. Someone auditioning for MT can request that they are only considered for MT. Otherwise they are automatically considered for acting if they are not placed in MT (New Studio.)
So the 400 incoming freshmen students are placed within those 7 studios as incoming freshmen.
Now if you go to the website, you will see that there are other departments under the Instiutue of Performing Arts. In addition to the Department of Drama, one can apply to Dance or Performance Studies. Those are separate departments and are not included in the 2000 who apply to Drama.
In addition to the Institute of Performing Arts, Tisch also has the Kanbar Institute (Film and TV), Clive Davis Music and Cinema Studies.
Hope this helps clarify things.