<p>@writestuff58
How did the audition process for your daughter go? I’m quite nervous about that and do you know anything about the special circumstances they offer some people who have to do an artistic review?</p>
<p>I also wanted to ask your opinions! What do you think if someone took all their pre-requsite classes (i.e. math, science, english…ect) in a much cheaper college and then transfered into the program at NYU after they were done? Do you think the student would be behind the Tisch program?</p>
<p>You would still need to do six semesters at NYU, because that is the minimum number of professional training required for the BFA, so, yes, you could save money but only if you spent just one year at another institution. Plus, I would imagine that the odds for getting in as a transfer are lower than for a freshman admit.</p>
<p>I believe you would also have to make sure that the other school’s credits would be directly transferable to NYU. The NYU website suggests that an approval would be required.</p>
<p>Sorry for the delayed response. D found her NYU audition to be the most thoughtful and enjoyable of all…and she did many. They actually provided feedback and ran things more than once. She is a dancer and felt that part was easy. She felt that they did all they could to help auditioners succeed. The main thing is to be prepared! Regarding transfers, you definitely have to start at year one of studio. I do know one young man who transferred into Playwrights after two years elsewhere. He got to skip year two of studio and go into his advanced studio this year and graduate on time. He is definitely the exception though.</p>
<p>I have one academic and one performance question. First… My daughter ranks in the top 1% academically in national testing and is at a school ranked in the top 100 for hs. She will be taking all AP courses for several years. Many kids go to top ranked schools like Tufts, or BC or Ivies and are able to test out of a massive amount of academic classes. A friend just tested out of all math requirements and foreign language, etc. Is there anyone whose child was able to test out of many of their academics and if so how did this help with either a double major or early graduation. My daughter’s dream would be NYU for BFA with a double major. And if so which double majors are most common at NYU for BFA students. My second question is performance related. I know many working actors attend. My child has been extremely lucky and has been able to work regularly since age 9 with amazing people and had amazing opportunities. People are telling her to just go to school in NY in an academic major and keep auditioning. What kind of experience did most kids have going in and if they were working…fairly highly paid…consistently what was the benefit of the program over continued outside classes?</p>
<p>The students at Tisch Drama represent a range of experience and backgrounds, from actors with professional experience to students who have only been in high school shows. They go by what they say on the Admissions page: they are looking for natural ability and potential to benefit from the training.</p>
<p>In terms of majors and credits, I don’t know how you’d figure out what is popular double major. Yes, you can apply AP credits for Gen Ed classes, but not for Tisch. It is possible to graduate early.</p>
<p>No test scores can be used to place out of any Tisch academic requirements, which are a full year of “Writing the Essay” and seven semesters of theater studies. It is difficult to take any academic classes outside of Tisch freshman year, because WTE and Theater Studies are required that year, and the school discourages freshmen from taking a heavier load than this. After that, a student can always take at least one Gen Ed class, and depending how they organize their Theater Studies and how much of a credit load they want to take, they can take two a semester.</p>
<p>The acting training – aka “studio” or “professional training” – is a minimum of six semesters or a maximum of eight. Some students take an “academic semester” where they don’t do studio and take only academic classes.</p>
<p>Studio is on three days a week and the students take the academic classes on the other two. One difficulty this presents is that there may be courses offered only on a Studio Day and thus the student can’t take it, unless they are not doing studio that semester. </p>
<p>NYU also offers courses year-round, including studio offerings, so that students can fit in courses during the summer and don’t need to take a full semester load then either.</p>
<p>My D was just a freshman in NSB/MT and when we met with the department before applying, a double major was not discouraged but we were told that it would not be an easy thing to do. Sorry, I cannot comment on students there working professionally and attending school but the general rule is that freshman don’t get to perform at NYU the first year. Whether they can perform outside of the school is a different matter. I guess it comes down to the experience of being in a college atmosphere with academic subjects as well as theater related courses vs just taking studio classes and continuing to perform. Since she seems quite intelligent I would think she would want to go the academic route?? I would suggest you try to speak with someone in Tisch. Good luck!</p>
<p>sorry, I misread your question about experience / working while in school. If your child really wants to pursue an active professional life during her college years, then IMO Tisch would not be the right department for her. There are strict attendance policies for Studio and alot of outside class rehearsal time for any studio, whether or not your student is actually in a show – just the regular scenework for Studio requires the students to meet on their own time, which is difficult enough for them to coordinate without anyone doing outside professional commitments!</p>
<p>I don’t have a student in NSB, but I know from her friends who are in it that the time commitment is intense!!</p>
<p>I can’t speak on behalf of students who attend Tisch and also work professionally, so my opinion may be off base. I’m just talking about what I’ve seen from the school experience itself.</p>
<p>My daughter is a graduate of Tisch. She had peers at Tisch who did get academic credits through AP. In those cases, the students either were able to graduate early or else it does make it a bit easier to double major which generally is not so easy otherwise (but CAN be done). So, if your D enters with AP credits, it would benefit her aim to double major. She also can earn a BFA and have a minor which is a bit easier to accomplish. </p>
<p>As far as being a professional actor already, I will say that there are a number of professional actors who enter Tisch and so this would not be an exception. I can think of a few quite well known (on a national scale) actors who starred in movies as kids, for example, who attended Tisch for the excellent education as well as artistic training. It is hard to balance outside work with being a BFA student, however. It might necessitate taking a leave of absence if cast outside of school. I know some who have done that and returned to finish the degree. I also know someone who was cast and in order to juggle the NYC show and school, she transferred from Tisch into Gallatin at NYU.</p>
<p>Mara Wilson and Haley Joel Osment are recent examples of well-known successful child actors who got a BFA from Tisch Drama. Just speaks to the range I referred to above…</p>
<p>Dakota Fanning currently attends NYU, but in Gallatin I believe.</p>
<p>My S has been attending as a Theatre Major (acting) at NYU Abu Dhabi for two years and had a great experience. This semester he is in NY at Tisch in the EWT studio. He has just been accepted at RADA in London for the spring semester. Has anyone here have any insights into that program?</p>
<p>I’m a Tisch alum (class of 03) who did my primary training at Atlantic. I was just doing a show a couple years ago with some non-NYU Atlantic students a couple years ago, and have enough connections to the studio to know that my experience with Atlantic is still basically similar to how it is now.</p>
<p>Practical Aesthetics is a great training system that you might not truly appreciate until after you leave Atlantic. The “P” in PA is basically the heart of this training; the studio is very much aimed toward equipping the students with tools that you can use as a working actor. The studio isn’t bogged down in a lot of theory, conjecture, or emotionality; it’s all about prepping you for being a working actor, who has enough skills to survive on an actual job. The emphasis is on helping you deliver solid, interesting performances regardless of your emotional state. It’s all about freeing you from the boundaries of needing to “feel” in order to do. When you get out in the real world, nobody cares about what you “feel”, only that you can deliver, and do so consistently. I transferred into NYU, and had already had a couple years under my belt as a working actor in the DC area while I was attending my former college. So the whole emphasis on practical, sound training resonated with me as being vital for the professional actor.</p>
<p>But this is not to say there aren’t frustrations adapting to this method; it is not for everyone. Since most young actors are trained in some bastardized form of the Method, you can imagine this kind of approach can be jarring. More than any other acting training program at NYU, Atlantic stresses the use of the mind. There is a strong base of script analysis that weaves throughout the entire program, and a heavy emphasis on preparation and thinking. And yet, seemingly in total contrast, Atlantic teachers constant stress the importance of getting out of your head, and living intuitively, and authentically, in every moment on stage/screen. For a lot of us, the seeming contradiction played out early on with performances that were completely over-thought, emotionally distant, with a serious period of adjustment learning to both be thoughtful and purposed in analysis, but throwing all that away in actual performance. As with any training method, some swam and some drowned. </p>
<p>Also, more so than any other training I’ve ever had, Atlantic really pressed home the importance of the total instrument, acting from the top of your hair, to the soles of your feet. They were especially aware of the importance of voice (not singing) to the actor.</p>
<p>When I was there, Atlantic had the youngest faculty of all the programs. Many of my teachers were in their 20’s and 30’s, and everyone on the staff was still in hot pursuit of their own careers. That was refreshing, as a lot of programs are staffed by older faculty whose careers have long ended.</p>
<p>One of the more heady things about going to Atlantic was the fact that it’s under the umbrella of a very successful off-broadway theatre company. The school doubles as a rehearsal space for the theatre, and so you’d frequently see some pretty big names in entertainment casually walking the halls, sharing the same spaces where your classes took place. I will admit that it did foster a false sense of reality, and connection to the upper echelon of the business. I do think many of us idealistically thought it would be easier to “make it” than it really is.</p>
<p>You do a lot of work at Atlantic. Once you get in the thick of things, it’s not uncommon to have two or three scenes, a lengthy monologue, a voice piece, and a movement piece all due in the exact same week. We grumbled about the work, but Steve Hawley said to us “One day you are going to wish that you had this much work in your career”. Truer words…</p>
<p>I chose not to stay past the initial 2 year training program; I transferred into NYU with enough credits, and prior experience, that I only needed to complete 5 semesters of NYU, so a third year would have been a total waste of money. Even if I did stay on, after 2 years dedicated to a program it’s always good to stretch out and test the waters elsewhere. I appreciated Atlantic, but for me 2 years was definitely more than enough. I always had a love for film acting, so I finished out my time at NYU at the Stonestreet studio for TV/Film acting. It is here that the full weight of how good Atlantic really was hit home.</p>
<p>Once you get past your primary training, you have the option of studying further at other studios. Tisch, even among the acting studios, can be very segregated. This period of further “advanced” training is often the first time many students get to interact, and study with, other acting students from the various other studios. I did Stonestreet with a pretty good mixture of students from the other studios, including ETW, Stella Adler, Strasberg, and Mesiner.</p>
<p>Stonestreet was about as laid back a studio as you could get. At least this is what I, and the rest of my Atlantic folks who went with me, thought. I remember, in week 2 or 3 I believe, we were assigned a monologue and a few short scenes that needed to be memorized in less than a week. The Atlanticites shrugged our shoulders, as this was typical, even lite, but nearly every other student from the other studios panicked. The big question; how are suppose to memorize that much material so soon? One girl, who ended up eventually being a friend of mine, was from ETW and she was NEVER, not once, asked to memorize a monologue in her time in that studio. She was having a full blown anxiety attack. It was a HUGE eye opening moment for us. Here we had been complaining about the workload for years, only to discover that we indeed were ready to take on work at a moment’s notice, and the other students, in comparison, just were not. Some of the other students were floored, and even a bit perturbed, that we were unfazed and so calm. I do not know if this has changed, but it was a pretty amazing revelation at the time. </p>
<p>I’ve taken some serious time off the pursuit of my career off and on since then. I decided this year to go back full force. Had an audition a few weeks ago, my first in a long time, and I had to memorize two Shakespeare monologues, and do 16 bars from a song. How amazing, after so many years away, to be able to pull out these tools and get right back into shape? That long ago Atlantic training has been playing a beautiful role in me reconnecting with my career, my craft, my art.</p>
<p>I did not mean to write a dissertation, but I really wanted to lay down some first hand experience I’ve had with this program. No matter where each of you end up, enjoy it! My time at NYU, which had been my dream school since the 7th grade, was truly one of the most amazing times of my entire life so far.</p>
<p>^^^This is one of the best posts that I have ever read in CC. I wish there was a link to it on Tisch’s website. It is incredibly hard to get a truly good read of what the various studios are really about. Your post is the closest I’ve ever seen something in writing come to describing that experience in real language. I wish there was the equivalent description for each and every studio option. Saving and sending it to my neighbor whose daughter will likely apply to Tisch for acting next year and also sending to my daughter who is now in Tisch but may or may not decide to change studios down the road. Thanks for taking the time to post.</p>
<p>Thank you, Iwish. I will send this to my D who requested Atlantic as one of her top choices ( She has been accepted at Tisch already). My D has a friend in Atlantic who also highly recommended it. Coincidentally, my D also intends to do Stonestreet for her advanced work. This has been very helpful and it is wonderful to feel your enthusiasm and love for your craft coming through in your description.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>
<p>You’re absolutely welcome!</p>
<p>A big “thank you” from here as well! My D was placed into Atlantic, though her heart had been on New Studio/MT. However the connection to such an edgy crowd, like Mamet and Macy has us so excited for her. Between Atlantic and the other studios, how do you think the admissions decided to make the placements? is it a certain look? how they did their monologue/audition? Or do they just need spots to fill? Would you know kids who have been heavy into MT who’ve been placed into Atlantic and what their experiences have been? I guess i’d like to think they saw my D having a certain street-smart look, but that might be her biased Dad hallucinating again! :-)</p>
<p>I don’t have an answer to your questions but I do know kids who have been heavily engaged in MT who landed at Atlantic and liked it very much. All Tisch students can sign up for private voice and audition for musicals.</p>
<p>thanks! so happy for her!</p>
<p>My d is heavy into MT and just finished her first year in Atlantic. although initially heartbroken, and even investigated switching, she is very happy with Atlantic and glad she is there. I know mine was tops at her high school , literally, in a very academic achieving school. We decided it’s like Harry Potter, an unknown sorting that works out perfectly. I think the Atlantic studio is demanding, and the kids have a lot of scenes they work on at the same time so it’s a bunch of smart kids.
She took dance at Peridance which is almost on campus. They have a punch card system so you go to the classes you can get to. There are voice classes through Tisch but through connections, she found a private teacher she really likes.</p>