<p>I’m a current Tisch student who has studied at two acting studios, and I have made it a point to study with teachers outside of NYU to gain varying perspectives on my training at Tisch. I have taken acting classes outside of the school, private voice training outside, and now I am doing a career-oriented program where I contact Tisch alums who are working in the industry (agents, managers, actors, casting directors) for their input. Their input is that Tisch Drama is definitely considered to be a great school, but it is considered now to be a Top 10 Acting school instead of a Top 5. I have heard directly from Casting directors that a Tisch undergrad diploma does not have the same pull as a CMU, Yale MFA, Michigan MT, CCM MT, etc but it doesn’t look bad either. The way someone put it for me, a Tisch diploma won’t get you in the door but if you have a good audition and they see Tisch Drama they will know you have been well trained. </p>
<p>Also, one of the biggest advantages is that Tisch Drama students take theater studies and academic courses, which gives them more depth and intellectual context than someone coming from Pace or any other conservatory program. And for me, I chose Tisch because I simply have to be around actors who are also CURIOUS about the world and who won’t just be satisfied with shuffle, ball change. I think those kinds of actors often have very little going on behind the eyes and everything is performed at a surface/fake level. At one of my theater studies classes last week I was just amazed at how deep of a conversation we were having about theater and its relationship to race. I thought to myself, this is why I chose Tisch because I know that theater is not just some childhood fantasy but that it affects people and I am in a classroom with people who are so smart and aware of the fact that there is life/a world outside of the theater and that more often than not theater is influenced by that very world. Theater is an interpretation of life, and you can’t interpret anything if you don’t have a life. So I’m a bit concerned with programs where all you do is sing, dance, and act. You have the rest of your life to do that, to be honest, and no college BFA program will completely prepare you so that you never take a performing class again.</p>
<p>That being said, Tisch Drama has some particular weaknesses.
- Because it is not a conservatory there are fewer contact hours in terms of professional training. Someone who is going to Carnegie Mellon BFA MT will simply be taking more “studio” classes than someone at Tisch. At the end of the day, some things just won’t be covered in the Tisch curriculum that it will be in a conservatory program. Whether it is more dance classes, a TV/Film Audition class, Stage Combat, more in depth acting instruction, or whatever something has to go to fit in those academic classes. And there is a lot to learn to prepare ourselves for this industry. Not only will Tisch Drama students (whom have an average of 22 studi0 hours a week) have to face students who have graduated from conservatory programs with 30 studio hours a week (and in four years the gap in hrs between Tisch and conservatories is a lot), they will have to face more experienced actors who also look young and can play young. </p>
<p>As a result, I have found it necessary to supplement my Tisch training during the summers with summer intensives. As well as occasionally taking an audition workshop, or dance classes on Saturdays, or doing a TV/Film Acting class over winter break.</p>
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<li><p>Tisch Drama classes are inarguably huge. The two studios I have been to have groups of 12-14. New Studio on Broadway classes I believe are capped at 18 (although I have heard of instances from my friends where they have had to go over that and have reached 22). This is in my opinion unacceptable. You cannot tell me that they will get the same amount of attention from schools like Michigan where they have only 8-10 people per group. Either students will be doing shorter scenes or they will work in class fewer times or something.</p></li>
<li><p>As a result of having approximately 60 students per class per studio, some studios do not have the same teachers teaching all the groups. So one group may have one teacher and another group may have another, and while this is good to get varying perspectives, it at times can be conflicting and make the curriculum seem not well planned out. This was the case at my first studio. Now in my second studio, we have the same teachers who teach all the groups. That being said, teaching 5 groups of 14-16 students is a lot and therefore teachers often aren’t able to remember specifically what each student may or may not need to work on. They try their best and take notes, but come on. </p></li>
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<p>I don’t really know that much about Pace so I can’t comment on it. But I’ve tried to be as honest as I can. Keep in mind I wouldn’t trade my Tisch education for anything, and I personally would not have to Pace. My options would have been CMU, U Mich, or NYU. NYU has SO MANY advantages and opportunities that other schools do not have and I have taken advantage of these opportunities and have felt so lucky to be at NYU. I can talk more about those if you want. That being said, NYU’s BFA program is different from most and as a result there can be perceived DISADVANTAGES, and you would be a fool I think to not recognize those. No school is perfect, and Tisch certainly is far from perfect. (But then again, how close to perfect is Pace?)</p>
<p>Now these are all my opinions, but I have gotten them from talking to teachers at Tisch, teachers outside of Tisch, casting directors who have graduated from Tisch (so it’s not like they intentionally want to bad mouth Tisch. but they have to talk about the reality), agents/managers who have graduated from Tisch, actors who have graduated from Tisch who are NOT working, and actors who have graduated from Tisch who ARE working.</p>
<p>I also don’t know much about the New Studio on Broadway, although to be honest I’ve heard criticism from some students that its contact hours are “light” especially compared to that of Atlantic Acting School or CAP21. Lets keep in mind that more studio hours = more money and CAP21 was cut to save Tisch money. I am however more familiar with CAP21 and I can tell you in terms of students with “experience”, there are some stand outs and some really mediocre people. And why Tisch does not weed those people out is bothersome to me, when they list Tisch on their resume and give a horrible audition as well as being unprepared in terms of professional presentation, it makes us ALL look bad.</p>