Hello! I am currently committed to join Pace’s BA acting program, but I just got off the NYU waitlist today. I was in no way expecting to get off the waitlist (and certainly not this soon), so this is definitely a surprise. They gave me until May 10th (4 days from now…) to decide.
Here are my pros and cons for both:
PACE
Pros:
The devised aspect of the program is right up my alley, as devised theatre is one of my favorite forms of acting.
It also has an emphasis on physical acting, and I am very much a physical actor.
Overall, the program seems like a very good fit for me and has lots of opportunities for experimentation.
There’s a little dog park on the pier a few blocks away from their theatre building
Got into the honors college
I was awarded a 32,000/year scholarship, so I’m looking at about a 50K/year cost including housing, food, and books.
Much smaller school and program
Cons:
The BA program is not as well known and not well understood.
I entered this process looking to get a BFA in MT, and I would be doing neither of those.
The theatre building itself was a little bit underwhelming
When I auditioned for the BFA Acting program, the students running it kinda talked down the BA program, not sure if this is a widespread mindset tho.
I’m not sure how well students in the program do after graduation.
There’s fewer extracurricular activities (no choir) since it’s a smaller school
NYU
Pros:
It’s NYU (extremely big name)
I would have extremely good connection opportunities
All of the studios seem very cool and I can see myself at pretty much all of them.
The online audition that I did for them was definitely my favorite, I loved getting the chance to be interviewed on a deeper level.
More theatre-centered curriculum (BFA)
Overall, there’s just MORE
Cons:
$$$$$$. I would be paying full price (99K/yr total…). My mom says that she would be able to pay it, but I would feel guilty for making her spend that much money.
I have no idea what studio I would be in, and there’s overall just a LOT of unknowns, while at Pace I know exactly what I’m getting myself into.
It’s a much larger school, which isn’t exactly a con but I’m lowkey scared.
Thank you for reading all that! If anyone has any advice/opinions regarding either school, please lmk!!
The difficulty may be that readers’ have trouble digesting $99,000 a year COA for a theater degree as the expected ROI is very low. A four year NYU theater degree is likely to cost well over $400,000 as costs rise each year.
Can you double major if you enter Pace’s BA theater program ?
If you have serious talent and gain MT/Acting experience during your undergraduate years, you can apply to MFA programs which are funded. I cannot recall the funded MFA acting programs that I recently found through a quick online search, but there were several that were easy to find using Google.
I think it really comes down to how much money your mother really has. If you guys are so rich that an expensive school would make no difference to your family finances (i.e. you can afford it comfortably, with no loans and nobody having to raid their retirement account) then congrats and choose whichever appeals to you most!
But if that is NOT true, then turn any of those options down (this includes the Pace offer, if the $50K price would need loans or raiding the retirement etc.!)
Why do I say this? Because acting is a very low paying career for everybody except the tiny percentage who become stars. Everybody else needs to work a second job, often for decades, sometimes during their whole careers. If you have loans you need to be paying off, there will be no way you will be able to afford to live in NYC, or LA, or Chicago or any other big market. This is also true if your mom has to raid her savings, and later you end up having to support her. (Again, you can ignore this advice if you guys happen to be independently wealthy.)
For my own kid (theater tech, rather than acting, so not exactly the same, but same general guidelines apply) he got into Tisch at full pay but we couldn’t justify the price. We also couldn’t justify the price at a couple of schools he got into in the $50-60K total cost of attendance range. So in the end it came down to a school that would have been $40K, and a couple of schools around $25K (one of which was our state flagship.) He chose one of the $25K schools and is happy he did, because it leaves him with NO DEBT and so he has the option of living wherever he wants after graduation and won’t be paying expensive loans back.
I am trying to find a way to help you make a decision but not be mean. My S21 is at a lower price program and also got into both NYU and Pace BA. NYU is a higher thought of school with more opportunities. However, which studio you are assigned to often makes a difference. I cannot however imagine spending $400K on an acting degree, even if I could afford it. Did you apply or get accepted to any other programs? Being in NYC is not important for theatre training.
My next door neighbor chose Pace over NYU for financial reasons, she’s 33 and both she and her spouse are consistently in shows and making a living, I did receive a few babysitting reference calls for her the first year after graduation.
You really need to choose the lower cost option - especially with so many unknowns at NYU. Unless you KNOW your family is wealthy -clues: 3BR apt on the UWS, private day school legacy, cultural institution board member - you can’t justify 400k for a theater degree, knowing that even with the best of luck you won’t be making much money for years and will likely need another job just to pay rent etc. In fact whatever option means no debt at all -neither parental debt nor federal loans of 5.5k- is best but Pace typically packages the federal loans.
Here’s my advice. MT does not have a reputation for being a robustly employable major. To hopefully keep you away from working at Safeway out of college, would you be planning a double major? Perhaps business administration? As a parent, personally, I would have a very difficult time paying $400,000 for a bachelors, especially when there are plenty of in-state options available.
Actors make excellent sales people, especially if they target companies with robust sales management programs. From consumer products to industrial products to financial services to environmental remediation services to pharma sales… actors show up already adept at the empathy, “put yourself in your customer’s shoes” skills. Actors do well in human resources- I’ve hired actors for managerial roles in employee relations, labor relations, recruiting, employee communications. Actors do well in event planning and management- think about large convention centers which have huge (thousands of attendees) conferences lasting three days and then in 8 hours need to switch over to a completely different industry for a completely different type of attendee. I’ve hired actors for call center management roles- these are very stressful, high turnover jobs (you’ve got 400 phone lines, all of which need to be staffed 24/7 and a relatively unskilled workforce who work those jobs, so effectively running a call center requires someone who knows how to be “on”, who can train, inspire, motivate-- plus intervene when an irate customer call needs to be elevated. Actors are great at this.
Many skills one learns in a BA Acting program are fungible. And there are many working actors who will never be A-listers who earn a decent living (voice actors, training films/videos, podcast producers) as long as they are prepared to switch gears when necessary.
- you can’t justify 400k for a theater degree, knowing that even with the best of luck you won’t be making much money for years and will likely need another job just to pay rent etc. In fact whatever option means no debt at all -neither parental debt nor federal loans of 5.5k- is best but Pace typically packages the federal loans.