Pace or NSB (NYU Tisch)

halflokum
Mon, 12 Jan 2015 20:35:01 +0000

Unless you happen upon a poster who has transferred from one program to the other, or a parent who has had kids in each, I don’t think anyone can really explain the main differences between the two programs. They can tell you about the program they know about.

So I’ll attempt to point you in the direction of some info about the program I do know something about (Tisch, NSB) and then suggest the things you may want to investigate further to draw your own conclusions.

Both schools require 128 credit hours to graduate. Pace requires 80 credit hours earned in studio and 44 from core curriculum but that indicates some of the credits can come from dance so I don’t know what that even means. Anyway, the link to that info is here: http://pace.smartcatalogiq.com/2014-2015/Undergraduate-Catalog/Schools/Dyson-College-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Undergraduate-Degree-Programs/Musical-Theater-Major-BFA

NYU requires 76 credit hours in studio and as many as 96 can be earned if electives are done in studio classes. There is no equivalent document that I have ever seen which details out the class descriptions for the MT studio classes at Tisch like the link I provided above for Pace. If you ever come across one, I’d love to know about it. You can get an idea of the program requirements here by clicking on the link to the Tisch Bulletin to the right under “downloads”. Go to page 45. http://students.tisch.nyu.edu/page/acadservices.html

One thing you can’t know is how exactly the word credit hours translates to actual time spent in class. It varies from program to program and unless someone can chime in with the data from an actual Pace MT schedule, I don’t know how you’d get that info. (Maybe call the school and ask?) As far as NSB goes, I posted this in a thread that I started last year. It breaks down the actual hours spent in studio and non studio. All studio classes add up to 8 credit hours at Tisch every semester. I don’t know how that works at Pace. I also don’t know if things at Tisch NSB have changed from when my daughter was a freshman or not so take this with a grain of salt. (She’s a junior now.) Anyway, it’s a start. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1550827-studio-training-contiuum-conservatory-not-and-everything-in-between-p1.html

I would assume that both schools, being located in the city that claims Broadway, would have excellent access to top notch adjunct faculty as well as core faculty. I know the Tisch faculty is overall, extraordinary. I’d assume the same for Pace but I don’t actually know. (So find out.)

The MT studio at Tisch is around 60-64 students. I do not know how big the Pace program is. NSB students are divided up into classes of around 15 or 16 for all studio classes. Dance classes are leveled. Music theory classes are leveled. Acting classes are not leveled. I don’t know how either size nor leveling compares to Pace. Something to ask.

You are assigned a primary training studio for your first two years at Tisch. So if that assignment is NSB (which is the only MT studio), you stay in that studio for two years or all four if that is your preference. However, if after two years you decide you would like to shift your focus to other areas (Playwriting, screen acting, straight acting, classical etc.) you can apply to transfer to a different studio track. No matter what studio you are in, you earn a BFA in Drama. Can you shift your training focus at Pace at any point in the program and still earn a BFA degree? Something to ask.

The NYU Tisch admission process takes academics into account 50% according to everything that is ever written about it and the targeted standard is high. To my knowledge, Pace does not have the same focus on academics but of course that doesn’t mean there are not very academically capable students that attend Pace. Only making the point that it doesn’t appear to be part of the admission criteria for Pace’s program so it could lend itself to a wider variety as far as academic track record goes. I do not know if this is the case or not but if it is something that is important to you, find out. Related to that, I’ve heard that Pace is far more generous when it comes to merit money for academically capable kids than Tisch is. If true and that describes you, that’s a big plus for Pace. Tisch gives very little in non-need merit scholarships.

Hope this helps. All the best!