Rowan Musical Theater vs. NYU Tisch?

SnoozeButton
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:37:26 +0000

Hey guys! So I have a tough decision on my hands!

I’m pursuing musical theater. Now, this is already not a great career choice, but I figure you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take (haha right?). Now that I’m at the end of the road, and I’ve crossed other schools off my list, my two final options are Rowan and Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Honestly, I would have jumped at the opportunity to study drama at Tisch in NYC, but here’s the problem – I’m paying for school all in loans, and I have a full ride to Rowan, and I would have to charge 50k a year to go to NYU (unless I commute, wherein it will be 32k and I’ll be commuting 90 minutes every day…).

Tisch is a legendary drama school, and its part of one of the top universities in the world (which is great because I plan to double major). It’s in NYC, which would allow me to start pursuing every opportunity now, and it’s a competetive program with tons of talent. However, I don’t know that I can justify 200k of debt when it comes time to graduate and I have trouble getting a job.

Truthfully, I wasn’t going to even audition at Rowan until I went to the STANJ competition and spoke to a recruiter, who sent a letter regarding a possible half-ride for drama students. Well, I got the half-ride – plus 16k scholarship for my SATs. Free college is tempting, but I don’t know anything about Rowan MT, and there is sparse information on the internet.

I can’t decide! If I go to Rowan I’m passing up a HUGE opportunity, but if I got to NYU I’m dooming myself to financial crisis (unless I can find some way to pay for it while I’m there – there’s a million ways to skin a cat in NYC). If it was for something else, like teaching or business or something, the decision would be easy. But acting is such an incredibly competetive, narrow field, that to make it you need to take every opportunity you get. It’s a bit of a predicament. Can anyone give information on the quality of a Rowan MT education?