<p>Which would you choose? SUNY Purchase Acting vs. NYU Tisch Drama? Has anyone out there ever had to decide?</p>
<p>I would say NYU Tisch. Spending your four college years in NYC gives you such an advantage once you graduate. You make valuable connections.</p>
<p>Thanks connyc. Are you enrolled at Tisch?</p>
<p>My son was accepted at Tisch, denied at Purchase…and ended up attending a BFA program at a third school.</p>
<p>If he had had to choose between Tisch and Purchase, he would have chosen Purchase. Partly because Purchase is cheaper, but mainly because Purchase offers a “tool box” approach to instruction. At Purchase, students are taught a number of different techniques or approaches to acting and can choose those that work best for them.</p>
<p>A primary consideration regarding Tisch is being confident that the primary studio you are placed in is a good fit for you. There are very large difference in the approaches to instruction at Adler, Atlantic, Meisner, Playwrights Horizons, and ETW.</p>
<p>In addition, Purchase is very near New York city and many of the faculty there are working professionals in the city, so it’s not as if you wouldn’t have connections there, if that is a big priority for you.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMom is so right about the toolbox approach, as opposed to the studios at NYU, which will teach only their approach. If it turns out not to be right for you it can be tricky to switch, all studios will want you to start at the beginning with their program. There is a great advantage to being exposed to many kinds of approaches, as you will encounter different ones with each director in the real world of the profession. Keep in mind at NYU you will be in your studio 3 days a week, all day long. Most of those studios have full programs other than their situation with NYU, I would check out those websites fully, and the faculty, and their experience with the professional world.
I also feel any school that consistently brings in pros to teach and direct are doing the right thing by the student, you might try to find out how much the various studios do this at NYU and Purchase.
I do know students who were happy with their studio at NYU, yet my daughter chose NYU over Purchase and regretted it. Every actor is so different, and it’s hard to know what kind of training you’ll do best with, it takes experience to know that about oneself.</p>
<p>I think it also matters when making this kind of decision whether the OP asking the question is a good student who cares at all about academics and would thus find the fact that even acting students at NYU Tisch are expected to be academically adept and have to take two liberal arts courses (quite rigorous) every semester. There is little question that the academics at NYU are at a much higher caliber, generally, than are those at Purchase. (Please know that I am not knocking Purchase. I just think the academics are one big obvious difference between the two schools.)</p>
<p>I think one has to be careful here about talking of a toolbox approach. For one thing, at Tisch, you can do more than one studio during your four year tenure. You could conceivably do three! Also, some studios in themselves have toolbox approaches. I’d say, for example, that ETW does. It is very possible to be exposed to a variety of approaches in your four years at Tisch.</p>
<p>As far as choosing between two schools…one is not better than the other and it is more about which one fits what you want in a college. Do a comparison of how each one meets your personal selection criteria. For example, do you care about the academic portion or the rigor of the academics? If you do, NYU matches that more. Do you care about the campus setting? Compare the curriculums of each program and so on. Both are great options but it is matter of which fits what you want specifically. </p>
<p>Just to note…I’m a parent of a Tisch grad and the aunt of an incoming Purchase student. I’m not saying which school to pick. I feel that is a very personal decision.</p>
<p>Agreed. Academics , NYC proximity, BA vs. BFA, cost and size of schools would seem to be major distinctions. NYU program is balanced with academics while Purchase is weighted heavily on technical training and related theatre studies. There are General Education requirements at Purchase for the BFA, typically one class per semester but most of a student’s time is spent training, preparing, rehearsing and performing, mirroring the professional world.</p>
<p>I think it’s all about what you want in a training. Purchase is very focused and very detailed in what the training is. Very personal and it’s a small community of some the finest young actors in the country.</p>
<p>Go visit both-- talk to everyone you can talk to, sit in on a class if possible, read all the literature, do the math, and then go with your gut. You’ve got two great choices!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, I will relay your replies to my nephew. He was not familiar with this website and I thought why not ask people who have the experience. I think visiting is a good idea. He has other schools to choose from and I am not sure if he is still in the running at these schools, but it’s still good information so thank you.</p>
<p>I go to Purchase, and several of the teachers who teach here either currently teach or have taught in NYU’s undergraduate drama studios. They pretty consistently seem to think that the large number of accepted students at NYU Tisch make it difficult for them (as teachers) to get to know their students on a personal level as well as they do at Purchase, and so the work often suffers. But, it’s all about what you want…if you want more academics, NYU is probably a better fit. If you want a true conservatory, Purchase fits.</p>
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<p>I would be surprised at any teacher who has only 13-15 students in a class (sometimes even fewer) and who has difficulty getting to know them well.</p>
<p>I might offer that though teachers have 13-15 students in class, that doesn’t mean that’s the total number of students they teach a year. Is that 13-15 in each class or each grade? How many students train at the studio total? There’s students in each year to consider (freshman-senior)–are there different teachers for each? There are also students outside of the NYU system that are training at the studio in the conservatory, short programs, workshops, etc. Do the teachers direct the students in productions? Offer one-on-one evaluations? Are they available for private meetings/coaching? How long is each class period? All of these things contribute to how well a teacher “gets to know” a student. Did the teacher choose the student personally based on audition, or were they “given” the student? That often has an effect, as well.</p>
<p>Teaching someone to act is a lot different than teaching them, for example, how to add. I think the considerations are a good deal more subtle than “13-15 students a class.”</p>
<p>gc, the answer to the question about the total number of students they teach in a year will vary by studio as well as by teacher. In my D’s experience at Tisch, the teachers she had in studio had no difficulty getting to know her and her classmates well. That was my point. She worked with several of her teachers both in and outside of class, on many different types of productions and projects, both as an actor and as a playwright. She was involved in a small theatre company during her years at Tisch, in addition to her school commitments and a few of her teachers were colleagues in that project. She is still close to several of the teachers she had at Tisch, and has worked with at least two or three, since graduating three years ago. There was never any issue with teachers not available for one on one work, private meetings, or coaching. Her studio held classes from 9-6 three days a week. Her academic classes were on the remaining two days. </p>
<p>I’m pretty well aware of how teachers get to know their students well, having taught at the university level myself. While it may be true that some teachers feel that having more than 15 students at a time makes it impossible to get to know them well, I don’t think that all feel that way. Having a small number can be beneficial in some ways but there are also benefits to having a larger faculty and the opportunity to work with several different teachers, as well as a larger and more diverse group of students, through your four years of college. Neither is better, they’re just different. Out of curiosity, how many students does Purchase accept and what is the normal class size? How big is the faculty, and how many are full-time? Any close ties I had with individuals at Purchase were several years ago so it would be nice to get a more recent view. Thanks!</p>
<p>I echo what alwaysamom wrote. My D’s teachers in both studios she studied at at Tisch knew her very well. She worked with them in class and with several of them outside of class. With a few, she is now working with them after graduating! She has been to the homes of some, including the university president. She knows the dean of Tisch and she knows her. As far as evaluations, every semester, every teacher my D had in studio, wrote narrative evaluations for each student. It was heavy on that more so than just a grade. I do not believe her teachers taught any non-NYU students in her studios at the time. In fact, one of her studios, ETW, is taught by Tisch faculty and there are no non-NYU students there. </p>
<p>I also agree that some like the idea of learning from more than a few teachers over four years as they learn different things from different people. Some also prefer to get to work with more than 15 kids during their four year college experience. It is not better, but just different. My kid was exposed to many directors, some were faculty and some were well known guest directors. She made many contacts while at Tisch and these contacts have fueled work outside of college both during college and afterward. </p>
<p>I don’t see much difference in individual attention if the class size is 15 and you have several groups with more teachers or if you have a program with just 15 kids and three teachers for all four years. In both cases, you connect in small classes and work intimately with teachers. And yes, in both cases, you meet one on one outside of class and have relationships. My D now has professional relationships with certain Tisch faculty, for pay. This is due to how well they knew her as a student. </p>
<p>By the way, the class periods in studio are long and similar to any other school. My kid was in studio from 9-6 three days per week (and in academic classes two days per week) and in rehearsals each night and weekend. The time spent in the conservatory with faculty and mentors is a LOT.</p>
<p>Also, in my D’s senior year, she did what is called an Independent Project (she wrote, composed, staged and acted in a musical) and for that, she had a one to one studio advisor for it, as well as the studio head met with her many times, as well as they brought in a famous playwright to meet with her one to one on her project as well. And that was just ONE thing she was in at studio that year, of many.</p>
<p>Another thing in my D’s studio, is that private voice lessons were part of the curriculum and she had that private teacher all four years. Any Tisch student can also do that, not just MT students.</p>
<p>At my studio, and from what I’ve heard most others, the teachers do not teach freshman-senior classes. One of my teachers only teaches freshman and the other only freshman/sophomore. Also, I’m not sure if this is the case at other studios, but at Strasberg some of the teachers are hired specifically to teach the NYU students, and do not teach at the regular institute. I have never had a problem with lack of attention, and teachers have always been willing to spend time after class, before class, etc to help me, whether it is in the Tisch Theater Studies course or a studio class. One of my teachers went out of his way to set up a Q and A with two well known movie/theater stars and e-mailed us/personally called us to let us know about it. This was not an NYU or Tisch sponsored event, this was an acting teacher spending a lot of his personal time and effort setting up a question and answer session so we could learn more about how these accomplished actors approached acting.</p>
<p>My post was hasty and curt, I apologize. In regards to Purchase–I really can’t answer, myself! However, I do know that they have a considerably smaller number of matriculating BFA students. I wasn’t posting in defense of the Purchase program, but in response to the issue of teacher/student relationships and what I perceived as a slightly perfunctory response to what I think is a very salient point about the Tisch BFA program. I’m glad your daughter’s experience was so good!</p>
<p>Perhaps I derailed the thread. Again, apologies!</p>
<p>Come to think about it, as a student, my kid went to South America all expenses paid in a small group with Tisch faculty. Now, as someone out of school for a year, she is performing all expenses paid in Europe this summer with a studio faculty member. She is performing two months later in The Middle East, all expenses paid plus a hefty salary, with a Tisch faculty member (not from studio). This doesn’t even take into account the stuff she has done in NYC with various faculty members. It has kept going past graduation and she is getting to go to many continents with various faculty members.</p>
<p>gc, I think some of us Tisch parents are just saying that while another school has less students, they also have less faculty. The ratio of faculty to student remains the same in a bigger program and thus the amount of individualized attention is no different. It is a matter of preference if you prefer to work with just a handful of teachers and students all four years or be exposed to building individual relationships with more faculty, directors, and students over four years. This is where the difference lies and is a matter of personal preference. Both situations afford the building of relationships with mentors. Both programs are excellent.</p>