UCF/FSU vs NYU

filmoracting
Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:42:06 +0000

All my core classes were Honors Classes. I took AP Human Geography and American History. I have 3 Foreign Language Credits. I was ranked around 70 in my school of 425. I have taken a beginning acting class at my local community theater. Besides that I have no experience whatsoever.

I was very shy in high school and my parents pressured me to focus solely on academic classes rather than artistic classes. In free time I’ve made skits with friends and do a lot of drawing. I’m sure judging by all this I don’t have a great chance of even getting in but I did want to know how people with my background in terms of experience, not necessarily grades, got in.

I know I’m referring to a celebrity but bear with me because he was in a surprisingly similar situation to me. He never acted before college, he came from a lower-middle class family. His parents always pushed him to be a lawyer. He studied law in college and then transferred to NYU and took acting classes. Now I don’t know if he did the BFA or BA, or maybe even if they have acting for non majors classes (btw what’s the difference in terms of what training you receive between BFA and BA? Could you essentially take all the same classes?)

Also, how is UCF’s or FSU’s acting program compared to Tisch. I’m not looking for encouragement or people saying I will or will not get in academics wise. I’m just curious about the differences between schools and degrees.

My main thing is, there’s a few very successful actors out there who said they had little to no experience or talent, but got good enough for film & television because they got good training. They compared it to being a cabinet maker, in terms of acting being a craft. You’re not born being great at making cabinets, so you need to train your skills. Same goes for acting. Now I’m not taking away from the actors who have natural talent, and to be honest, I haven’t even acted enough to know if I have it. My teacher at the local theater said I showed a HUGE improvement over the 4 day class and pleaded me to audition for shows because they needed people my age.

In terms of transferring my plan is as follows. I’m going to attend my first year at UCF with a Film BFA pending. I may decide to pursue a different major and may not. I talked with the drama department and they suggested I do as much local theatre and acting for non-majors classes I could to get experience and then jump into it feet first.

If I end up doing well my first year I was planning on looking at NYU and FSU. I have no problem starting over and applying as a first year student if that means I’d be more likely to get in. I really don’t mind going to school for an extra 1-2 years.

At NYU the debt would be huge, but the opportunities would be great. At UCF, I’m not sure. I’ve been told Orlando is the hub of TV acting in my location and it’s close to Universal so they said that’s good. FSU I know is a very good acting school as well. So basically I’m just trying to find the pro’s and con’s of each Universities acting program from people who have experienced them.