<p>NotMamaRose,
I totally understand your question. My D did sit in on some classes at a few other schools. I do not speak for Tisch and you should ask a rep directly. Their website says that you can’t observe studio classes due to the participatory and creative nature of the studio classes. I understand their point as well because in these classes, the students are taking risks and so having an audience of people they don’t know watching each day isn’t conducive to that process. Then, of course, one could say ,“but they do that at other places”. I am GUESSING, however, that the sheer number of visitors to Tisch, or let’s just say CAP21 itself, would be HUGE, probably daily. If 1500 audition for CAP21 and even more likely visit than actually audition, that is a humongous number of visitors in these small studio classes in and out on a regular basis. I imagine that is part of the issue but I am just speculating. </p>
<p>My D did watch two dance classes arranged through her friend in CAP21. I imagine watching an acting class or a voice class is a bit different than watching a dance class as to what is going on in class that is conducive or not to a stream of observers. Frankly, by talking to current students (my D knew many), she had the information she needed to make her decision about her program. Observing classes was not crucial to her thorough exploration of each college, even though it is a helpful tool (then again, you see one class and it is not always indicative of the other classes). For example, on her audition day at Syracuse, when her audition was over, she had a friend who was a freshman in the MT program who was able to get her into their vocal class to observe. If she had judged the program on that one class, it would have been too bad because she liked the program, but the class was so so. The kids in the class kept telling her over and over again, “please don’t judge our program by this one class…the teacher is just so so…etc.” It was like a choral class and the teacher was going over such basic things that would have been below my D’s level of understanding of music. But overall, I am sure other classes may have been better. So, just like you can’t judge a program by talking to just one person in it, you can’t judge an entire program by one class or teacher you observe. She observed a ballet class at BOCO and the kids were so so in it but it wasn’t the highest level class. She saw their musical and it was great. So, you have to gather so much information to make an informed decision (let alone be admitted, no small feat). </p>
<p>Anyway, observing classes can be helpful but not crucial. Talking to students and teachers and administrators really helps. Examining the curriculum side by side with other schools’ curriculum also helps. Spending the night in the dorm and meeting many of the kids is helpful too. Seeing a show would be great, though we unfortunately only got to see shows at two schools, BOCO and Penn State. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t speak for NYU/Tisch and don’t know the rationale behind their policies but just shared my thoughts. It is best to talk to the source. </p>
<p>Susan</p>