The real NYADA?

Hi This is my first post! I'm a high school senior looking for the perfect (or the closest to perfect) MT college. The closest to NYADA. My heart is set on NYC but I really don't know which is the best program there. I like Pace, but I don't know much of its reputation. My other choice would be Ithaca, but am really not sure as far as location goes (not into outdoors or small towns at all!). I would like a conservatory BFA type program which will allow me to network and audition. Which would you say is the best MT college in NYC?(aside from Tisch which is too expensive) My dream school would be something very much like NYADA. Please help me!

New Yorkers may correct me, but Ithaca is a good four hours from the City. You could certainly get into town now and then, but you aren't going to be running into Manhattan for auditions every other day.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Unless you are now the perfect type to play 12-year-olds, concentrating on training and allowing your instrument to mature for a few years can only help you later.

ETA as long as I'm on an "old fart" rant here: when I was your age I wanted to do nothing but study performance. Yet I ended up directing for a decade or so and then became a playwright and dramaturg. All of which required knowledge of other arts, history, literature, psychology and philosophy. I have a lot of years of college under my belt now, but until I got to grad school, none of the most important classes were found in theater departments.

It's a big, wide world and you have plenty of time. Study as many different things as you can: you'll find that everything you learn will be useful at some point in your theatrical career.

And, no, I wouldn't have heeded this advice when I was your age either. So no worries on that score and best of luck to you in your college and later careers.

Updated On: 9/24/12 at 08:45 PM

I mean the prestige it has. The excitment it provokes. What it represents in the series, the top MT program in the country where you go to become a STAR!!! (I am very aware that colleges don't turn you into stars, you have to do that by yourself!)

In order to go to college in New York City and do well, especially if that is not where you grew up, you have to be extremely disciplined. I went to college in New York (and grew up within an hour's drive of Manhattan) and spent most of my time very distracted and busy with lots of non-college things. My grades suffered, and I know I didn't get nearly as much out of it as I should have. New York can be a wonderful place to learn and spend that particular period of your life. But it can also be a huge distraction, with the constant draw of something thrilling to do that's not your homework. And if you love New York and you want to go there for the theater, that can sometimes be very hard to do. I can't tell you how many times I put off work or did a half-ass job because I wanted to go to a show or a concert instead.

So there is something to be said about a place like Ithaca (which, by the way, is quite a good school). Yes, it's far from New York but if you're in a good program it can compensate for not being there all the time in terms of networking, and I think the nature of being more "isolated" without those distractions can allow you to focus better, hone your craft, and do what you are there to do. You shouldn't rule it out.

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Well, Juilliard is also non-degree granting, right? So you have to think about how important that is to you.

(I always assumed NYADA was ripped off of AMDA.)

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I don't know the details, luvtheEmcee, but I made the same assumption about the NYADA/AMDA connection. Only the latter wasn't that hard to get into when I last lived in New York decades ago.

You are certainly right about the distractions of NYC! I did my undergrad work at Columbia; my work didn't suffer, but I basically spent those years holed up in Morningside Heights and missed a lot of shows below 100th Street.

(I went to grad school at UCLA and rather envy those who have had the experience of a college more isolated from urban distractions. It's very much a fantasy of mine to go to a liberal arts college on a hill somewhere, a la Cal Arts.)

ETA: well said, kelly2. When I was at UCLA, they took 60 undergrads out of 900 applicants. They all had 4.0+ GPAs AND they could act, sing, dance, etc.

Updated On: 9/24/12 at 09:15 PM

Last personal note, I swear: luv, I lived in NYC for a few years before I went to college, so some of the glitter had worn off and I was better able to concentrate on school work.

Is this an elaborate RPG?

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I think Point Park University in Pittsburgh is supposed to have a good program as well.

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^ But you can keep a horse in the backyard.

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Yeah, don't be like me, kids.

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I thouight AMDA pretty much accepts anyone who can pay the tuition.

I thought NYADA was some Juilliard/NYU hybrid, with Whoopi Goldberg's character as some ersatz Leontyne Price.