I love Tisch kids.  I count them as some of my best friends.  Some of the most intelligent and thoughtful people I’ve met have been Tisch students.  So I don’t mean this to be offensive to any of them - BUT WHY ARE SOME TISCH PEOPLE SO IGNORANT? How is it that in COLLEGE you still don’t know how to write a research paper?  Or know when Columbus sailed the ocean blue?  Or even, who won the civil war?  

I write this little diatribe after overhearing a conversation between two Tisch freshmen in a dining hall.  They were talking about LSP (formerly GSP) aka the Liberal Studies Program - the program I was in for my first two years at NYU.  They said something along the lines of it being the “General Stupid People” program.  Now, I’ve heard this little joke before.  HA.  HA.  I can laugh at the silliness of it.  But what I can’t laugh at is the seriousness behind the joke.  The joke masks the bigger issue here, in that people actually think that GSP or LSP students didn’t have the means, whether intellectually or otherwise, to get into NYU on their own merit.  And this, coming from two Tisch freshmen who were complaining about an 8 page paper on Wes Anderson films, REALLY offends me.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  SOMEONE.  Assign me an 8 page paper on Wes Anderson.  In fact, no.  I would write it for fun.  I would LOVE to write a paper on something that interests me.  Instead of a 15 page paper on the political parties and religious beliefs of Dino Compagni and Niccolo Machiavelli during the Florentine Renaissance (which is a paper I actually just finished).  

Now I understand that not everyone is a writer.  This is fine.  But for you to complain about your 8 page paper, where your research is essentially to eat popcorn and watch movies, and then talk about the intelligence level of GSP/LSP students, is just ridiculous.  I don’t believe that intelligence exists in just one area - clearly I wouldn’t be able to do a LOT of the things that Tisch students do, and they are smarter in certain areas than I will ever be, but the difference is I RECOGNIZE that.  

After talking about how GSP is the easiest program to get into, they talked about how Tisch is the hardest.  There are so many things wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin.  First of all, you can’t apply to GSP (or you couldn’t when I went).  GSP students are picked by their grades and essays.  And you cannot really measure Tisch in this way anyway, because it is audition based.  Yes, it is an extremely respected school and yes, like NYU’s other schools it’s prestigious and hard to get into.  However, numbers wise - you could never prove it’s the hardest school to get into.  And WHY would you even care to?  Aren’t we done comparing SAT scores and grades?  I came to college to learn and be around my equals.  I didn’t realize I would have to be justifying my intelligence to someone who can’t DEAL with an 8 page paper.    

Tisch students are living out their dreams and in this way, they might be the luckiest people at NYU.  However, writing is my dream.  I’ve seen every one of my friends’ shows and only a few of them have shown any interest in my writing.  I’ve dated Tisch people for months who’ve never asked to read a poem, article, or paper I’ve written.  This frustration has been building in me for awhile and these two dumb giggly freshmen just set me off.  THESE ARE MY FRIENDS, MY BOYFRIENDS, MY PEERS —> I go out of my way to participate and be interested in their passions and they make little to no effort to reciprocate.  I’m done.  The next time one of MY Tisch FRIENDS asks me, “What’s your major again?” I’m going to SCREAM.  Almost four years here and some of them still have no idea what it is I do.    

I’m extremely proud of all my Tisch friends.  I hold them in great esteem.  I just wish some of them would get out of the Tisch bubble and take a walk around.  Come out, friends.  We can drink sweet tea and have a conversation about something that doesn’t involve the words “studio”, “rehearsal” or “head shots”.