The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts (NYCDA) is a private, for-profit performing arts college located on West 19th Street in Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood. The school offers associate degrees in occupational studies, with specialization in Film and Television Performance, New Media for Actors, or Musical Theater Performance, as well as a four-week summer intensive program. In 2019 NYCDA announced an articulation agreement with The New School that allows NYCDA graduates to transfer up to 60 credits toward a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from The New School. Credits are also transferable toward Bachelor's degrees at Adelphi University in New York and the University of Northern Colorado.
NYCDA began in 1979 when actor Joan See—who worked on stage before finding more lucrative roles in television commercials—launched courses teaching others to apply the methods of renowned acting teacher Sanford Meisner to on-camera work. These classes evolved into the Actors in Advertising School the following year. See soon added a casting center to her organization. Her focus was turning out students who could earn a living from the business of commercial acting. The school was renamed The School for Film and Television in the 1990s, and in 2007 it became The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.
Today, NYCDA enrolls 257 students in full-time study. The student body is diverse, with 42.8% identifying as white, 20.4% Black or African American, 19.5% Hispanic or Latino, 2.56% Asian, 1.28% Two or More Races, 0.958% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders. Tuition is $35,350 per year.
The school has turned out some notable alumni, including actor Matthew Fox of Party of Five and Lost fame, Ashleigh Murray, star of Riverdale and Katy Keene, and Jacob Batalon, star of multiple Marvel movies, including Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
NYCDA currently has one academic building, located at 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011.
Student housing is offered through Educational Housing Service, a non-profit that manages dorm-like accommodations for students and interns across the city. NYCDA students live in the two Downtown Brooklyn EHS buildings, Found Study at 119 Columbia Heights and St. George Residence at 55 Clark Street. The cost is similar to traditional residence halls, ranging from $13,900 to $18,820 depending on the room type.
If you are attending NYCDA and looking for off-campus housing, consider checking out apartments for rent in the East Village, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and other Midtown and Lower Manhattan neighborhoods. While rents for studios or one-bedroom apartments are relatively high in these neighborhoods, rooms for rent can be a lot more affordable if you can find friends or classmates to share a unit.
Students can also branch out of Manhattan and check out Brooklyn neighborhoods, such as Downtown Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Bushwick.
Northwestern Queens is another excellent alternative. Take a look at RentHop's subway rent map and find out which subway stops on the F and M lines are the cheapest.
For alumni who stay in the city, most are spread throughout all five boroughs, with the majority in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
For people first moving into New York City, check out the RentHop Renters Guide. The guide explains everything you need to know about renting in the Big Apple, from finding your ideal apartment to signing the lease and completing the rental process.
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