University decision

[asanchez]

My name is Andrew Sanchez, I am a senior in high school; I've been a technical director for my school's theater program for the last year and have been working in theater technology for the last two, and am looking to pursue technical direction as a career. I've applied to five schools who have theater schools with Bachelor of the Fine Arts undergraduate programs (DePaul Univ., Emerson College, Ithaca College, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and USC) of which I have been accepted to four (all but USC).
Now I'm in the process of deciding which school I actually am going to attend, and therein lies my question:

Strictly in terms of the better school for technicians, which is the best? My decision of course will be based on multiple factors, but one of those is simply which is the best school fundamentally, and I'm not quite sure which that is, not objectively.

Thank you all for your time.

Andrew

 

[derekleffew]

All are great theatre programs, so I'd base my decision on other factors.

Do any NOT have a graduate program?
Coming from CA, would a change in climate be good?
Do you want to live, carless, in a large city?
Have you traveled to each campus and met representative faculty and current students?
Which has the best meal plan? Dorms? Non-theatre campus activities?
Cost doesn't appear to be a factor (based on the schools), but don't put yourself in the position of having a $100,000 debt and the prospects of making $10/hour after graduation.

Keep in mind that you'll likely need an MFA in Tech Direction, and a degree from any of the above schools should get you into any grad program in the country, so the choice, though life-critical as it may seem now, may not be all that important four years from now.