March 15 - NEW ASH/ASI Policy - 3 Classes in 12 months

[kevhines]

We are adding a new restriction to our Advanced Study Harold and Advanced Study Improv Classes in NYC.

Students are now only allowed to take 3 ASH/ASI classes over the course of 12 months. Therefore, if you have taken 3 or more ASH/ASI classes in the last 12 months you can not enroll in a new class.

This new rule is in effect now.

We are doing this to allow more opportunity for people who have gotten into few Adv. Study classes (or worse: never gotten into a class).

If you are someone who has taken a lot of classes and are worried about not getting into classes, keep in mind you only need to wait a few months. A few months of not taking classes and you will likely now be in a span of time when you have only taken 1 or 2 classes.

In the worst case scenario you might need to wait until Fall, but in most cases that we examined you would be able to take classes again this summer.

If you aren't sure how many classes you have taken in the last 12 months, sign up for a class. We'll let you know if you've taken 3 or more.

This does not restrict applying or enrolling in Adv Study Performance Classes (Like the Movie class or the recent Real Door Monoscene and Gator classes) and it doesn't restrict enrolling in most other application based classes (like the recent 4 week Nate Dern class or the upcoming Shannon O'Neil Class) - those classes are open to all students the teachers wish to consider, and they generally want to consider all the best students regardless of how many ASH/ASI classes you are in.

We only count ASH and ASI (multi-session classes) when calculating how many classes you've taken in the last 12 months.

In addition we are also working on a feature to let you know how many classes you've taken in the last 12 months and when you can next sign up.

We are looking into more ways to help ease the difficulty in enrolling into Adv. Study Classes. Even with this change our Adv Study classes will still have way more interested students then available slots. We're doing our best and we aren't blind to the problem. It'll likely never go away, but we do hope to make it better.

All of the above being said, we do stress that our Advanced Study classes are BEST served as supplements to your training. You should be in outside UCB practice groups or rehearsing indie teams. That should be the lion-share of your training at this point. We are so happy people want to take so many classes with us, it makes it so hard to meet demand! But it's only through classes and personal practice groups that people really are able to push themselves to the next level.

If there are any questions, ask here and I'll do my best to answer.

-Kevin Hines
Academic Supervisor of NY

[SloppyJoe]

Hi Kevin (et al, as I'm sure you were all involved in this),

I think this is great news and will help a lot! Thank you for listening to the community and responding.

* waits 3 months, doesn't get into an ASH, sends ddos attack

[dwmurray87]

I have a question about how this is figured out. Are you guys going to be counting how many class start dates I had in the past year, or like, just that I was in a class at three different times in the year? Like, if I wanted to take a class, and I took classes in January/February of this year, August/September of this year, and February/March of last year, that counts me out until the end of March, right?

[Hal]

Just a suggestion: what if Advanced Study Performance classes also count toward the three in the last 12 months? That way, you're not restricting people from taking ASP classes, but you are restricting people who have already taken them from signing up for an ASH/ASI that would be their fourth or fifth class of the year. Might open things up just a bit more.

(Either way, I think this is a good rule!)

[richjk]

[LukeKoz]

This is awesome! AS courses are great fun and help performers who've been around for a little while stay connected with new performers who've just made it through. It's also a great way to try new forms and find new collaborators for the outside training and performing you mentioned.

I don't have much else to add, but I felt a need to say "thumbs up!"

[anthonynohtna]

It's a fair move, glad you guys are addressing it even though I have to consider what I apply for now.

[leeapoth]

Thanks for listening to us. I think this is a good improvement.

[ChristinaCola]

[kevhines]

dwmurray87 -- We are counting number of unique courses. Not class sessions. If you take a 6 week ASH and an 8 week ASH that is two classes. If you take a third class, say an 8 week ASH again that is your limit until 12 months after your oldest class. In your example, you are correct, you would be able to enroll in a class at the end of March, which would have already passed.

if you took these three classes:
January/February of 2014,
August/September of 2014,
February/March of 2013

you would be free to take another class after that September 20114 one ended because you would have only been in 2 classes over the last 12 months.