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On this weeks BTSD Alex referred to NYU film school as the "DeVry University of film schools," a school whole alumni is more notable for their profitability rather than their creativity. I'm not meaning to troll but I really think Alex is wrong about this. The following filmmakers have all graduated from Tisch School of Arts at NYU:

Woody Allen

Joel Coen of the Coen Brothers

Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine, Synecdoche New York, Being John Malkovich)

Ang Lee

Martin Scorsese

Oliver Stone

Paul Thomas Anderson (the good Paul Anderson)

I find it hard to understand how a school that has turned out some of the greatest filmmakers of our time "the DeVry" of film schools.

.............he also said specifically that there are exceptions and some really great filmmakers went to school there.

@JayDee: Fair enough, but I feel as though the majority of notable filmmakers to come out NYU are rather highly regarded as great creative minds. I can't think of many hack "cash in" directors, other than Ratner, that come out of there. Not everyone who graduates from NYU makes it in Hollywood but I feel as though the majority of those who do are fantastic, which is essentially the opposite of what Alex said.

I mean sure M Night came out of NYU, and while The Village is pretty bad, Lady in the Water is near unwatchable, and The Happening is one of the worst movies ever, I find The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs to all be competent and inspired films.

And Todd Phillips, while a cash in director now who is destined to make seventeen Hangover sequels, hasn't always been this way. His GG Allin documentary is fantastic, and Old School is still hilarious.

Ratner in my mind is the only "filmmaker" who always has and always will be kind of a hack to come out of NYU.

The Tisch film school graduates dozens of people every year i'm pretty sure, so odds are Ratner isn't the only hack filmmaker to come out of there, he probably is just one of the more famous ones. That said, NYU is still considered one of the top film schools in the country, so that's a nice compliment for DeVry in there somewhere.

I think you should mention that P.T. Anderson dropped out after a few days.

@htr10: Right. There are plenty of hacks that come out of there but most of them aren't notable. In general the notable ones are pretty great.

@ThePaleKing: totally forgot about that. My bad. NYU still claims him apparently though as he is a "notable alumni."

Do you go there?

I think Alex may have been mistaken when he was talking about NYU. I now think he was thinking of the New York Film Academy which is in fact the "DeVry of film schools". You can find their ads in the back of Rolling Stone magazine.