Dilemma…D has been doing PrePro for years,…and tipping the scales if Pro is the way to go. But she’s top 1% in HS and a physics wiz (that didn’t come from me nor did the dancing). Any suggestions on universities for applying while she auditions? The ballet world cringes at “plan B” but she can’t not consider it.
Should have added more,…currently PrePro in Dance,…ballet specifically. And yes she has attended YAGP etc,…and gained recognition but not the top of the top.
Cost constraints? State of residency?
Do you have any stats for her? GPA, and test scores? Also, where does she want to go to school, what can you afford? Where do you live? You’ve provided very little information.
BTW, I had to google PrePro and YAGP to understand what you were talking about. You might want to be a little more careful about using acronyms that are so specific to her activity.
Is a strong on-campus ballet program necessary, or would an off-campus option work for her?
Would she consider a gap year to focus better on the college applications if the auditions don’t go as well as she’d like, or does she really want to be out of the house come next fall?
@me29034 Apologize,…kinda new at this,…mainly have been a reader in the forum. She is a junior in HS. Her GPA is 4.7, her practice PSAT was 225 and PreACT was 33. She is sitting for both in the coming months and has been told she will probably be aNational Merit selection. She is considering Stanford, DUKE and Rice. She carries quite the load with AP courses and full time ballet.
@happymomof1 I believe she would consider a gap year,…but wouldn’t a deferred year be better?
@ucbalumnus Cost factor? We would do the best for her,… we’ll stretch and hope for some merit assistance since dancing is not considered “athletic eligible.” CO residency
You need to do your financial planning first to figure out what you can really afford.
Then run the net price calculators on various universities to see if they will be affordable. Include less selective ones as well as the super selective ones you mentioned. Note that getting merit at super selective schools is super difficult, if it even exists (many have no merit).
There are different strategies - focus on the dance applications and then worry about college applications if the dance stuff doesn’t work out (gap year); apply to both, then defer a year at the best offer college if the dance stuff works out (deferral option) knowing that that deferral might turn into an eventual gee-I’m-never-going-to-study-there-after-all if the dancing thing turns into a multi-year career; apply to both and then attend the best college if the dance stuff doesn’t work out; etc.
I don’t know if any of us can tell you which application strategy is best for your family. I will recommend that you go spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum to get yourself really up-to-date on money issues. “Stretch and hope” doesn’t always work out well.
@ucbalumnus Thank you for the planning suggestion, but if she is excepted we will make it happen. She is driven and has the passion. In my heart of hearts, I don’t think I can deny her need to find out,…“I am good enough?” but be prepared for rejection and have plans in place to attend a university. So, I’m wondering, what universities may have strong ballet and math/sciences keeping in mind that a deferral could happen. And what are some peoples suggestions on how to pursue this logically or if anyone has gone down this road already?
@happymomof1 Basically that is the strategy we have been preparing for,…but sometimes timing is everything in the seasonal world of ballet. I am not looking for financial aid suggestions, but suggestions or people that have tried to attend a more selective college and pursued the possibility of ballet. Knowing that one or the other will win out. I have read several feeds suggesting, Julliard, Fordham, Vassar, Barnard etc,… but we haven’t seen the strong sciences there.
Ok I know nothing about ballet, but assuming you need major urban area? And strong sciences?
MIT? Harvard? Columbia? Georgia Tech (Atlanta)? Rice (Houston)? Cal Tech or Harvey Mudd? (LA–I think these might be tough without a car). U Chicago or Northwestern?
Barnard has an excellent dance program, offers physics and possibility of taking classes at Columbia University, and is located in one of the best cities for dance in the US.
A few others to consider: Vassar, Smith, Indiana, Chapman.
Smith could be generous with financial aid, considering your daughter’s science accomplishments.
@ubcalumnas Thank you again. And another question occurred -since when I was in school, we paid the tuition and its was a lot less - if merit isn’t really available at selective colleges, how are they saying to us at college visits that " a large amount of students aren’t paying full tuition",… if its not financial aid loans or merit scholarships, how does that truly work?
You need to do the financial planning so that you know that you can make it happen, or know that you cannot make it happen at some universities before she makes her university application list.
Financial aid grants, based on (usually parental) income and assets.
Here are the net price calculators for Stanford, Duke, and Rice that you mentioned above. Try them to see what financial aid (if any) you may get. Note: if the parents are divorced or separated, be sure to include both parents’ finances for these universities.
https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/calculator/
https://financialaid.duke.edu/net-price-calculator
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/rice
You’ve gotten great suggestions so far. For Duke, I’ll add that in addition to its offerings during the school year, Duke hosts the American Dance Festival in the summer.
Do a search on the forums, as this has been asked many times. Also check out the [Dance majors](Dance Major - College Confidential Forums) forum. Here’s a post by @monydad about his daughter’s college search:
To add to the recommendations so far, Wash U is often recommended on CC for students interested in dance and is an excellent option for students interested in the sciences.
Ok, just saw that you are CO residents. In addition to Utah (a true PrePro ballet program), try Arizona, which isn’t ballet-focused in the same way but is still preprofessional and will offer merit aid for good test scores.
Be wary of doing prepro ballet off campus plus full time student at a challenging school like Rice. The moment of truth where she will have to choose one or the other will come very quickly.
Glad that list I made (#16) has gotten some use.
FWIW this is how it ultimately worked out for my kid:
During the course of her senior year in high school her long-term interest in dance had already started to fade. Too bad she didn’t fully appreciate this as a trend.
Once she got to college her interest in it dipped more. She still took classes (which she was happy with IIRC), but it became more of a phys ed thing for her rather than a passionate interest. At that point she started looking around and decided there were many things about her chosen school, once dance was not a main focus, that she actually didn’t like. She wound up transferring. She took dance at her next school too, but it was a minor part of her experience there.
That school didn’t have as much, she took modern there I think. But it was enough for her given her revised level of interest. And, dance aside, she liked it there much better.
There’s a cautionary tale in there someplace.
OP’s daughter is a better dancer than mine was though, in all likelihood.