My daughter is extremely torn about which way to go! Can anyone recommend schools that will allow a double major in both areas or give guidance as to which major to choose? We feel there are more scholarship opportunities for a female in the Math field, yet she is not done with her love of dance and wants opportunities to continue her ballet studies and performing.
I assume she is a junior at this point. I would look at schools that have dance minors or offer a B.A. in Dance. I would contact the school and speak to both the dance department and the mathematics depts. Our D is a senior and is applying to at least one school as a dance major and an exercise physiology major. Perhaps a bit more congruous than math but still a stem field. The other schools she is applying to have dance minors and dance companies that she can perform with if her audition goes well. Good luck.
What kind of school does she prefer (large state university, private university, small liberal arts college)? Any financial or geographical constraints? Are you looking for merit scholarships? What’s her GPA/test scores? Is she interested in a dual BA/BFA option or something less intense?
My daughter is a ballet dancer and so are most of her friends and they are all applying to college this year or next. Some are STEM kids. Some want to continue to pursue dance seriously, others want to scale back but remain active. Is she mostly interested in continuing with ballet or is contemporary/modern also of interest? Give me some more parameters and maybe I can help. I have done a lot of research on this topic as have the parents of my daughter’s friends.
Thank you for both responses. Sorry I didn’t go into detail as I didn’t want to be verbose. I appreciate your questions!!! Yes, she is a junior. As far as her preferences go, I think she is still undecided. We visited NY last year and toured 6 different “college” settings. We visited Columbia, NYU, SUNY Purchase, Boston Conservatory, Julliard, and Harvard. She had always been curious about NY (We live in San Diego, CA.) and we wanted to expose her to different types of campuses. What she learned from the visit is that she truly wanted a liberal arts experience, where she could cultivate both her artistic side, as well as her more “academic” side. She would love to continue to have many performing opportunities, possibly even find a small company to work for after college, but is desiring to achieve a degree that can be used beyond her dancing years. She has no interest in teaching dance. That is why the BFA looks most appealing to her. She absolutely loves math, but is also undecided as to whether she would branch off into the business side with that, or into the engineering side. As far as the physical setting of the school, she appreciated an actual “campus,” unlike NYU which truly is integrated into the city.
Geographically, she is wide open! She is excited to “go off to college” and we tested that last summer with a SI at the Hartt School at University of Hartford. She absolutely loved the experience. Financially, we are looking for Merit and “Foundational” scholarships as we were told that would be her best options. As I understand it, Ivy Leagues don’t award Merit scholarship so we aren’t really focused on them….we just wanted to see them since we were visiting. Her favorite and “Dream” university was Columbia….but is not something we can financially tackle. I doubt that is in the cards.
She is ranked 11th in her school, with this last semester having a GPA of 4.5. Her overall is a 4.23. Outside of school, she is participating in a mentoring program in one of our elementary schools, and is serving in positions in a couple of clubs. At school, she is a captain on the dance team and is an active member of the ASB. She has only taken the SAT once….scores were high in math, not so high in writing, and the area that needs the most work is Critical Reading. Scores were thrown out/not valid on that test in CA….some type of issue with the administration of the test. Then she took the PSAT and only scored an 1170. Obviously, not very high. Since that experience, she has also taken a mockACT and feels a bit better about that format. I think this is the test she will now be focusing on. Practice test materials are being looked at she can improve. 
Ballet and Contemporary are her two favorite genres of dance. Modern, not so much. Someone asked her recently….“How would you feel if you just stopped dancing after high school graduation?” To which she just absolutely shuttered! It has been her first passion since she was 2……but also really loves school and achieving at it.
She is excited to pursue a math related field….isn’t sure in which direction.
Questions in my head have been:
-Does she just declare Applied Mathematics (as a high school counselor recommended) and take dance classes somewhere nearby? My response to myself…how do we find a university near a company or studio that she would want to take at?
-Can she double major without being completely stressed out and overwhelmed? Do they even allow this type of double major? My response to myself….Will that first year of experiencing both majors help her to narrow down her path?
-Should she minor in Dance? Will that give her performance opportunities for the school as well as exposure to outside companies?
Thank you for all of your input. My brain just hurts at this point.
Here is an outside of the box suggestion. It would likely get her nearly full OOS tuition and she would be part of a unique and competitive program if accepted. The university overall is not nearly as competitive as some you have mentioned but the program itself is.
https://www.ohio.edu/honors/index.cfm
https://www.ohio.edu/honors/future-students/programs/math.cfm
https://www.ohio.edu/finearts/dance/index.cfm
https://www.ohio.edu/finearts/dance/academics/undergraduate-programs.cfm
It may not be what you are looking for but it is an option.
Others can correct me if I’m wrong but I believe a BFA is designed for dancers who are intending to be professional dancers. As such the programs are quite rigorous and time consuming and I believe it would be difficult if not impossible for someone to complete both a BFA and a BS.
Thank you@lvvcsf! I will take a look at that information!
I would suggest that she think about a major in math and a second major or a minor in dance, for some of the reasons already stated above.
I can’t speak on applied math, but on the dance front, if you are looking for places that have merit money, here goes:
If she wants to try for a BFA and likes NY, first option that came to mind was Fordham - there is merit money available and an established institutional relationships with Alvin Ailey and a somewhat less formal link to one of the other main NY ballet companies, can’t remember if it’s NYCB or ABT, probably the former.
If she is interested in LACs, Dickinson in Carlisle, PA, is affiliated with CPYB and has a strong dance program. Muhlenberg, Allentown PA, is very strong in health sciences (math?) and musical theater and dance is decent. Oberlin, St. Olaf (scholarships for dance majors), and Macalester have ballet and modern up to level 3/4. Kenyon and College of Wooster have some dance, less at Wooster but for some reason Wooster offers significant dance merit scholarships that can be stacked with other merit awards.
Universities: Wash U St Louis has everything you’d want in a university - very competitive - she’d need good test scores - and merit aid is available but similarly tough. USC has invested in a new theater/dance facility and has some merit scholarships, again competitive. SUNY Purchase has strong dance, don’t know what the financials would be for OOS. U of Washington - Seattle - has some small merit awards for OOS students but not much, but great dance program and outstanding school overall. U of Arizona and U of New Mexico also have good dance programs. She’d probably qualify for WUE tuition at UNM (or maybe even better than that, there are good merit awards for minimum GPA/test scores). U of A’s program is probably better for ballet; UNM is more modern-based but innovative and good.
WUE, BTW is western states undergraduate exchange - reduced tuition for OOS students within the consortium. The schools tend to be non-flagship with rare exceptions, and in CA are CSU rather than UC. But maybe worth a look. Can’t remember if Utah is a member but their BFA in dance is top notch.
I would also take a serious look at the UC system to see what it offers. I know she’d like to spread her wings but if I had such a resource available to me, I’d at least try for one or two of them.
FWIW, if it were my kid, I’d prefer her to pursue dance on campus rather than off. Knowing my daughter, if she were to get involved in a dance company, that would probably get sucked in and that would become her social circle and she’d miss out a lot on campus life. Your daughter may be different.
Good luck!
Another thing worth looking at are the non-departmental dance groups on campus. A typical LAC will have several, and some of them are really good. Probably not so ballet focused (though there may be some), but I would think there would be opportunities for contemporary. You can probably even find youtube videos of different ensembles.