I have been dancing since I was 2-years-old, at a pre-professional level since I was 8. I train anywhere from 20-40 hours per week, have performed lead roles in several ballet productions, and have been accepted to/trained at The Royal Ballet School (merit scholarship), Pacific Northwest Ballet (merit scholarship), and The Harid Conservatory (merit scholarship). For a long time I assumed that I would defer college until after I finished dancing professionally, but after getting injured last year (though I am now fully healed and back to dancing) I realized that I would not be satisfied solely dancing and not pursuing college. Although I didn’t focus on my school work, I still managed to maintain good grades taking the most rigorous class load my public school offers. I’m currently a high school junior enrolled in the IB Diploma program, and I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA (4.8 weighted). I am ranked first in my class of about 500. I have not taken the ACT or SAT yet, but I have taken a few practice tests and I appear to be in the 33-35 or 1500-1590 score range (fingers crossed haha). How do schools, particularly ivies, look at my ballet training? I haven’t had time to do much else besides ballet EC wise, although I am also an active member in my school’s Math Honor Society, NHS, and Key Club. Would I be a competitive applicant for schools such as Princeton, Columbia, Vanderbilt, etc? How should I continue my last two years of high school to make my application as solid as possible? Thanks for your help!
To add to the above: My HL IB classes are English, Global Politics, and Psychology and my SL classes are Biology, Math, and Spanish B. I want to pursue a political science degree and go to law school. I am caucasian, from a middle-class family, and both of my parents went to college (although one dropped out lol). My top schools so far are Columbia, Princeton, Vanderbilt, University of Chicago, Georgetown, Wash U, and U Penn. Any other schools I should be looking into?
@ballerina2020 My daughter’s only significant EC was ballet and she did very well with admissions. Her GPA and test scores were similar to yours. Most elite schools get the level of commitment that is required to dance at that level. Given that you have been able to sustain a 4.0 UW, top class rank, and likely 99% test scores, I think your chances are as good as anybody’s for those elite schools (5-10%) so make sure to round out with targets and safeties. You might check out Fordham, which has merit scholarships for high stats students (especially NMF) as a target school. Another place where your dance background would be valorized would be the 5 colleges consortium (U Mass/Amherst/Smith/Mt Holyoke/Hampshire. You might also consider your state flagship public university.
Princeton has a quite good ballet company so your dance experience might give you a boost there. I believe Harvard does as well. Chicago has a student-run ballet company that is also reputable.
I would not pack my schedule with ECs to tick boxes you think T 20 schools may have. Rather, pursue activities outside the classroom due to genuine interest. If ballet continues to be your main EC, that’s fine.
Finally, this is a good time to ask your parents about budget and to run their financials through the Net Price Calculators (NPCs) for schools of interest. You can get an idea of what you might garner in need-based/merit aid. OF the schools you list, Vandy, Wash U and Chicago are the only ones that offer merit scholarships and they are highly competitive.
You sound like an accomplished student and if you craft a balanced list of affordable options, I’m sure you will have many choices by Spring 2020!
Honestly it will require a bit of luck, but the way you laid out ballet it seems that’s a good hook for your application. And T20’s LOVE people who are passionate in one to two things, so yea I’d bet you’ll get in at least one if not multiple schools from your list.
What are your plans (if any) for dancing during college? Your dance background would help in admissions just like for any other EC pursued to a high level. But at many of these schools your opportunities to continue to dance would be limited, so you would most likely be giving up the chance to dance professionally later on. Is that what you want?
My D18 had similar stats (4.0UW/35ACT) and was undecided for a long time about whether to major in ballet or something else. In the end she decided on a ballet major, which meant applying to a completely different set of schools (Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, USC, Fordham, Austin, etc.) and looking to combine ballet with a double major (helped by having lots of AP credits) and perhaps law school later on if she doesn’t dance professionally (or after finishing that). Though it’s worth noting that the BFA schedule does make it challenging to fit in other courses (a lab science would be impossible for example, but PoliSci might be what she chooses and would work). She did apply to a few non-dance backups, she got into Berkeley and UCLA but not Princeton.
Also, have you considered whether your family can afford those private schools? Our experience was that academic merit aid was pretty generous for high stat dancers, because you are often not competing directly with high stat engineers (UT Austin was the classic example of that). But most of the schools you identified do not have merit aid. And for those that do (Vanderbilt, WashU) since you’re not applying for dance, the competition will be much stronger.
There have been other threads on this. You may want to search “ballet”. The question I still grapple with as the mom of a ballerina who trains/perfoms 25-35 hours per week revolves around whether a school without a ballet program will think it’s a good fit for her. I imagine the AOs reading how much she loves ballet and thinking “well, we don’t have that here for her so it’s not a good match.”
Our D21 is pretty sure she will be done with ballet after high school graduation but would like to be part of a modern or contemporary dance group on campus. If there’s a supplement for each of her schools where she can explain that, I think that could help but I don’t think she will have the opportunity to explain her choice to all of her schools. (She has no list yet. I need to get S19 into college before we start thinking more about D21.)
Limiting her to schools that only have ballet majors really don’t make sense for her.
Thank you for all your advice!
@mamaedefamilia if you don’t mind me asking, where did your D end up? Thanks for the advice about Fordham and the 5 colleges consortium! I will definitely look into their programs.
@Twoin18, I’m still undecided on whether or not I want to dance in college. IU’s ballet program is very appealing to me, but I’ve heard it’s very difficult to double major there (correct me if I’m wrong). I’m thinking of attending IU’s summer program this year to get a taste of how I like the faculty, classes, style, etc. I would likely attend another SI as well. I’m planning to audition for Nashville Ballet, Washington Ballet, ABT, PNB, and Boston Ballet. As I’m now 16 I would be interested in possible trainee/studio company positions in the future. I’m especially interested in Nashville, Washington, and ABT as they are very close to Vanderbilt, Georgetown, and Columbia, and perhaps I could work as a trainee while attending college classes. Clearly, I want the best of both worlds haha. It’s hard for me to decide between two things I’m very passionate about! It makes sense financial stability-wise to pursue a poli-sci degree and go to law school, but I truly do love ballet…
As my family lives in the midwest and our cost of living is significantly lower than in the Northeast (my father is a teacher and my mom is self-employed) I believe I would qualify for quite a bit of financial aid. I remember looking at Princeton’s financial aid calculator, and the scholarship would be quite generous based on our income; however, I do need to look into other college’s scholarship opportunities.
You are right that IU isn’t keen on double majors. Amongst the other top ballet programs Oklahoma and Utah are somewhat more accommodating and both have excellent merit aid, especially if you get NMF. Butler is accommodating but I’m not convinced that their merit aid would make it that affordable. Fordham/Ailey does have excellent merit aid and seems to be OK with double majors (if those majors are offered at Lincoln Center) but is not so ballet focused.
I very much doubt you would be able to manage to undertake a trainee program alongside attending a top academic school. @SCMHAALUM may want to weigh in about her son’s plans at Stanford.
So you probably have to choose: a BFA is a compromise on both sides (you are definitely at a disadvantage in getting to professional level compared to a trainee program and you severely limit the time available for your other major unless you do lots of summer school), but does give you a true college experience. On the other hand, opting out of a dance career (just doing it recreationally) gives you a lot more freedom in college. It’s not an easy decision.
My daughter did the IU summer intensive as a HS junior and loved it. Bloomington is a great place, and a really top program, and I think you should definitely do a college-based program next summer to see if that’s something you’d enjoy. However in retrospect I think my daughter might have been better picking somewhere for the intensive that is more encouraging of a double major and if possible that has some of the actual students doing it (ironically there were Oklahoma students attending but none from IU itself). Although ABT has programs based at colleges (my daughter went to UNCSA as a HS sophomore), AFAIK those are all HS students, so not really the same experience. So I’d suggest you look at the college-organized programs.
Utah (which is where she ended up as an undergrad) has the advantage of combining the summer and college auditions, and many undergraduates also do the intensive before and after their first year while they are earning residency, so you can see the standard that they are at.
@ballerina2020 By the time she was a senior, she decided that she really wanted to attend an LAC and there are comparatively few where ballet is supported to any significant degree (women’s colleges like Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke and Smith, and Dickinson which has an a partnership with CPYB). She was realistic about her prospects (your intensives suggest a higher level of proficiency) and decided she wanted to try alternative forms of dance. So she’s now at a small LAC where the contemporary classes are challenging and is exploring other activities beyond her studies and is very happy.
For her friends who wanted to pursue dance and college simultaneously, they looked at large state schools like Utah and U of Arizona or privates like Fordham. I believe that Boston Ballet has an arrangement with some Boston-based universities for dancers who also want to pursue college but I don’t remember the details. Some googling should provide that information.
I agree with @Twoin18, that a trainee company and the academic demands of an elite college or university would be hard to sustain. It is possible to train/perform at a lower level in the community if the college or university you end up attending does not have a strong dance program. However, it could also lead to a divided life that would mean not being fully involved in campus life or in a company.
You still have a couple of years to decide which path makes the most sense for you. In the short term, I would enjoy your dancing and maintain your grades in order to keep your options open. Best of luck to you!
We just dropped off my son at Stanford Thursday. He loves everything, except what’s extremely important for him, dance opportunity. Similar stats as you, 3.95UWGPA/1540 SAT, he really wanted to get into USC dance and double major in biology for PT school later, as USC is quite supportive in double majoring. He got wait listed for a long time but didn’t get in. He has friends at Columbia and Princeton, great ballet programs but very few students go on to any company to dance. Your stats and dance experience sounds great and with a good essay showing your passion for dance and some luck I think Ivy and other top colleges are possible. My son was disappointed that he couldn’t sign up as many dance classes as he would like at Stanford. School starts tomorrow and he is planning to talk with the dance teachers about classes, as well as going to San Francisco on weekends for additional training. He still wants to pursue dance, so he’s talked with us about auditioning for companies and/or trying out for USC again.
It is encouraging to hear others have pursued similar paths. Thank you for all your responses!
I think my list of colleges I plan to apply to (as of now, subject to change) will be Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Wash U, University of Oklahoma, and Indiana University. Does anyone have any specific information on the Harvard Ballet Company or equivalent extracurricular ballet programs at other Ivies (mainly Yale and Princeton)? What is the caliber of said programs? Do they produce any professional dancers? I know of Merrit Moore who danced with HBC, but I’m unaware of any other successful alumni. Obviously, acceptance into a school like Harvard would be very very unlikely, but I’d like to know about their dance programs if the opportunity did arise.
First run the NPC to check those schools are affordable. Then think carefully about your safeties and perhaps a couple of matches. Those are all reach schools, assuming you’ll apply for the audition-based dance programs at IU and OU. You’ll get admitted to IU and OU but maybe not for the dance programs. So would you attend either to just do PoliSci?
If you are serious about getting into an audition-based college dance program, you probably need to make about 6-10 applications to be on the safe side (maybe the lower end of that if you’re applying for trainee positions in parallel). And think about what your academic safety might be - would you be happy with your state flagship for example? Once you start to account for those applications, you might decide to cut down your list of reaches somewhat.
Our neighbor’s D is a very competitive dancer…she was accepted to an ivy (i need to stay vague because there aren’t that many kids out there who match her profile) and she was given a two year deferral to dance professionally before starting school. She’s starting the 2nd year of deferral now.
My suggestion is that when you apply to colleges, refer to yourself as a ballet dancer not as a ballerina.
Try reaching out to Merrit Moore regarding HBC. She is on FB. I only know her a bit through one of my son’s teachers but she is very helpful.
@SCMHAALUM I will, thank you!