<p>First question, so bear with me. I have a rising junior who has begun to look into the college search process. She is an intense ballet dancer who dances 3+ hours daily in a preprofessional program and does fairly selective ballet intensives in the summer. But, this is pretty much it for her activities outside school. She is an excellent student, never had a B, or even A- in high school, AP's, honors and such. Hasn't taken SAT or ACT yet but is estimated to be in the 33 range for ACT based on the PLAN test. She also does track and will have 4 years varsity in that--places in sectionals but will probably not get to state. How is this type of extracurricular picture viewed by the highly selective colleges in which she is interested? She probably isn't looking to major in dance, but actually will apply to school and may possibly defer in order to audition for companies and complete her studies afterward. Is this sort of focus a good thing or a bad thing? Should she consider branching out more, or lowering her sights school wise?</p>
<p>Ballet is a perfectly fine EC. Having focus and dedication is a good thing. Stop worrying about this one.</p>
<p>No one who isn’t on the admissions committees knows why one student gets in and another one doesn’t at the “highly selective” colleges. Your daughter needs a solid safety school, and several matches on her list as well as her reaches just like everyone else. If you haven’t run the numbers yet, do that today. Word is that the best calculators this year are at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>How Much Will College Cost – BigFuture | College Board) Knowing your family EFC and your personal situation, you will be able to help her find a solid financial safety school that she likes.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds like both of our daughters, only dance in high school because that’s all they had time for. I would encourage your daugther to take classes when she is visiting schools, and send in a DVD as art supplement with her application. Princeton instructors will send in their evaluation to adcom. Stanford had a dancer from NYC ballet, and a creditable dance department. Duke and Williams are expanding their dance programs. Ballet is a good EC. Wouldn’t hurt if your D should indicate she is considering minor in dance at some of those schools. D1, currently at Cornell, is very involved with a ballet/dance club. Their performances are very well attended by the community. She also teaches ballet in Ithaca.</p>