Thanks to all three of you for interesting responses. I have heard that the academics at NYU are good, which my daughter loves as well. She wants to double major in some kind of science (either biology or pre-med), and she has a good academic record. It’s great to connect with others who are in our position with respect to Tisch! It sounds like your D is going to Tisch for sure, penandladle. Congrats! And it sounds like you are in our position, mamom1 – trying to figure out how you can possibly afford Tisch. Questions for either of you as we work on researching all of this. Do you have a sense yet of how much those two summers might cost in total (incl. tuition, housing & so on)?
Also, the big question is, have either of you been offered any dance or academic merit scholarships? All that my d has been offered on the Albert website for FA is $1,000 for dance, about $3,500 for work study, and about $70,000 in loans! We don’t want to go into debt to fund NYU. I looked at the Tisch website and can’t find any info on straight academic merit scholarships. I called admissions, who transferred me to FA, who just pointed me to that listing on Albert and kind of blew me off, not telling me about any other scholarship possibilities. I thought next I’d try by email and also write back to Sean Curran (the dance chair), with whom we had correspondence about D getting into the program. I have seen a few posts online from past years where people said that their D got “a nice scholarship.” I’ve also seen posts that say that NYU doesn’t offer much scholarship money. It’s frustrating as D has been offered academic scholarships for Mercyhurst and Chapman, also for other private schools where she got accepted academically, but didn’t get the dance acceptance. What has been your journey on trying to get scholarships (be they dance or academic)? Any possibilities at all? Thank you, and congrats to both of you, and others, on your acceptances!
@momof4intexas, if your daughter is thinking of double majoring, please check with NYU first to make sure that is possible. Many dance programs are so stuffed full of dance, it leaves very little room for anything else. I will also say that double majoring in the sciences is very, very difficult. Science classes have labs that are loooong and those labs often interfere with dance classes. My D is sophomore at the University of Arizona School of Dance. She was originally going to double major in nutritional sciences, but all of the science classes and labs made that nearly impossible. She could have done it, but felt that she would have had to miss so many dance classes, that she wasn’t willing to do that. So she decided to switch her second major to communications with a minor in nutrition. She is very happy there. The reason I have been following this site this year is that I have another D who is a senior in high school looking at dance programs. She was accepted into many great programs (nine of them) but has narrowed it down to Boston Conservatory, University of the Arts, or University of Arizona. Her top choice is Boston, but like many of you, we are having a difficult time with the expense. She would love Arizona, but is worried about being the kid sister of someone already in the program. Anyway, just wanted to warn you, @momof4intexas, to check about double majors before your D commits so that she’s not disappointed if she ends up somewhere that discourages it.
@jujusut Congrats to your D on her acceptances! We are in the same situation with Boston Conservatory. It may be the right fit for our D but have no idea how we can make it work. Would love to chat!
@momof4intexas I was looking at the summer costs for 2015 and from what I can see it’s around $11,500 for tuition & fees and another $2000 (varies according to where you stay for housing). Add on food, transportation, etc. and I’d say at least $15K. We’re in the same boat as you in terms of financial aid - our numbers are the same. I am in the process of trying to get hold of our dance department contacts to see if there are any options, but my niece also went to Tisch and I’ve been told by my SIL that they prob won’t do much, if anything. It’s crazy. My D has nice artistic merit scholarships from BoCo & UArts, so those are significantly less expensive, but not really where her heart is, as Tisch has been her dream school since she was about 10. I have been pointing her to any external scholarship links I can find, but I’m not confident that they’re going to amount to much. The other tough thing is that their ability to work in the summer and earn some money is limited because they’re expected to attend the summer sessions at NYU.
@diglass We live in California, so one other factor of both Boston and UArts is the distance from home. She is still torn about what to do… has your D decided yet?
Thanks for the heads up about the double major, jujusut. I will check that out. Congrats on your D’s acceptances. All sound like great programs and great opportunities. I have been checking more for possible funds, and it is looking very dry. So frustrating! Thanks for the summer costs mamom1. I have looked up some of that info as well. We haven’t made decisions yet but are working toward doing so. I’d be very interested to hear when any of you make the final decision, or what other steps you make along the way. Thanks!
I understand your D’s struggle with attending the same school as her sister. However, I wonder what school she would choose if her sister was not there. I would hope that my child would choose the school that was the best fit, regardless of siblings. My nieces did attend the same college (different majors) and I think it worked out well. It sure would make things easier for the parents to visit etc.
Choosing a dance program is so much harder than just deciding where to go to college.
Best wishes!
So funny story,now my daughter is leaning towards University of Arizona because she does not want to attend a conservatory. She is now thinking she wants to double major (my older daughter is double majoring). @diglass she thought about what is the best fit for HER, and overall she loves Arizona and the only con in her mind was her sister being there. Then she realized that wasn’t much of a con, since they get along great, so she hasn’t made her final decision, but is leaning towards UA. What about your D??
Hi, any update on how things are going from those who are now in some of these programs? We are currently in similar audition cycle for senior year and considering some of the same, such as TCU, U Texas Austin, Tulane, SMU (didn’t get in there) etc. Any info would be appreciated.
Our son is now a sophomore at Boston Conservatory. Now it’s Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He loves it there, and he loves the city of Boston! Part of the reason for choosing it was that the people there really seemed to care about and support each other, and that’s a big part of the reason he’s so happy there.
My daughter is also in her sophomore year as a BFA at Marymount Manhattan College. She is happy there. She had to choose between The Boston Conservatory and Marymount. BoCo felt like the perfect fit at the time, we simply could not afford it so she went to Marymount with lots of questions and the possibility of transferring. She is happy at Marymount and loves being in the NYC. My only wish is that they offered PT through the school.
Glad to hear dancers are happy where they chose. We will be carefully considering the choices over the next couple months. We live an hour from NYC, so despite loving being by the city, my daughter did not want to look at any schools in NY or even northeast. She really wants the experience other parts of country and enjoyed doing that through summer intensives. Please keep the comments and updates coming, they are very helpful!
DD has applied to Point Park, Marymount, Montclair, BoCo and SUNY Purchase. So far she’s only had her audition at Point Park. We are anxiously awaiting the response on that one as it’s at the top of her list and if she gets in we likely will knock some others off the list and not have her audition at some others.
Our daughter has been accepted (Dance and Academic) at: Oklahoma (Modern Dance), George Mason, Towson, Rutgers and SMU. Was wait listed at Indiana. Still waiting to hear from Ailey/Fordham and has yet to audition at NYU and Dominican (January). She originally had Butler, VCU, Ohio State, Marymount, UArts and SUNY Purchase on her list, but is dropping them for various reasons. It’s going to be a tough decision, have a feeling it will come down to OK, Rutgers and maybe one of the others she has not yet heard from. Does anyone have any actual experience with OK or Rutgers? OK has by far the nicest campus, beautiful performing arts center and best total cost profile, but Rutgers has probably the better professional network and proximity to NYC.
Congrats to your daughter!!! What state are you from? We are in the NYC region and my senior has completed college auditions since he was accepted at one of her favorites already and waiting to hear from another. She has a friend who is in the Rutgers program now and is really enjoying it. She also has 2 other freshman from her dance studio at Ailey/Fordham now and I know that it is going very well. I would check more on Rutgers and their professional network in NYC. Ailey would obviously have a very solid one, but I really don’t know much about Rutgers, as we never considered it and do not hear as much as mostly about the NYC companies, then Ailey, NYU, My DD did not want to go to school in the city, so despite being such great schools, we never looked at them. We did look at SMU, TCU, AZ, Ohio State, U Texas, etc. Never saw Oklahoma since that did not match other qualities sep from dance that she wants. I know from meeting people at the auditions, they like OK. My DD is doing ballet and modern. I just can’t wait for this all to be decided lol.
