Hi all, hope you are enjoying some relaxation over the holidays.
Just thought it might be nice to have a fresh thread to share updates on our kids and where they’re at in the process.
It has been such a crazy fall but it does seem like we’re so much closer to figuring out next year. My dd finished all her academic apps (finally) and then dropped one. Such a relief to have that part behind us.
She also shortened her list one more time so at this point there is only one audition ahead of us, and 1-2 more visits.
Here’s where we are:
Montclair and VCU are her top choices. Montclair gives instate tuition to BFA students, so its doable money-wise. VCU she is in academically but we are waiting on any merit aid, which she will need to be able to attend.
She really loved University of Illinois but it is really far. And really expensive. So it seems like an unlikely choice at this point. They did give her an award/scholarship for choreography, though, so that’s cool!
Still under consideration but more info is needed: Ohio State, Towson, Adelphi. Doing a visit/audition at Adelphi in late January. Probably waiting on $$ info before we visit Towson and Ohio State. Despite really liking a lot of things about the program,Towson may get cut from her list earlier since they have absolutely no African/diaspora dance options available.
Off the list: Temple, UNC-Greensboro, Marymount Manhattan, George Mason, Hofstra. She didn’t get into dance at George Mason, but wouldn’t have gone there anyway–not the right fit. Hofstra was sort of an add-on and she decided not to complete her application. Marymount got nixed because of the lack of any real campus. Temple and UNC-G we visited and liked in many ways but ultimately she decided they were not the right places to really push her as a dancer (too bad since UNC-G is so cheap AND they gave her a big merit scholarship).
It seems like your D is on track to make a great choice in the spring!
My D is happy with her combined acceptances so far- Rutgers, Dean, Springfield, Stockton, and her non-audition backup Wyoming.
She still has auditions at Radford and ODU and Shenandoah coming up- she’s in academically at ODU and Radford and Shenandoah give both decisions simultaneously. All auditions will be complete by valentines, thank goodness.
She hasn’t heard from Dominican yet (auditioned in September), but expecting a denial, and she was deferred at LMU (it was an academic reach). Right now her top choices are Rutgers (5 year Masters) and Wyoming (full-length ballets!), but it’s all on paper- she hasn’t visited ANY of these schools yet. She was also accepted to Roehampton London, but with no money to visit it’s off the table already. Dean is preferred to Springfield but she isn’t in LOVE with Massachusetts in general.
We are gonna have a visit to her top 3-4 in March. Her top two were the Cali schools, but both are unlikely at this point, unfortunately.
It’s been a crazy time and my D still does not know where she freaky wants to go. I would say pace is her number one. She had been accpted academically still waiting on dance. She wasaccpted to dance at george mason. Peabody. Buffalo. Temple. Uarts and point park. We have vist set up over the next two months… She has auditioned for fordham ailey and nyu. Boston conservatory . Montclair university of South Carolina marymount and juliard still have to audition… If not pace she really has no idea. We will have alot to talk about in the coming months… The whole thing makes me a like nervous… Lol
If she loves Pace, can I suggest that Temple would likely not be a good fit? They specifically say that they are NOT a conservatory program, and the focus is definitely on contemporary and African, with a strong dose of dance theory/academics–not commercially oriented at all. The number of technique classes is on the lower end for BFA programs, definitely much less intense technically than Pace or many of the other schools on her list. The students there seem really happy and love the program, though! But very different than the more intense conservatory programs.
One other thing I’d say is that if she wants a variety of dance styles, the students I talked to at George Mason said that they didn’t have much time for electives outside of the required ballet and modern.
Good luck, it’s hard to narrow the list for sure!!
It has been a wild ride so far but do think things are coming into focus for D. She looked into and auditioned for several different types of programs. As far as more contemporary programs she has acceptances at Rutgers, Ohio State and wait list for George Mason.
However the top contenders at this point are the BFA programs that include jazz as a main component and/or include aspects of Commercial Dance or musical theatre (decided not to audition at Pace due to distance from home). Has acceptances at Ball State and East Carolina University. Has visited and taken classes at Troy University and will audition in February. She also has audition at Elon in January (even though ballet and modern). Also has audition planned for OKCU in March, but I think her decision will be made by then. She has attended their summer program so is familiar with program and campus.
I think she is very close to making her decision. I think she truly has her decision made in her heart but has almost full academic scholarship (everything except meal plan) at one of the schools so needs to give it as much full consideration as possible before ruling it out for a more expensive school.
So most likely two more auditions and a visit to third school planned. Also want to see spring shows at the top three contenders. We saw fall show at BSU, and it was impressive.
Still have more academic scholarship applications to do over the break and I think we will both breathe a sigh of relief when that is done. The end is in sight!
@elmom25 we are in NC and my dd has had friends and teachers that have gone to ECU. It’s a great fit for someone looking for a rigorous, comprehensive commercially oriented program. They also have a great musical theatre program, but I don’t know how much overlap is possible between the two majors. One of my dd’s favorite jazz teachers ever was an ECU graduate, and she is now working as a dancer in LA.
Elon definitely is more of a modern focus (so maybe not what you’re looking for) but there are some seriously amazing people on the faculty there. My dd has been taking class from Justin Cunningham and LOVES her.
If you decide to look further at OKCU, I have heard from multiple sources that they are very intense about weight (like there are weigh-ins regularly and they won’t graduate you if you don’t meet your weight goal) and things like they require full make-up for ballet class. I don’t have any verification of this but did hear them directly from people with knowledge of the program. So just something to keep in mind.
I see no way in the updated mobile web version of the site to create a new thread, so I thought I would add here.
Can anyone shed any light on acceptance rates by program? I find this info seems to be hard to find and sometimes schools don’t want to answer even if asked directly (looking at you Shenandoah and LMU, lol). I’ll start with the few I know.
Radford: they told my daughter they have approximately a 40% acceptance rate for dance majors.
Rutgers: The website says Mason Gross acceptance rate is around 20%, the acceptance letter my daughter received says it’s 30%z
Stockton: they told my daughter it is around 85%, and that they’re just looking for previous training, really.
I wonder if they’re afraid that the insanely low acceptance rates will scare away some the talent that they want to audition? It’s not like regular college apps where you send off an app from your house- there is the flying, hotel stays, etc- and maybe some parents (like me) would not let their kids go through all that with such slim odds? It’s a lot of money and missing school/work/activities.
@milgymfam I try not to think about how many they accept, and tell my daughter to do the same. But saying that, I think it’s hard not to!
I figure the ones that do cuts, they cut probably over half, then probably only take half of that. The ones that don’t do cuts are harder to figure out.
My daughter has done 2 college auditions so far. One that did cuts and one that didn’t. When we were at the Point Park auditions, the parents were able to ask questions and someone had a similar question. Although they didn’t give a direct answer, you could figure it out. I figured they accept about 15- 20% of kids who audition. I figured Montclair accepts probably the same ?♀️.
She will be doing 1 more audition at the end of January for Boston Conservatory. I feel like all everyone else does sooo many more auditions compared to our 3. Is it because the kids don’t know where they want to go? Just generally curious because I find this process very stressful, and expensive. I don’t know if I could take more than 3 or 4 ?.
@Inurdrems9 we did so many because we have absolutely no way to know if my daughter is good enough for any schools, or which one. It’s not like sports where you can say objectively if someone is a decent or amazing or terrible player. We are shooting in the dark and it’s scary when you’re starting and think maybe there will be no acceptances at all.
@lnurdrems9 like @milgymfam we cast a wide net because it seemed impossible to predict the likelihood of admission based on audition. Fortunately auditions have gone well for my daughter, but we have definitely had the moments of terror that nothing would come through! I’m really glad we went to the Dancewave unified auditions in October because she got admissions through that, which really took the pressure off. Still, all the visits and auditions have absolutely been exhausting. Beyond the usual audition stress, I feel like every visit has been filled with so much collecting and evaluation of information about the program that by the end, we’re EXHAUSTED. So relieved to be over the hump!
In retrospect it feels like we could have done fewer auditions, but at the same time every audition and every visit has helped my dd figure out what she is and isn’t looking for and where she’d like to be.
We are still knee-deep in the process. My daughter was accepted into Rutgers, ECU, U of Arts, and Elon. On the waitlist for George Mason. We go to Florida State January 15th to audition. We are waiting for scholarship info for all of the above… So I am pretty sure our decision will happen in the spring! Long process for sure! Good Luck to all the mamas- its a brutal exhausting (and expensive) process for sure!
My D still has two auditions left- marymount and juilliard.
She’s gotten dance acceptances to many from Dancewave- Montclair, Point Park, UArts, Adelphi, Buffalo and Dean.
She completed auditions for Pace, NYU, Michigan and Fordham. She got accepted into Michigan and waiting on results from the other 3. She ideally wants to stay in NYC.
Such a long and grueling process! We can’t wait to be finished in a few months and know where she’s going. such a stressful time for sure.
So it seems as if the East Coast schools all have there on campus auditions much earlier than the schools on the West Coast. My DS has all of his auditions starting this month and running through February. He hasn’t done much in the way of college dance auditions, except for the pre-screens that had to be sent in in November and December. We have gone to some “Open House” events at a couple of the universities but have just been prepping as much as we can.
So I guess all the nerve racking live audition stuff is about to hit us like a tsunami! I wish they had a Dancewave type event here on the West Coast, as that seemed to be extremely beneficial for a lot of your dancers. Congratulations to all of you and please wish us luck!
@NevrMynd51 At Dancewave they did mention that expanding to having events in other parts of the country is a goal. So not in time for your DS but maybe someday.
I’ve found it comforting to read all your posts and so I thought I’d add my d’s info here as well! @gmfalv I believe our girls were at the same NYU audition in December. Thankfully my d also felt very good about her audition and interview. I still don’t know how much weight is placed on audition/talent v. academics for admission to NYU. I’ve heard mixed things. My d has also auditioned for PACE (Oct. intensive) and just recently, Point Park. She has BOCO, USC, UCLA, MMC coming up. PACE, NYU, and USC are her top choices as she would like a BFA program. These are all very competitive programs and I still feel like she should add some schools to her list…but not many with BFA she’s interested in and it’s already January!