College Search and Application tips for future Dancers

Depending on what your dd is looking for, other schools in the southeast you might take a look at are Virginia Commonwealth, Eastern Carolina (ECU), University of South Carolina, and UNC-Greensboro.

I’m a college counselor with a daughter in her final semester at NYU/Tisch dance. I can share with you that she and her classmates have been auditioning like crazy this semester. It’s an important plus for dance students who wish to pursue a dance career and thus need to attend audition “season” in the spring. When looking at dance colleges , keep that mind that NY and LA area schools have a huge leg up in that regard.

@penandladle that is a good point and something for dancers to consider as they are selecting a program. If they easy access to summer/company auditions is important to them, then they need to consider that when ultimately choosing a school.

In case anyone is interested, this was in the New York Times, Juilliard’s New Dance Director Comes From Ailey and Ballet, https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/arts/dance/alicia-graf-mack-juilliard-dance-division.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/dance&action=click&contentCollection=dance&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

She was a great choice, she is an amazing person.

Heads up. www.CollegeAuditions.org and www.BalletAuditions.org claim to have inputted already hundreds of dance auditions (500 dance auditions total by the end of the year) on their websites. I have friends that have used the websites.

Hello @oldtown348. Any tips for a HS sophomore to help now with starting to plan…Dancing at NYU would be a dream for her.

@REZREZ My suggestion would be to pick your summer intensives for the next two years carefully. So for example if you want to attend NYU then if it is affordable you should apply to their summer intensive (https://tisch.nyu.edu/special-programs/high-school-programs/dance). Having attended the summer intensive will often allow you to bypass the initial pre-audition screening and you have a better sense of whether you like the location and teaching style.

@REZREZ I would also suggest that you try to get her the training she needs. It can be hard to figure out what program would be the best fit, but she has two summers available to work on whatever might be lacking from her home training. Does she need more performance opportunities? More work on holding and using turnout? More practice picking up choreography quickly? Better use of epaulement? (I’m writing from a ballet perspective, but hopefully you can translate the advice to your dancer’s situation.) I also like @Twoin18 's advice. If it’s feasible, perhaps there’s a way to stack intensives so that your dancer can experience both a college program and another SI.

DD auditioned at NYU and we were not impressed. Long walk to campus. Old, grimy facility and the class we sat in on was huge… Not what we were looking for. Also, the vibe at auditions was chaotic and snooty.

I’m looking for insight on any program out there that won’t pass over a dancer who doesn’t look like a dancer on sight. My daughter is a former power tumbler and doesn’t look like a dancer, but she does hope to dance in college (double major with early childhood Ed). She’s currently in a ballet conservatory for high school and dancing 16 hours per week (20 with nutcracker rehearsals). She and I both guess that she’d be denied from auditions based on looks alone, so we are looking for schools that do not require an audition. She would love to go to school somewhere near the beach. If all else fails she plans to apply to Loyola Marymount and Long Beach and minor in dance. Has anyone had a heavier dancer successfully major in dance in college? She knows she’ll never be a professional but she does want to teach dance one day.

I think there are many programs out there that do not require an audition and hence body type and experience will not factor in at all. Finding programs near the beach, however, does severely limit options. Members here could probably suggest many non-audition programs if there are other locations your dancer would be willing to consider.

St. Mary’s College (northern CA); Goucher College (Maryland); Pacific Univ. in Oregon; University of Kansas (BA does not require an audition); University Colorado Boulder; Barnard, Skidmore… there really are quite a lot of programs out there.

We lived in CA for five years (both NorCal and SoCal) and it’s the one place we’ve lived out of many that my D loved. She really wants to go back for college.

On that note, does anyone know how competitive CSULB auditions are? Loyola Marymount’s? She is willing to try for auditions before giving up and moving on to only a dance minor, or giving up on CA. I will look into Saint Mary’s though!

I think it’s hard to quantify how competitive those two auditions are. My gut says LMU is an easier dance admit than CSULB, but I really don’t know for sure. My DD auditioned for CSULB and enjoyed the audition much more than she thought she would. In the end, the fact that she wouldn’t be focused on ballet there was what moved it down her list.

https://www.dominican.edu/academics/lae/undergraduate-programs/performingarts/linesdance The LINES BFA at Dominican is also in CA. The video on that page gives a sense of the dancing as well as who gets admitted/who accepts.

Does anyone know anything about Irish dance programs? My older D is applying to schools right now. My younger one is competing at a pretty high level in Irish Dance. A few kids in her school have toured with Riverdance and she really enjoys it. Online I have heard about a few clubs etc but not much else. Thanks in advance!

Dominican is very competitive. They only take approximately 10 dancers a year for their BFA program.

Crumbs, cannot argue with you re: NYU. In addition to the things you mention, the program really doesn’t have anything to do with the academic side of NYU, so dual majoring is totally out, minoring is really hard (and discouraged), and on top of it, the dance program is 3.5 years, not 4, and you are required to attend for two Summers.

Would LOVE to hear any advice on auditioning for Ailey. My D’s #1 choice is Fordham/Ailey. We’ve applied and are waiting now to get our invite to the audition. What kind of training did your D have? What do you think they were looking for in the audition? What kind of solo did she do? How is she liking the program? Thanks so much! Any and all advice is super helpful.

She’s also auditioning for Pace, NYU, Marymount, Juilliard, Rutgers, Michigan and Montclair so any advice you have on any of those auditions/process would be extremely helpful as well!

Thank you in advance!