I wish I had found this site and some of the posts long ago. Now we are in decision month and my hip hop dancing daughter seems settled on Temple but it is hard to find much outside info on the program’s reputation. Any thoughts out there? We know it is a modern program but offers many other dance classes. Pace was my daughters dream school but she never liked ballet and, as the only hip hop dancer in an audition of ballerinas, she didn’t make the program and lost interest in the school. We were so happy when she got into NYU Gallatin, until we saw that NYU thought we could borrow $75k a year for her to attend (so disappointing and they were outrageously rude and hostile when we called to find out how to appeal.) somehow she wouldn’t listen to me about Rutgers and missed the deadline and got into Spelman - so good academically - but has shown that she can’t get excited about this dream school. NYC was the goal. LA was too far and we wanted a strong academic school too (our dancer rejected Columbia/Barnard and didn’t feel she had the strength in ballet or modern for Julliard, Tisch or Fordham/Ailey.) she may be happy at Temple, I hope, but can she get the prep and as importantly the contacts needed to have a career as a dancer? How is the school at networking and placing their dancers? What’s the chance of a BFA dancer transferring to another dance program for stronger careee launch support and placement?
My daughter auditioned in to Temple’s BFA. She liked everything about Temple. The dance department was lovely, but she felt it was too modern based. Even though she wanted a modern program she does love ballet and that was not really a priority. The 2 dancers she spoke with were very accomplished.
My daughter decided on Rutgers/Mason-Gross. She likes that they are strong in ballet and modern. When she auditioned we spoke with a sophomore dancer who had just transferred from Marymount, so it is doable at certain programs. Tisch said not doable because they are on a 3 year schedule. You’d probable need to research other programs to verify.
It is hard for me to compare anything with hip hop because that is one genre I am not familiar with. Have you looked at the dance course load at Temple? At their performance opportunities? Can she find a program she is ok with and then look for classes in the city? I’m sure Philly has hip-hop if she needs more classes to be happy.