DD and I were just talking about skiing this morning. She, too, has not gone skiing in a very long time, for the same reasons @amom2girls mentioned. I imagine the ballet department might frown on it, and I don’t know that my daughter would want to risk the injury!
Capitol Reef is my favorite Utah national park, because most people don’t know about it. The campsite in the orchard there is wonderful and you can pick your own fruit in the summer and buy the home made jam at other times of year.
@Twoin18 that sounds so lovely. I had to google image the park and it is gorgeous!!
So glad to see this thread! Congratulations to everyone for surviving the dance audition process! My DD17 is also interested in the BFA programs. She does NOT have a strong classical ballet background and was a competition kid with very strong Contemporary & Jazz in a great studio. This time last year we started realizing that she needed MORE of a ballet focus as she wanted to pursue dance in college. She spend most of the summer at a Ballet SI (life changing) and capped it off with a week of Jazz at a different SI. She was also able to do 2 Winter Intensives as well. She has developed an interest in Modern but she was only recently exposed to it.
We left the competition world this year and she has focused on Ballet. I am curious how many on this thread are home schooled or attend a performing arts high school? My daughter was surprised at how many people she met during this process who were not at a public high school. In fact she was asked several times “When do you find time to do ballet” & “How do you get up in the morning for school arent you tired from dancing all night?”
We were blessed to have a successful audition season with offers from Point Park, Montclair, UArts, Rutgers, Adelphi, Peabody, Dean, & SUNY Buffalo. We are still waiting on NYU & Pace. She did NOT pass the Ailey prescreen, which was not a surprise given her background. My daughter’s favorite auditions were NYU & Montclair. She LOVED the contemporary at NYU and LOVED the people she met at Montclair (positives: BIG on double majoring-BFA gets in state tuition plus she got a merit scholarship you can travel to NYC easily but it is not IN NYC). She also auditioned at Marymount for BFA only, which was her dream school however she did not make the BFA cut. This was the worst audition because she felt it was too crowded and it was hard for her to even see the combo being taught. She was in the first group (alphabetical) & this became a big disadvantage. Like another commenter said my daughter was also surprised and confused by some who made the cut. VERY Disappointing since she really LOVED this school.
My daughter really wants an urban campus. We recently visited PPU (Big Scholarship) to find out more about the school & see the show and we were impressed with the city and the urban campus. Facilities are really great and the city has a lot to offer! The program is triple threat, which works well for my daughter who is an all-styles dancer, Academics are rated low so this is sad since my daughter is a top student who has worked so hard at public school with all advanced/honors/college AP level classes. BFA is also difficult to double major with-not a deal breaker but a consideration. She would have to fly back and forth which is a big negative (other top choices are driveable) but at this point it is the front runner.
We are still awaiting PACE & NYU. PACE audition was filled with SUPER talented students from the prescreen. Their program is so unique and small that she is not expecting good news (in limbo until mid March). She felt REALLY good about NYU however, that is another small program in high demand plus she was first (alphabetical) in doing her solo so she was very tired (only like a 15 min break inbetween to use facilities) so who knows. PLUS as we all know it is SUPER expensive and they are NOT known for MERIT scholarships (we will not qualify for any need based & we will not let her take loans for a dance major). This week my daughter got an email correspondance from NYU stating they were in “the final stages of reviewing her application & they wanted to confirm that she had not yet committed to another school”. Did anyone else get this email? It is torture to wait until 4/1 to know about NYU since most of my daughters friends have been able to commit to a non dance school already… Good luck to all!
@grit2018 Wow thank you very much for such details of the BFA programs your daughter auditioned for and congrats on so many acceptance with scholarships!
My son went to public schools all his life and did well academically. He loved dancing but was never serious till last January after attending an open house at USC he decided he wanted to give dance a try. He auditioned and was accepted at Orange County School of Arts (OCSA) here in southern California and moved 60 miles away from home to attend the school and trains at a ballet studio after school. OCSA is one of the top 3 performing arts schools in SCA and is excellent in academics as well, sending a couple dozen kids to Ivy and other top private schools every year. My son absolutely loves the school because the students actually want to go to the school and teachers are motivated to teach, and he’s met so many inspiring intellectual minds and artistic talents there. He wants to continue on the dual academic and dance route, so only applied BFA at USC and NYU. He also got the same email from NYU but didn’t think much about it, I think it’s a positive sign otherwise why would they care if you are committed to another school? I just went to see him today and talked about choice #3, and he said maybe he will go to UC Irvine where he’s admitted and just continue to train at his ballet studio for another year and see…I am happy with that 
Good luck!!
@grit2018 My daughter went to a brick and mortar school (independent, not public) her whole life. That said, they worked with her to give her some study hall time in lieu of electives during her last two years of high school so that she could continue to pursue honors classes while also being at the ballet studio 6 days a week. During performances (Nutcracker and then spring) she’d be at the studio 15-20 hours a week some weeks, and it made for stressful and tiring times. It would have been easier to homeschool sometimes, but she was determined to finish what she’d started. She loves her school and didn’t want to give it up if at all possible.
My daughter is at our local high school. She only took 5 classes not 6 this year to free up a bit more time (though she peer tutors in the sixth period). Still she finds doing 4 APs is quite a lot of work and she’s also teaching some dance classes this year. Quite a few college application essays were written on the plane/in the car going to auditions.
Being able to drive has helped a huge amount in terms of giving her flexibility to get where she needs to be (she has a very late birthday so couldn’t drive herself until November of her junior year) and studying with her twin brother, who is taking all the same classes, is really beneficial, especially given the number of days she has missed with auditions.
My daughter auditioned for NYU and it is her top choice to go to Tisch. She was also accepted to a few other schools but NYU is the only one she truly wants to go to. Does anyone know how many applicants there were and how many people they accept? Also, when do they give admission notifications? My daughter’s friend has already heard back.
@Twoin18 yes, the driver’s license helped us immensely, too! Her life, and ours, got a little bit easier once we had that added flexibility.
Sorry to say it but my understanding is 4/1/18 for NYU tisch dance notifications … no idea about the stats but I think super competitive
@grit2118 My daughter also received that email from NYU. And, sadly, I agree with Chrisinemom in that the notification will be 4/1. My daughter’s friend was also already notified, but she auditioned ED.
@grit2018 My DD is currently a BFA at Montclair. Fabulous program with amazing faculty. Nancy from Marymount (who does the modern audition) also teaches ballet at MSU. Ailey faculty members including Christian VonHoward (who would have led the modern audition) and Earl Moseley. And you can’t beat the instate tuition for BFA’s. Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi, my DD was accepted into Montlciar and we are waiting to find out on others. We loved the school and faculty when we visited but we do not know anyone there. Montclair gave her a great scholarship plus in state so we feel like it would be smart if the dance program is comparable. We missed a few questions when we visited that i wonder if you could help me with…Do they have ballet Monday thru Friday? How many hours a week do they usually dance? I have read some say that the campus is dead on the weekends with most people living close and going home. Does your daughter find that the dance majors are from various regions or all close? We are from the midwest so she would not be coming home usually. One more question we had…which dorm is your daughter’s favorite? Thanks in advance for your help!
@sgskesmom Hi! They have ballet Monday-Thursday and Modern Tuesday-Friday. They also have rep each week and how much rep depends on the pieces they are picked for. This year Freshman girls were not picked for any pieces other than the freshman piece. This semester my daughter also has improv twice a week and rhymthic analysis one night a week which does have some dance. in it. So I’m guessing on average maybe 12-15 hours per week possibly more. Freshman also assist on one of the pieces and my daughter this year got one of the guest pieces which she has really enjoyed working on. As far as local kids go, yes there are a lot and most of the dancers are from NJ. I think you’ll find that with any state school. But my daughter definitely has a nice social life and if her friends go home it’s typically for a night not the whole weekend. We live in Boston so while it’s close it’s not an every weekend kind of deal. My DD is in Bohn this year (Freshman only) and she kind of hates it although it’s centrally located and the rooms really aren’t bad. No AC and they do have community bathrooms. She’s hoping for Blanton next year with 3 other friends ( they would have 2 doubles joined by a bathroom). She thought that Blanton looked like a prison at first lol but has good friends that live there now and she’s grown to really like it (plus it has AC and Dunks on the main level). I know she recommends Blanton for freshman now that she knows what’s what. If you’re a freshman they will put you on a freshman floor and the price is right. The Heights is the nicest but definitely way more expensive and my daughter thought it wasn’t a good place to meet people. The on campus apartments look nice for junior and senior year. My daughter says that if you want a particular dorm to put it down more than once as a choice ( they have you rank like your top 3-4), she didn’t know this going in. Good luck!
Thank you so much @dmk128! I appreciate your help!
I love hearing your story @grit2118! It sounds very similar to my daughter on auditions and background. She auditioned for PACE, point park, Uarts, Marymount, NYU, Montclair and Arizona. She did ED at Pace and felt very good about the audition and feedback, she knows many of the kids there also so she was sad she did not get in there but we knew how few they take when you divide up the gender and profiling, along with so many great kids, it’s a crap shoot. My DD is a heavy convention and competition kid and does very well, in high school we let her attend a private school that is Monday and Wed with the other days being home school so she is able to train full time. She started training at a ballet academy also twice a week on top of her team dance when we realized she wanted to get a BFA in dance. I struggled deciding if we should have had her only train in ballet and modern at that point but she really wanted to stay at her studio and do both. NYU and Montclair were her favorite auditions also, we are just waiting on NYU now. Montclair gave her such a great scholarship and being able to double major is a huge plus… I have also heard that NYU does not give merit usually and we would not qualify for need. I cannot imagine my husband agreeing to there tuition , we have told her she cannot take out a loan for a dance degree also 
It is so interesting to hear everyone’s unique story! These dancers deserve so much credit for their courage!! There is much bravery involved in considering these programs and/or this profession. Thank you the info on Montclair - @dmk128 do believe it is a great program!! I am trying to believe the old adage “everything happens for a reason. Meanwhile…tick Tock is it May 1st yet???
We just had a great visit to the University of Utah on a beautiful day, with snow still on the ground. The facilities are amazing and the dorms are very nice, everything feels brand new.
I think it will be hard for anywhere else to measure up, and if D18 gets the Eccles scholarship then that would be the icing on the cake (30 are available and 60 are being interviewed so fingers crossed!).
@Twoin18 How wonderful that your tour reinforced your daughter’s view of the program. Good luck to her pursuit of the Eccles scholarship!
Glad to hear the visit went well!