Dance auditions and decisions 2017/18

@Twoin18 Fingers and toes crossed for your daughter!

My daughter auditioned at Montclair. Rutgers. University of the Arts. Marymount. Fordham. BOCO. NYU. Point Park. Have heard and admitted to Montclair. Rutgers. University of the Arts and Marymount. Have not heard from the other 4. Only scholarships from U Arts and Marymount. Although she loved NYU, chances are seeming slim.

Is anyone else doing accepted students visits (or re-visits for most of us;) ? My daughter was accepted in to the Rutgers Honors College. Apparently, Mason/Gross can also invite dancers in to the College. It was totally unexpected, but it came with a wonderful scholarship. We are headed there on the 16th to participate in their “showcasing” of the program. It requires some extra academic work and a senior project, but I think it will be worth the scholarship. They have a lovely new dorm for their honors students. She really does love the dance program and the balanced college experience she would have.

We will have to see what Elon ends up offering, but we’ve been there twice and it is an 8 hour drive. NYU and Fordham would be easy to visit. We only toured the dance department for each school as we wait on an actual acceptance.

I feel her mentally moving towards Rutgers. She has been chatting with other students on their accepted students facebook page. She is investigating opportunities. I feel her desire to just commit and start planning, like her friends who are strictly academic admits. It is so hard for our kids to wait on their mult-step process.

I am so glad to read of everyone’s journey. This has truly been a process and humbling experience to say the least! I too, am so proud of these kids. They put themselves out there time and time again. Sometimes the results go their way and sometimes they do not. My daughter auditioned at Wayne State University, University of Michigan and UNCSA. She has been accepted at those schools. She also auditioned at NYU (like everyone…waiting on decision) Marymount and Point Park. She was cut from PPU and Marymount. We also were completely perplexed at both auditions. They were large (too large) and she was shocked to see the talent selected vs. cut. I met one mom whose daughter made it all the way through at Juilliard and was cut from Marymount. My daughter was not impressed with either PPU or Marymount. She would really love to attend NYU (don’t they all…lol) but the cost is really unrealistic for her to attend even if she gets in. I was extremely impressed with the UNCSA program. I am trying so hard to learn more about their alumni and program but there isn’t a lot about the contemporary successes. I would love to hear more if anyone has any insight.

Interesting. My daughter auditioned for Point Park in NYC. There were not any cuts and no solos and a somewhat drab audition. She has not heard from them yet. I think the audition at Poiht Park was probably more exciting. I have heard others loved the audition.

I apologize I was referring to Marymount. Not Point Park.

@amom2girls my daughter can’t attend an accepted students day at Utah due to performance conflicts here at home, but she is going for another visit over spring break. I think she’s ready to commit but is going to wait until after the visit, just in case. She’s added a few Utah logo items to her Pinterest board, so I think she’s seeing herself there.

My daughter felt the same way about Marymount! Many extremely talented dancers that made it through at Juilliard and NYU, Ailey etc got cut! There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason except maybe just too many in the room to really observe the talent!

@mom2adancer the timing for our dancers is so hard! These accepted students days are going to fall in late March and April (especially for the programs that don’t notify until 4/1) and my daughter has so many senior things going on, not to mention all of the dance performances scheduled.

D18 found out she was waitlisted at Chapman this evening and shrugged it off. Chapman had been close to the top of her list originally so I take that as a sign she has basically decided on Utah. I think the school spirit and D1 sports at Utah is more important than she had thought at the start of the process. Also her Calc BC teacher made a rather derogatory comment about Chapman’s academics to her last week (I hadn’t realized it was even that well known here in NorCal), not sure if that had an impact too.

@Twoin18 sounds like your daughter is definitely moving towards another school and good for her! It is a shame that her teacher made a remark like that, though. As I think about this process I wonder if some of the schools that wait until March/April to post acceptances do themselves a disfavor. My daughter is waiting on 2 programs and 1 financial package. I would have said these were top programs but she is mentally ready to make a decision and one of her acceptances is a program that she really likes and they have liked her back with an Honors College invitation and nice scholarship. She is starting to see herself there. She is chatting with other accepted students. Going to the Honors College “showcase.” Maybe that is what happened with your daughter? I don’t know, just thinking a bit.

It really helps to read what everyone else is going through. This has been an emotional roller coaster for us and my heart is broken that it is not turning out for my daughter. She grew up in a competitive dance studio,conventions, summer intensives and was a convention assistant for a company. She also attends a performing arts high school that has given her more focused training in ballet and modern. She decided she wanted a versatile program and not one that was strictly ballet/modern. She also prefers a university setting with a campus since she did not have that experience in her urban performing arts high school. All of that really limited her.

She auditioned for Pace back in Nov. We know it’s such a long shot. Last year they made the calls on March 13th but a friend told me she thinks the calls were made last week. Anyone know? Her first choice was the University of Arizona, followed by Chapman, George Mason, Point Park and UT (as a in-state safety which turned out not to be a safety at all) She did not get into Arizona and she is absolutely devastated. It checked every box, she seemed to fit the profile of an Arizona dancer and it is by far where she wanted to be. She auditioned in Jan and just got the dreaded letter last week. She felt like the audition went well and honestly doesn’t understand the outcome. On top of it her best friend who also auditioned got the acceptance call in front of her and does not want to go there. We know that dancers who auditioned in the fall were able to re audition in Jan or by private audition (taking class). She is trying to call to see if this is a possibility but can not get the director on the phone and an email was passed off to the assistant.

She got into Chapman and it is also an amazing fit for my daughter. No academic scholarship or grants and after emailing/calling the chair she just found out she did not get a talent scholarship. So this leaves us with a price tag of 70K. Our counselor suggested that we don’t eliminate applying to a school based on price because you never know what they give. Well, I think you better have an idea of what is possible. We have saved our daughter’s entire life and can not take on debt. I really don’t understand how they come up with your EFC?! I guess that is what you can afford after taking out massive loans? My husband does not want to straddle her with debt having a dance degree and unpredictability with employment. I’ve read that others feel the same way. All of you who have auditioned for NYU and USC, which have a comparable price tag, how can you do it? Will you just take on the debt because they are such good programs? What hurts so much is that she got into a fantastic program, it’s a great fit and she would be so happy, and now we can’t give it to her. Is this putting a price tag on happiness? I mean as we all know most of our kids have worked their entire lives for this. So, now what she is left with is a program that is solid but modern (George Mason). She feels as though she would be bored and limit her employability. Point Park gave her a scholarship and the program is versatile but she did not like the environment at all. In fact that’s all she talked about when we visited is how miserable the dorms were, Pittsburgh was very unappealing and so frigid cold, and how there would be nothing to do. BUT we did see the show and the dancers there are amazing. I can see how they are coming out of there working and there is no doubt that she would receive excellent training, it’s just not right for her. I’m also worried it would be too intense, where she needs some balance otherwise her passion could become a burden. So being left with 2 places that my daughter does not like, what do we do? We have thought about training or taking a gap year but we just feel like she wouldn’t go then. The thought of her having to go somewhere that she doesn’t like and is not excited about just kills me. After all the sacrifice and everything she has worked for.

I know exactly how you feel! I have not heard anything about Pace yet, my daughter is also waiting. Her top choice is NYU and if she does happen to get in (such a long shot) I fear paying for it…just don’t know how to tell her that all her hard work for basically her entire life was for nothing. We are financially strapped and I have received some other financial packages and have no idea how they come up with “what you can afford!” Four kids, one in college already, a disabled child that does not allow me to work, so one income. At this point we don’t know what to do! She has always wanted to be in NYC. This whole process is just so stressful!

@izzyb1 Sorry to hear about Arizona! Several of my son’s friends are in the program and love it. It’s getting harder and I don’t really understand how programs are choosing from all these talented dancers. I have a boy so it’s a LOT easier. He also has strong academics. He only applied for USC and NYU dance programs, together with a bunch of academic programs. We’ve made it clear to him that we will not be able to get financial aid and will not be able to pay the full price at either USC or NYU. He’s been accepted at UCI for biology so that’s one of his plans, going to UCI and continues to train at his ballet studio and apply again next year if it does not work out for us financially at either USC or UCI. A male dancer has longer time to train and mature, so this may not work for your daughter…

@izzyb1 I hope your daughter gets offers from other schools and may be able to negotiate with Chapman about scholarship…

The college auditions are so random in their outcomes. They do little more in terms of assessment than a Summer Intensive would do, yet so much more is at stake. In fact the audition tours which combine the SI and college admissions seem to be the easiest to excel in, as D18 found (she had to re-audition for Utah in Jan after being waitlisted originally from the on campus auditions in November).

We had academic-only backups (Berkeley, UCLA) because betting everything on dance is just such a huge risk and the results seem to have little to do with talent. Maybe that’s how future company auditions will go too, but it’s so distressing, especially when you get in to the programs you don’t want, but not into the ones you do want. We feel so fortunate to be where we are now, but had two weeks of contemplating “shall I go to Austin which I didn’t like much (for the urban setting more than the program itself), or go to Oklahoma for a style (modern not ballet) I’m not keen on, or just give up on dance completely” back in January. We had no good answers to that question.

@annie1631 My daughter did the ABT SI at UNCSA in 2016. She enjoyed it although Winston-Salem isn’t that wonderful a location (quite rundown although the downtown is being somewhat revitalized) and the dorms were poor (though they stayed in the high school dorms and apparently the college dorms are better). The dance and arts facilities are great, but I’d expect the academic options are more limited as a very arts focused school. So if you are solely focused on dance then it may be a decent option, but for a double major I think it might be less than ideal.

I know my daughter came away convinced she didn’t want to spend 4 years there. In retrospect she should have done the SI in Austin (or even Alabama) because that was a more plausible candidate for college.

I could have written this post!! We are also waiting on Pace (long shot feels like an understatement), but I don’t believe the calls went out yet. Musical Theater calls did go out last week, but from what I can tell dance has not yet. My D was in the early stages of mono when she auditioned at Arizona… she did not get in. We weren’t shocked but it stung. Her very loose plan b (if she does not get into Pace) is to head to Arizona and major in education to start. She may re-audition in the fall or in January 2019 for the BFA and/or she may audition for the dance team. Time will tell how this is going to play out, but she also has no desire to attend her safety school for dance. It is not the right fit for her. We are doing our best to follow her lead… it’s her future. But it is hard to watch it all play out when she went in with such high hopes. Fingers (and toes) are crossed that we all hear wonderful news from Pace soon!

izzyb, I hope things work out. I’m surprised that Chapman offered no money whatsoever. It seems like most of the private schools usually offer something, even if it is only a drop in the overall tuition/room and board bucket.

My daughter seems to think Point Park notifications are coming tomorrow…has anyone heard this. I didn’t question her. I try not to talk about it so as not to add more stress.