@dkmm1973 thank you! My dd had a great experience this summer working with one of the members of the dance faculty there, so we figure that’s a good sign about the program. If she is accepted to the dance program, she would definitely need to get some good aid for us to be able to swing it, but we’re hopeful that some academic merit aid will come through.
@NevrMynd51 we’re in California and went through the audition process last year. Fortunately, many colleges do hold auditions in Los Angeles or San Francisco. There were some tricky weekends where dancers had to audition in LA one day and then SF the next, or two in LA on the same weekend. Even though we planned all West Coast auditions, we ended up traveling to NY towards the end of audition season due to a small injury. We wanted to give ds time to heal so he would be at his best.
@Undercovermom1
If you don’t mind me asking a few questions… So, how was the process? What schools did your DS apply to? What was the competition level like at the auditions? Where did he decide to go? And does he like it there?
I know that dance audition for girls is a little different than it is for boys but stress is stress, for both dancer and parent.
@threegirlpileup, my dd is also going to be at Dancewave. I was disappointed to see ECU recently add to the list of schools attending but not auditioning. We were really hoping to get that one done there.
This process is certainly time consuming and stressful. Hoping to be able to post here throughout the process to share the journey with others on the same path.
My daughter will be at dancewave as well. It doesn’t look like there are very many schools she’ll audition for, but even the 4-5 she is interested in is a huge help to the schedule. I just ordered prints of her headshots yesterday. I ordered some extra just in case she decides to throw her headshot/resume to a few more schools last minute. Her SO is kinda cranky that she is missing 7 hours of Nutcracker rehearsal that weekend, but what can you do?
That whole two week period is crazy for us. My daughter has an audition at LMU then one at Domincan’s LINES program two days later. We fly home for one day and then she has a dance shadow day at Shenandoah, and then home one day and off to NY for dancewave. I’m tired just thinking about it and I’m only the travel partner/driver.
@NevrMynd51 happy to answer your questions. Auditions were a stressful, busy time but eye opening in that he came away from each with a clearer sense of whether the program was a good fit for him, or not.
He auditioned for Rutgers, Peabody, Cornish, CalArts, Dominican, USC (passed prescreen), NYU, Marymount Manhattan and Purchase. He was waitlisted for USC and accepted to all the others. The first three auditions were held at his school, and were early in the process, which was good in that it give him audition experience before he auditioned for the programs on the top of his list. Competition was really all over the place. There were excellent dancers as well as some that obviously had minimal training, but decided they wanted to be a dance major.
My recommendation - ballet, ballet, ballet! Focusing on that was so important leading up to auditions. It’s the very first thing auditioners see.
In the end it came down to NYU and Purchase. He ultimately chose Purchase because of its focus on technique, the study abroad program which is a full semester (NYU’s is over the summer) and he wanted his summers free to attend dance intensives (NYU’s BFA program is 3 years/2 summers).
He’s very happy with his choice. He’s enjoying his classes. His days are long, but he’s doing what he loves. In addition to his classes, he was cast in several senior pieces and is part of the Purchase Dance Company. He has rehearsals three or four times a week. He’s made new friends, college life is good!
DS has dancer friends at NYU and Dominican and they are just as happy with their choices.
Hope this was helpful!
@ELMom it does seems like a number of schools that auditioned last year are coming to the college fair but not auditioning. I count ourselves lucky that 6 of the schools dd is interested in are still auditioning, but not really counting on that meaning much–for example, it’s my understanding that Montclair State uses the auditions for recruitment and will invite you to audition on campus and promise that you won’t be cut and will be able to show your solo, but don’t offer admission.
I can’t say I really blame them as the audition really is much less comprehensive than any of the on-campus auditions we’re attending.
Our real hope is that dd can talk to folks and gather some information that may help us narrow down her list a bit and also get a clearer idea of which schools seem like a better fit.
Meanwhile, we are working on the academic side of applications! Phew! It’s a lot of plates in the air. All my sympathies to those of you who are doing it in the middle of senior year. My dd decided to take a gap year in part because it was hard to imagine doing all these applications and auditions on top of classes and senior year Nutcracker and everything else that was going on.
Oops I meant to tag @elmom25 in my post above!
@threegirlpileup Yes, there are still about 6 schools my dd is interested in that are auditioning there as well. My understanding is that new this year is the requirement that schools auditioning there have to be able to admit from the audition - that they can’t use it simply as a pre-screen. I was thinking that was why the number of schools auditioning there is lower than it has been. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is, indeed, true. However, either way I think it will be a valuable experience as we navigate this process.
DD has also been working on submitting academic applications and on her audition solo. Just over here trying not to get overwhelmed. 
@elmom25 Good luck to your daughter at Dancewave! My daughter attended last year and found it to be valuable. Having the opportunity to speak with so many dance programs all in one place was extremely helpful, especially since we live in rural Midwest. We ended up making two more trips back to NY for auditions at the schools themselves though. She got a bunch of acceptances through the Dancewave audition, but only a couple to her top schools. She did have mono at the time however so wasn’t at her best. She ended up going back for auditions at Purchase, Montclair, and Mason Gross. She initially had narrowed her list to Pointe Park, Towson, Purchase, NYU, and Montclair State University. She was accepted to all except NYU, and ended up deciding between Montclair and Purchase. The program at Purchase won her over, and she started there in August! She loves it there!
The audition year is hectic and stressful, so just hang in there and try to enjoy it ?
@Undercovermom1 Thank you so much for the reply and the help.
Are you guys located on the East coast? And if I may why did your DS look into USC? I haven’t heard much about the dance program there. Was that somewhere your DS would have chosen if not for waitlist?
West Coast. USC Kaufman has an excellent dance program. Excellent faculty, beautiful new facilities, and very nice campus. Extremely competitive to get into - I believe they accept only 12 - 16 BFA’s. If he had gotten off the waitlist, we would have seriously considered it.
What would you consider to be the LEAST selective ballet-focused program?
@milgymfam that’s a hard question to answer. Maybe others will have more insight or experience to draw on. When I was trying to get a sense of that, I found it was hard to know very accurately how many dancers were auditioning for a particular program and how many acceptances were being offered. And, if a program has a particularly high yield or a particularly low yield, then the number of acceptances they’ll offer will hinge on that as well. I know dancers accepted to UCI, Point Park, Utah, CSULB, TCU, Mercyhurst, UCSB, and Butler who were not accepted at IU, USC, UA, or OU. But that’s just my experience with my own daughter and a handful of dancers from her studio who have even wanted to continue on seriously.
@mom2adancer thank you for the insight. I often see people say that so and so school is very selective and figured the pendulum has to swing the other way somewhere. My D’s current studio is only a year old and she is the first dancer to be attempting to continue in college so it’s a huge learning curve with little guidance.
In any case, she’s in her first audition right now- it lasts until 4:10 (it started at 9:15), so I’ve got a long, nervous day of waiting ahead of me!
@milgymfam – I’ve been wondering quite sometime while reading CC past comments about auditioning in September/October. Can we schedule an audition before submitting the college application? That would ease the applications/audition scheduling tremendously. Or all auditions to be scheduled by the college after the application submission?
In our case it was a combo. Three auditions were scheduled after application but one before- my D needs to take her SAT again and bring it up a smidge before applying to the last one. The dance audition was scheduled by emailing the dance Department directly each time, so I don’t know that the application has to be in first at all, though it may at some schools.
From our research so far, it looks like it depends on the school. Some schools are clear that you need to apply to the university first. Some said that both the school and dance applications can be submitted at same time, and some seem to allow you to audition before submitting an application.
Thank you @milgymfam and @elmom25 for the explanation. Since we live in mid-west, planning is super critical. :neutral:
It definitely varies from school to school. We’ve actually found that one of the hardest parts is keeping track of all the slightly different requirements and deadlines for all of the schools.