Feedback on Dance Conservatories

<p>My daughter was recently able to submit last minute applications to two Dance Conservatories - Purchase College and Boston Conservatory.</p>

<p>We are not even sure what to do if she gets an acceptance as we did not visit either campus ahead of time. We really don't know much about either place, which will make it hard to make any kind of decision. </p>

<p>I am looking for some some feedback on campus life and quality of housing from others in the know. Any comments about the quality of the dance programs at these two colleges, would be helpful as well - so we can know as much as possible in advance.</p>

<p>I have heard great things about the program at Purchase. I don’t think she would be disappointed there, and if you are from NY State, you can’t beat the price. The campus itself is very sterile; big blank buildings without any character. It looks more like an office park than my idea of a college campus. However, it is in a great location. The surrounding neighborhood is lovely and it is a short trip into NYC. Good luck to your daughter!</p>

<p>My D just received her first acceptance to The Boston Conservatory! Very exciting but we are trying to find find out more about the program and campus before we have to make final decision.</p>

<p>We have all the general information from the website and searches here on CC and Ballet Talk, but looking for insight from parents or students who attended BoCo in the dance program.</p>

<p>My niece attended Purchase for dance and loved it and is doing very well. The cost as previously mentioned can’t be beat. My daughter graduated Boco in 2011 with an MT degree. From a training standpoint both dance programs are top-flight and I would put them up against anyone. Boco is a lot more expensive. Boco does not have a campus because it is located in a city (Boston). Their campus is a series of attached (beautiful) old brownstones. Boco students eat and work out at Northeastern facilities down the block. By visiting the gyms and cafeterias at Northeastern, your student will be able to make many friends outside the performing arts world.</p>

<p>Boston is a clean, vibrant and safe city and the number 1 college town in the US. There was a recent article about the 81 colleges and universities located in Boston. My daughter loved it! Mixers at Harvard, Hockey Games at BC, BU. Red Sox games, etc. Socializing on a large scale is not a problem if this is something important to you.</p>

<p>Thanks for the info. My D just received acceptance into Purchase Conservatory of Dance today, so now we do have a big decision to make.</p>

<p>As parents, we love the low tuition at Purchase - probably half the price of other programs applied to. But we want our daughter to want to choose it as well for the dance program itself. It will be a tough decision.</p>

<p>We keep going back and forth between Purchase and BoCo.</p>

<p>The low cost of attending Purchase is a strong lure but we have concerns about the reviews we have come across. There are so many student complaints about living on an isolated campus - from high drug/alcohol use, party/hippy atmosphere, food complaints and limited off-campus options, dorm rooms with no bathroom (communal hall bath) - all of which are not very appealing.</p>

<p>I may be ‘picking at straws’ but we are trying to envision campus life to help us make a decision. The dance program and facilities/performing arts centre seem excellent, so we are really torn. </p>

<p>Hoping to hear from someone with direct experience of daily campus living. Do students feel isolated? Are the complaints above the norm for students attending Purchase College?</p>

<p>From a program and training point of view you can’t go wrong with either school. I have also heard about some of the negative comments on Purchase campus life. My daughter’s concern was more about isolation of the campus and isolation of only being subjected to a mostly performance entrenched student body.</p>

<p>Do not have first hand experience about campus life at Purchase so I can only speak to Boco, much of which I mentioned in an earlier post. My daughter always considered the city of Boston to be her campus. Good Luck</p>

<p>We too are considering Purchase. The facilities, faculty and training are wonderful but concerns about the dorms, isolation and social activities always reenter the conversation. D loves NYC and although only a train ride away, I cannot decide if she will regret turning down the excitement and conveniences of living in the city. We would also love to hear from other dancers to help us make a decision.</p>

<p>We visited Purchase in the spring of DD’s junior year. She did not apply there in the end. A few things happened there that were troublesome: upon conversing with a woman from the Dance office we happened to ask about the Performance Ballet program. We were told that very few are accepted into this focus because “most ballet dancers enter the professional world right out of high school. If they are coming here then they probably were not going to have a career in ballet anyway”. Now I know many ballet dancers and many who end up going to college rather than entering the world of trainee/apprentice programs for various reasons. Many go on after getting their BFA to dance for classical ballet companies. I felt this statement was a very narrow point of view in this day and age and not really the best advertisement for the program.</p>

<p>The dance studios are extremely shoddy. I don’t think the locker rooms have ever been updated or refurbished. That is not everything but the classes we saw (we spent a whole day observing) were packed to the gills. I am talking 40-50 in a class. Dancers were hitting each other at the barre. Watched a ballet tech class of about the size mentioned and perhaps the dancers were able to go across the floor 4-5 times max during the whole class. We saw a couple of dancers crying in a class. No one looked at all happy to be there are be dancing either in or out of class. </p>

<p>We also know a boy who attends Purchase as a dance major. He says in hindsight he really wishes he had decided to attend a more commercially focused program. Definitely something to think about when making your decision.</p>

<p>As I said, the facilities were shockingly bad all around campus. I had been warned by many people that this was the case and always said “oh that really does not matter so much”. It is not everything but it is, to me, an indication that something is amiss there. Other SUNY’s run fabulous, prestigious programs and keep the campuses up immaculately. Not sure what is going on at Purchase.</p>

<p>However, the connections to be made at Purchase are very valuable. Probably the most connected school for Modern Dance on the East Coast (outside of Juilliard). If you can overlook everything else, that and the cheap cost are probably well worth it.</p>