I’m looking at schools to double major in dance and neuroscience (if they don’t have a neuroscience degree I could always go for biology or physics) and want to find a school that has strong programs in both. I am a top student (top 5% in my class at a competitive NYC public school) and trained at ABT, Martha Graham, and NYU Tisch. So far the only schools I’ve found that I really like for both dance and academics are UofM and Barnard… does anyone know what other schools may have strong programs in both where you can pursue a double major?
Depends what you are looking to achieve in dance, i.e. if the priority is to seek a professional career in dance before going back to medicine or if you just want to do dance in college (and then go to med school?). My D18 is strong academically but wants to try to become a professional dancer, so wants to do a BFA but still double major. She is ballet focused, so looked at Indiana, Oklahoma, Butler and Utah as top ballet schools. The latter three were all very encouraging of double majors, IU was not. It is still tough to fit other courses around the requirements of a BFA.
Utah is her favorite at present and is very generous with merit aid, allowing her to save her college fund to go back to school later, or support her while she tries to find a dance company position.
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Are you thinking of a BFA? That can be tricky with a double-major, and maybe even not possible at NYU.
Some places you might look at are
Mount Holyoke
Vassar
Elon
Sarah Lawrence
Rutgers/Mason Gross
New School/Eugene Lang
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ohio State
Southern Methodist
Temple
Ohio University
Agre with the other posters that it depends what you want to do with dance during and after college, and whether you’re interested in a BA vs a BFA. Most of the programs DD auditioned for (BFA) made it clear that a science-based double major would be difficult to do in four years unless you came in with many credits.
For a BA (not BFA) suggest Emory, Maryland, Richmond, William & Mary, Wesleyan
As others have said, double majoring in Dance and anything else is hard. Really hard. The main issue is that studio times are fixed, and are typically in the mornings from 8: 30 am to 1:00 pm, which makes scheduling academics very problematic. In our travels, I found that the large public universities are your best option for double majoring, because they offer more sections of all classes, and they often offer sections in the Summer, which is a virtual necessity to graduate in four years. We found a few double majors, for example, at Oklahoma and Indiana. NYU was impossible, in fact the Dance department flat out said no double majoring (NYU’s dance program is 3.5 years, and requires two Summer sessions for dance)
Which year are you in currently? My son applied for USC and NYU. Ballet/contemporary dancer attending an academically strong performing arts school in Southern California. He is also wants to pursue biology double major.
USC encourages double majors or progressive track where you can start graduate courses while pursuing your BFA. NYU told him at his audition 3% students double major and it takes another year (on top of the 3 years two summers for BFA) to finish. Other schools/programs he’s applied to are academic with strong non-major programs.
I’m currently a HS Junior. I haven’t looked much at Kaufman because they accept about 12-18 dancers and not sure how willing I am to move across the country… NYU I’m also unsure about because of the accelerated dance program at Tisch (also worried about being able to afford housing + living costs).
I’m taking classes at Tisch right now and absolutely love it though! Beautiful facilities, perfect location, amazing professors and very interesting courses!
Best of luck to your son!
Yeah, I’m not sure how possible a BFA will be! I’m looking at a lot of BA programs (Barnard, 5 colleges, etc) because they are slightly easier to manage for double majors… I know I spoke to the people at Hartt and they said they really discourage double majors and so does Tisch. UMich said they really encourage double majoring which is really nice, a lot of their class does pursue dual degrees between SMTD and LS&A which is great
@2000dancer James Madison is a BA in dance where it is possible to double major.
University of Iowa
My daughter will be a freshman at Tulane this Fall, intends to double major in dance and mathematics. 30% of undergrads double major. They have a modern focus; D took a class last Fall and felt it was a good fit. Dance was primary activity for last 13 years and was not ready to give it up; unsure about post grad goals but her dad and I were comfortable with the idea of a BA rather than a BFA