Help on LAC search for Ballet Daughter from TX

College Search & Selection
1

I have poured through these forums and now I feel better educated and yet more confused than ever.
We live in a mid size city in Texas and as you can imagine we just do not have much exposure to small Liberal Arts Colleges let alone know many students who are applying/ going. So judging reaches/matches/ safeties seems so difficult without more context! We have done a lot of research and would really like to start some visits but now I am getting nervous my D may be really heavy on reach schools and I am lost on matches and safeties.

Stats: (Current 11 grade))
School: Small Private (school expanded to include HS in 2013; D will be 4th Graduating class; academically rigorous)

GPA Unweighted: NA 4.46/ 5
Class Rank: N/A (only provide 1 and 2)
PSAT(11): CR: 690, M: 620 (Total 1310)
SAT: Will take March 2018
ACT: unsure
APs: World History (5); Human Geography (4)
Junior(current): APUSH, APES, US Government, English (Literature and Composition), Psychology
Senior: Latin, Calculus, Statistics, Biology, Gov (?)

ECs: Ballet 11 years at Pre-professional school; Apprentice Company Member (next year will be Company member); she spends pretty much ALL of her EC time at Ballet (11 hours of class time alone plus rehearsal hours which can be as many as an extra 5-10 hours depending on how close to Nutcracker/ Spring Ballet/ etc)
Theatre One Act Play: Freshman (State: placed 1st); Sophomore (State: placed 4th) Junior (State: placed 4th)
National Ocean Science Bowl Team: Sophomore (First year school had a team; 3rd place; Best Sportsmanship Award) (11th competing in Feb)
National Honor Society
International Thespian Society (2 Star Recognition)
SeaTrek (+ Volunteer hours)
SCUBA (advanced Open water; getting Master Diver Certification Summer 2018 while on SEATrek + volunteer hours tagging turtles etc.)
Weakness: No leadership positions (not really in any clubs with that option and given most of her time is in Ballet)
Volunteer Hours: 75+ hours Ballet (Children’s hospital; Outreach Performances; etc); 50+ hours with Local Homeless Org

Future Plans: Does not want to major in Ballet but wants the option to minor/ or at least take open classes consistently; otherwise not clear but has shown interest in Pre-law with focus on Environmental law issues

Schools she is interested in:
Barnard (visited and took a ballet class last Fall and obviously thought it was great; HUGE reach I know)
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke
Sarah Lawrence
Skidmore
Smith
Swarthmore
Williams
(Lots of others on a “research list” but these have been put on 2nd “visit/ more research” list if that makes sense; open to anywhere in the country for the right school; not far enough along on visits to know Urban vs rural yet)

Financial: will not qualify for much need based aid but has very well funded college 529 from grandparents but hopeful to have some left for law school/ grad school if she goes that route

We have Fiske Guide; read here LOTS; visited college websites and I STILL feel like I don’t know how to properly match D with schools. Guidance Counselor does not seem to have as strong of a grasp on LACs and just seems to think D just wants a small school without understanding the Liberal Arts focus D desires.

ANY advice/ help/ assessment would be invaluable to us!!

2

Added: D has spent 9th and 10th Grade summers at Ballet Summer Intensives which are by audition only and will audition again this winter for summer but also plans to apply for the Barnard Summer in the City Pre-college program and is really hoping she get accepted and will forgo a long Ballet intensive if accepted.

3

Definitely take a look at Vassar. The dance program is fantastic. There is a great company (Vassar Repertory Dance Theater) as well as several student-run dance and theater groups.

4

Vassar is on the list but a quick glance on admit stats I thought it might be a big reach school? I guess I just do not have a good sense of examples of Reach, Match, and Safety for my D in the LACs. As mom, of course I think she could go to the top school of her choice and do well but thats because I’m clouded by being mom but I am smart enough to know that I am having a hard time getting a good sense of reality.

5

I can’t be any help with the dance side of the equation but can offer some other LACs that might be what she’s looking for but more in the match range, though not to say she would not be admitted to one of the reach schools on your list. It’s always helpful to keep in mind that reach schools are reach simply because they receive so many more applications than there are seats available. We visited a tip-top LAC, maybe one on your list, and they said they felt 70% of applicants could succeed in every respect at the school. At the time, they accepted 14%, so fully 4 in 5 qualified applicants were not accepted.

Some other terrific LACs that are outstanding, and competitive, but maybe not as extremely so: Rhodes College in Memphis, Denison University near Columbus, OH, Dickinson College in PA, maybe the University of Richmond, which is a little bit larger of an LAC, bordering on a mid-size national university. All of these have world-class academics and extremely beautiful campuses. Denison generally offers pretty generous merit aid. Richmond is just a few miles from downtown Richmond (RVA), which has become a “hot” city, attracting lots of students and young professionals. It’s really turned around in the last couple of decades. It has 4000 or so students, so a little larger. Again, I know nothing about ballet/dance at these schools.

https://www.rhodes.edu

https://www.richmond.edu

An outside-the-box idea might be UNC-Asheville. Like St. Mary’s in MD, it’s a public LAC, with a strong emphasis on the arts. The campus is a couple of miles from downtown Asheville, which is a great little arts city and a fun place for college students. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Have you seen that Mount Holyoke–a good choice–is part of the five-college consortium (with Amherst, U Mass Amherst, Hampshire, and Smith College)? The schools share classes and other resources, which can be an added benefit. The MH campus is also very beautiful. One of mine did a summer camp there.

https://www.fivecolleges.edu

If she’s interested in MH and Barnard, you might also look into Wellesley, which is in a nice suburban town a little outside of Boston. Also very beautiful with strong academics. I believe students can take classes at MIT. It’s probably more on the reach side of things, although all sorts of estimates like this have only limited usefulness because there can be so many factors.

Good luck with the Barnard summer program.

6

Connecticut College and Franklin & Marshall may be matches to look at; Muhlenberg a safety.

7

Dance at Conn, Denison and Bryn Mawr is much more modern-focused, not ballet. There may be limited options for a trained classical dancer there. We know kids who did summer dance program at Bates in Maine, but I think that is also modern-contemporary focused, not ballet.

Dickinson has a relationship with the Central PA ballet company, and someone had posted recently, I think on the Dickinson board, asking about that. Those are all test optional schools.

8

Look at Occidental in Los Angeles. They seem to have a strong focus on dance and would be more of a match.

9

A couple of other options more in the match range -Goucher (MD) Hobart and William Smith (upstate NY), Bard (also NY) and Chapman (CA). All are good for ballet. Honestly, unless her SATs are substantially higher than her PSATs I’d take Williams off the list.

10

Lovely dance dept, moving into the new (under construction) Eisner Arts Center in a year or so.

11

Get a tutor for the SATs – if she can get her score up to the mid-1400s it’s competitive. And, it’s impossible to get to a an SAT prep class when you have so much ballet!

Check out U of Richmond and William and Mary. Richmond has dance minor and company + relationship with Richmond Ballet for extra classes. William & Mary is building a new arts building with new dance studios.

12

Fordham/Alvin Ailey and University of Cincinnati might be possibilities.

13

Sounds like my daughter who graduated in 2017 and was a ballet company apprentice all through HS with a regional ballet company.

Most LACs don’t have robust ballet offerings and if they offer dance, they tend to focus on contemporary. Exceptions include Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA (affiliation with CPYB), Muhlenberg (also in PA, has a well known musical theater program, may or may not be strong enough in ballet), Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke/Smith - the 5 colleges Consortium has a decent dance program that incorporates all five campuses, and St. Olaf in Northfield, MN (offers dance scholarships as well as academic merit money). The other option is to look for urban locations where she can dance in the community. For example, Macalester College in St. Paul is a couple of miles from St. Paul Ballet, where your daughter could probably take company classes. Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, and Washington DC are all going to have opportunities.

My D found dance offerings meager at Lawrence, Beloit, and Grinnell. College of Wooster (offers dance scholarships) and Kenyon had moderate offerings but I can’t remember the specifics. Denison has contemporary and the professor in charge does some interesting improv/conceptual stuff.

My daughter debated dance in the community vs. dance on campus. Dance in the community is likely to be more at her level and cheaper than paying for class at LAC tuition prices. But dance in the community would take her away from campus life. She decided to shift to contemporary (no more pointe shoes!) and that opened up other options for her. She found the ballet program at Dickinson to be the real deal when she visited.

I think her chances for admission with current test scores would be good at Dickinson, Muhlenberg, St Olaf. and College of Wooster.

Good luck!

14

Your daughter has strong chances of being admitted to Barnard if she keeps her grades up. Barnard looks very favorably on students with strong ballet backgrounds. They have a strong ballet department and they need good dancers in their classes to keep the department strong – and of course the most serious dancers are looking to attend programs like Julliard or to directly apprentice with ballet companies. So basically the ballet background is something of a hook.

That being said – the Barnard dance department by itself may not keep your daughter satisfied. The classes are wonderful for a LAC, but not up to the standard of a conservatory or BFA program. (That would be true of any LAC program). So serious dancers tend to supplement by taking classes at Steps or Broadway Dance Center, or taking master classes that are offered by dance companies. No shortage of those… but something to budget for if your daughter isn’t going to be satisfied with a dance class that meets once or twice a week. (Plus her other classes may sometimes make it hard to schedule weekday dance classes, so she may be lookng for classes on evenings or weekends)

However there are also two campus ballet companies that may take up the slack, with auditions and rehearsls:
Columbia Ballet Collaborative http://www.columbiaballetcollaborative.com
Columbia Ballet Ensemble http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cuballetensemble/

In any case, for a ballet lover there is no better place to be than NYC.

The current test scores would not be a barrier to admission at Barnard-- Barnard places greater weight on GPA than test scores. Plus I think they understand the level of discipline and commitment required of serious dancers.

If your daughter still aspires to Barnard her senior year and finances aren’t a barrier for you, it definitely would make sense for her to apply ED.

15

She has several women’s colleges on her list. Has she looked at the next tier down? Hollins, Agnes Scott, etc. for the full list see womenscolleges.org

Students looking at Goucher should also check on cross-registrations available at Towson University which is just down the street. Towson has a very strong dance program with good ballet options.

16

Is your daughter trained in any styles other than ballet?
URichmond was mentioned above, and I am a senior dance minor there, although I’m not in University Dancers (our company; my music commitments conflict). Our company has at minimum 3 technique classes a week (one of which is ballet), plus rehearsals for pieces; time commitment can be 20+ hours a week. However, UD is primarily a contemporary/modern company. Some students do take additional classes at Richmond Ballet during the less busy times of the year. It is also possible to get a full ride for dance at UR with a requirement to minor. UR also just built a brand new dance studio this summer, in addition to the ones we already had.

17

Another LAC in NYC (Greenwich Village) is Eugene Lang, which is part of the larger New School and is located close to NYU. I can’t speak to the quality of its dance program, but it might be worth checking out just for the location and the fact that it’s less selective than most schools mentioned above.

18

My daughter is a ballet dancer as well, in the 12 hour a week range (high school), not recreational, but not company. level. To get into Williams she will need about 1500 on her SAT’s, Vassar about 1450, and even then it’s not a given.

We toured Mount Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore and Smith.

She chose Mount Holyoke, and takes Point as a class, and auditioned for one the five college dance groups, and didn’t make it but there were students who asked many to audition for their capstone. She dances and extra 2 hours a week for the students cap stone. She said she is average for her point class, her teacher is amazing. The dance studios are amazing, check out the photos on line. Mount Holyoke is very liberal and diverse.

You can PM me with any questions.

19

Oh, btw, Wellesley has very little for Dance, somewhat surprising for an all Woman’s college.

20

D had the same dance background as your daughter. She is an Engineering major but a dance minor. One of her friends is a Dance Major at Mercyhurst in PA. She is a Senior there now. She loves it there and seems to be on track for a professional career.