I’ve been searching the web for various schools and whether they allow/accommodate for minors (both dance and non-mt minors). This is proving to be an enormous challenge. If anyone would like to chime in on what schools allow minors, please list them and what they allow (Dance, Performing Arts Management, Foreign Language, Business, etc…) Thank you for any insight you can provide!
My older daughter is at The University of Tampa. They strongly encourage or mandate (there seems to be more leeway here than I thought) a double major. They will also allow for a minor. My younger daughter was accepted to the BFA MT and was supposed to go audition next week for the dance department so she could double major, but that’s been cancelled/delayed with the coronavirus changes.
At any rate, their push for the double major was one of the selling points for us. They don’t allow every major (for example, you can’t do nursing or education because they have so many off-campus requirements that they can interfere with rehearsals), but most other majors are on the table…
@secondtimemt Thank you! So helpful!
I know both of the kids I am working with are looking for double majors or minors. That’s one of the things I ask of them to do for a backup plan and they are all in! One of them visited Nebraska Wesleyan a few weeks ago and got good input that they do encourage it if there is another area they would like to study in also. (She learned that one student was getting a Music Theatre/Physics double major.)
I know that a Cap 21 / Molloy parent posted that because of the way their classes are structured (vs Molloy college and having to go off-campus for training) that it was difficult, if not impossible to do. (Look in Molloy/Cap 21 college-specific thread). I think also it depends on how many gen ed credits you enter college with. I know both of these kids have a lot! (AP + DC).
It is possible to minor at Molloy/CAP21, minor at LIU Post, and you can double major or minor at University of Utah and Ohio University!!
Students pursuing a BFA at NYU/Tisch can do a minor or a double major.
I have nothing against doing a minor or double major! However, I don’t believe in doing it as a “back up plan.” If you have a passion about more than one thing, study more than one thing. But you don’t NEED to. I don’t believe that one’s major dictates their employment opportunities. Many people hold jobs unrelated to their college major. Many employers want educated graduates. Further, a major is not all you study. There are still other courses as part of one’s education. If you want to pursue theater, there is not a problem going all in. Pursue it and see what happens. It doesn’t mean you won’t be equipped to do other things in life.
Personally speaking, my D, who is a young professional in NYC who got a BFA from NYU/Tisch, did not double major or minor. She was all in for her chosen field. She also enjoyed her liberal arts classes very much. She has made her entire living since graduation in theater and music. But if she had not, I have every bit of confidence she could have worked doing something else because she is well educated. She had no back up plan.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, @soozievt. There is no need for a “backup plan” if folks make a good PLAN for how they will sustain themselves through school and after graduation.
Not thinking of a backup plan, but my junior D is interested in getting a minor – most likely in dance, but perhaps another subject. The information has just proven to be difficult to research. Thank you all for your input!
You can definitely get a minor at Molloy/Cap21, but it will depend on the subject. Some minors are less specific on required courses and easier to fit into a BFA schedule. It also is much easier if you come in with dual or AP credits from high school. They do not offer a dance minor however.
From what I can ascertain, dance minors are great things to be able to access where the MT dance curriculum isn’t the greatest and the student, probably already trained in dance before college, really wants to graduate as more than a mover. But there are other programs where the MT dance curriculum is spectacular and a separate minor in dance isn’t needed. I don’t have any specifics on which programs fall into which category other than to suggest to ask current students. Ask them what their dance training was going in, how they feel about what they receive there, how many in their MT programs minor in dance and their reasons for doing so, etc.
*At schools with nationally-ranked BFA dance programs, it may be harder or even impossible to minor in dance, similar to how non-majors won’t be able to minor in MT at schools where the class sizes are intentionally kept small and admission to them is extremely selective.
My D is a BFA Acting major at NYU and is pursuing an English minor. She feels like it will be an asset if she decides to work behind the scenes.
University of Illinois program lets you minor.