Titles pretty self explanatory. I’m a rising senior, I took dance (ballet tap jazz hip-hop gymnastics) through elementary school, am returning to dance classes for the first time this summer. I’ve been to a summer intensive with daily tap and jazz, but still have very little ballet/jazz terminology/fundamentals. What are some good programs which will admit students with limited dance experience, yet have an excellent dance program? Clearly this is a skill I will need to focus heavily on throughout college.
Montclair 100% as there are about 6 levels for each kind of dance, starting with beginner, and you move up as you go along, or you come in at a high level based on the dance audition.
The University of the Arts dance program is consistently ranked one of the top in the country. The MT classes are all taught by dance major faculty members, and there are many levels available in all types of dance. In our experience, the faculty members pay close attention to each student, adjusting levels of instruction for individual students within classes and also sometimes recommending different levels and/or auditing (free) higher level classes during the semester.
IMHO find a school that has LEVELED dance. I think that is especially important for the non-dancer or the advanced dancer.
Wright State has leveled dance classes and accepts students with little or no dance training. S’s freshman year roommate had very little dance experience and by end of freshman year was cast as an ensemble dancer in the main stage musical for fall of sophomore year. Those 8:30 a.m. ballet classes paid off.
Marymount Manhattan has dance every day and it is leveled. The audition includes dance, but it is only for placement, purposes - you don’t need to be a good dance to get into the program.
Western Michigan has a leveled dance program and all classes are taught in the excellent NASD-accredited dance department. Substantial previous dance training is not required to be accepted to the MT program and MT majors are placed according to their skills. It is quite challenging to advance to the upper dance levels because you will be training alongside the BFA dance majors but you can repeat dance courses in order to keep working on technique at your level. The dance captain for the national tour of On the Town was a recent WMU MT grad.
OCU has one of the top dance schools in the country (see Ann Lacy School of Dance). and this is where MTs take dance. There are 10+ different levels in each discipline. You can be assured you will be in a class for your specific skill level. If you’re more advanced in tapping, less so in ballet - you will be in a higher level for tap and a lower level for ballet. They level each semester so as you improve you can continue to move up.
If you’re a strong dancer, you may want to consider a dance degree at OCU as a possible alternative to an MT degree. In addition to the dance itself, you will have classes in acting, voice, entertainment business, etc… Recent dance grads from OCU can be found in the casts of Hamilton, shuffle Along and Cats among other Broadway shows. . There are 4 dance alums in the National Tour of Cinderella. And dance grads are even having success on screen, like Gabi Ruiz, currently in the TV show " Crazy Ex Girlfiriend".
Neither of my boys were particularly strong dancers when they first auditioned for college – just good movers who picked up choreo well. They did fine at Pace and Rider, which both have strong dance emphasis and where there were many students who were far more advanced dancers.
Hartt levels their dance and students with lots of dance experience do get placed with higher levels and can also be cleared to take dance with Dance majors as they progress. Weaker dancers who wish to improve (like my D) can take additional dance in the Community Division ($7 a class) on a drop in basis as time permits. Those are taught by full instructors too… In one year my D improved her dance by leaps and bounds - pun intended 
My D said her class had a range of abilities coming in. Some students had very little/no dance training and some are very accomplished dancers already, so clearly they accept students whose strength is not dance. Leveling is something you should be asking schools about because it isn’t always apparent in their brochures or curriculum postings. We heard time and again at college auditions from plenty of schools that they look for potential, how you move and how you “sell” the dance, and are not always requiring super-strong dancers.