Strong ballet program w/ sciences?

<p>We are looking for schools with strong ballet programs where DD can also take sciences with the hope of going into a medical field down the road...i.e., med school, PA school, or PT school. She does not want a school that requires her to focus equally on modern, but is ok with taking some modern. A ballet focused dance major with a dance science concentration would be ideal. We just visited Goucher and it is off the list...the ballet there is just not up to par. Thanks for any advice!</p>

<p>Barnard is supposed to have a good ballet program; I know someone from ballet school there and she seems happy with it. </p>

<p>I know Vassar has great ballet (though it is extracurricular), but I don’t know if the sciences are what you’re looking for there. </p>

<p>Princeton has great ballet opportunities, and is academically strong all around, but is obviously extremely selective.</p>

<p>Smith has ballet, though I didn’t find it to be among the strongest ballet programs at similar schools. </p>

<p>Those are all schools where ballet would be the secondary focus and the sciences the first - the schools where dance would be the primary focus are a different set, and I don’t know how double majoring would work. However, schools that are really renowned for ballet (not just a good place to continue ballet while studying something else) would be places like Indiana University, SUNY Purchase, Butler, Point Park, etc. - a very different sent of schools.</p>

<p>College-level ballet is very difficult to find if you don’t want to enter a conservatory, like SUNY Purchase, Point Park, Julliard, etc. Some colleges have both, I am thinking of Elon, but a don’t know how their ballet program would measure up. I was under the impression that Goucher and Connecticut College had good ballet programs, but I have heard negative things about them, too. Harvard, Princeton, and I believe Swarthmore, have ballet as an extracurricular, but that doesn’t seem the same to me as attending a full time conservatory. How intensive can it be? Barnard may be a possibility, but I was underwhelmed by a performance I saw by some Barnard students. I have been told that maybe I did not see their top students, and that they are actually very good in general.</p>

<p>A californiadancer above suggested it may depend on the type of school you are looking for. My D has a friend at CCM (University of Cincinnati) double majoring in dance (CCM is basically a ballet program) and pre-pharmacy. I would think most of the large publics with ballet would have strong enough science programs for medical school. The plus with larger schools are more time options for the science courses, so less chance of having direct conflicts with dance classes.
D is at PPU and has had trouble with scheduling at times because of time conflicts.</p>

<p>I know someone who went to Duke and is studying dance- but not as a major (I think they even have a minor and might give scholarship money???). She wanted rather good ballet (for a non-conservatory) and feels she found it- and she preferred it to what she found when visiting Princeton.</p>

<p>OP, can you share a bit about her stats? Would schools like Vassar, Barnard, Duke, etc. be in the ballpark for her? Does she expect to major in dance/ballet, double major with a science, or major in another field and take as many dance classes as allowed?</p>

<p>One issue your d may face in choosing a school is that, at many of the top dance programs, only majors are allowed to take non-recreational classes; and often at the BFA schools, it’s not possible to earn a second major. We do know one dancer who graduated in 2006 from Indiana University with a BFA in dance and a BA in math (summa cum laude, yet), so double-majoring was possible there a few years ago.</p>

<p>Is Mercyhurst on your daughter’s list?</p>

<p>Hi luvmi</p>

<p>We xd paths at Goucher on Friday; fortunately DS has no interest in dance or science so it’s a better fit for him.</p>

<p>I will add a guess that Indiana is worth checking out; I dont know ballet well but hier other performing arts are excellent and there are plenty of opportunities in the sciences. If size is a concern, they have a lkond of Honors-College option that is worth investigating.</p>

<p>Lovely own, too (I gre up there though so I can’t claim to be objective). Good luck</p>

<p>Sigh iphone</p>

<p>Kind of honors program
Lovely town</p>

<p>We looked at some schools with strong ballet when my eldest D was looking at schools. We were quite impressed with the program at Wake Forest. Strong academics with the ability to take ballet daily. Lots of support from the administration and faculty affiliated with North Carolina School of the Arts. the Director of the program was dynamic and passionate. There is scholarship money available to dancers too.Alas, my D did not get enough money to make this a viable option for us.
You also may want to wander over to the Ballet Talk for Dancers site where there is a huge clearinghouse of information regarding college programs that offer ballet too. </p>

<p>Colleges/Universities with Ballet Programs or Dance Programs Offering Ballet Classes</p>

<p>*This forum lists schools in alphabetical order. For first hand information about programs, either from attending or visiting students, or their parents. Forum limited to colleges with ballet classes, but not only those with a major/minor in ballet.</p>

<p>Here is a link !</p>

<p>[Ballet</a> Talk for Dancers](<a href=“http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?act=Login&CODE=00]Ballet”>http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?act=Login&CODE=00)</p>

<p>Thanks for all your replies! Frazzled1, D attends a residential arts HS. Her unweighted GPA is 3.97…weighted GPA is 4.79. She has taken the SAT twice (officially) best score 620CR 610M 590W…took the ACT once composite score 27. She hasn’t really spent much time preparing for these yet and we’ve talked about her setting aside time regularly to prepare for future attempts. She is active in her school and serves as an ambassador, leadership in the International Relations Club, active in both service organizations on campus, a member of NHS, and recently appointed to the Youth Commission which is part of our city council.</p>

<p>She is hoping to attend Indiana University this summer for 2 weeks for their ballet intensive and also 4 weeks at University of Utah in July for the Ballet West intensive. Both IU and U of Utah are on her list as well as CCM, Butler, Washington U, Duke, Muhlenberg (?) and Mercthurst(?). U of South Carolina is our safety in state school.</p>

<p>Capeme, we were on Ballet Talk before coming here! We had not looked at Wake Forest, but will add that now and take a closer look.</p>

<p>I would echo what someone upthread mentioned: check out Barnard. Their dance program is unusual in that you do you have to audition to get into a dance major. There are 6 levels of ballet as well as modern, and students sort of “audition” each semester for their desired classes. The ballet faculty is fantastic, there are performance opportunities, and double majoring in dance and science is not that unusual. Barnard’s relationship with Columbia magnifies research opportunities and, of course, the location in NYC affords additional opportunities for dance classes as well as attending fabulous performances. Admission is selective, though. </p>

<p>Best to you and your D! Finding a school with great academics AND great dance is not that easy. My D loved her time at Barnard!</p>