Applied Mathematics and Dance? Can she double major?

weebelow
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:50:54 +0000

Thank you for both responses. Sorry I didn’t go into detail as I didn’t want to be verbose. I appreciate your questions!!! Yes, she is a junior. As far as her preferences go, I think she is still undecided. We visited NY last year and toured 6 different “college” settings. We visited Columbia, NYU, SUNY Purchase, Boston Conservatory, Julliard, and Harvard. She had always been curious about NY (We live in San Diego, CA.) and we wanted to expose her to different types of campuses. What she learned from the visit is that she truly wanted a liberal arts experience, where she could cultivate both her artistic side, as well as her more “academic” side. She would love to continue to have many performing opportunities, possibly even find a small company to work for after college, but is desiring to achieve a degree that can be used beyond her dancing years. She has no interest in teaching dance. That is why the BFA looks most appealing to her. She absolutely loves math, but is also undecided as to whether she would branch off into the business side with that, or into the engineering side. As far as the physical setting of the school, she appreciated an actual “campus,” unlike NYU which truly is integrated into the city.

Geographically, she is wide open! She is excited to “go off to college” and we tested that last summer with a SI at the Hartt School at University of Hartford. She absolutely loved the experience. Financially, we are looking for Merit and “Foundational” scholarships as we were told that would be her best options. As I understand it, Ivy Leagues don’t award Merit scholarship so we aren’t really focused on them….we just wanted to see them since we were visiting. Her favorite and “Dream” university was Columbia….but is not something we can financially tackle. I doubt that is in the cards.

She is ranked 11th in her school, with this last semester having a GPA of 4.5. Her overall is a 4.23. Outside of school, she is participating in a mentoring program in one of our elementary schools, and is serving in positions in a couple of clubs. At school, she is a captain on the dance team and is an active member of the ASB. She has only taken the SAT once….scores were high in math, not so high in writing, and the area that needs the most work is Critical Reading. Scores were thrown out/not valid on that test in CA….some type of issue with the administration of the test. Then she took the PSAT and only scored an 1170. Obviously, not very high. Since that experience, she has also taken a mockACT and feels a bit better about that format. I think this is the test she will now be focusing on. Practice test materials are being looked at she can improve.

Ballet and Contemporary are her two favorite genres of dance. Modern, not so much. Someone asked her recently….“How would you feel if you just stopped dancing after high school graduation?” To which she just absolutely shuttered! It has been her first passion since she was 2……but also really loves school and achieving at it.
She is excited to pursue a math related field….isn’t sure in which direction.

Questions in my head have been:
-Does she just declare Applied Mathematics (as a high school counselor recommended) and take dance classes somewhere nearby? My response to myself…how do we find a university near a company or studio that she would want to take at?
-Can she double major without being completely stressed out and overwhelmed? Do they even allow this type of double major? My response to myself….Will that first year of experiencing both majors help her to narrow down her path?

-Should she minor in Dance? Will that give her performance opportunities for the school as well as exposure to outside companies?

Thank you for all of your input. My brain just hurts at this point.