@Massmom72 most of those don’t look like college dance programs- they look like professional programs. In NY alone they’re missing a bunch of highly regarded programs - Juilliard being one lol
@Massmom72 for some reason- other states seem to have more comprehensive information and more accurate information- NY is missing a bunch of top programs and only seems to list professional programs- seems a little confusing.
What I know, which isn’t a lot, is that NASD accreditation looks at thing such as number of students vs studio space. I remember Butler saying there were shrinking the size of their acceptances and incoming class last year because they had been told their program was getting too large. I would assume schools such as Juilliard, don’t see a need to be accredited because they already have a stellar reputation. I can see how less well known or newer programs would benefit from the accreditation.
@NavigatingMom My DD got the artistic notice from UNCSA yesterday, and then got the offical acceptance this morning via email, so hopefully your DD hears soon.
Anyone else have kids auditioning tonight at Pace or tomorrow at SUNY Purchase?
My D also got her UNCSA notice ? - thanks for the heads up. She had late dance and homework last night so may not have checked it without prodding.
D didn’t make it into Montclair. It’s been horrible weekend because Montclair updated her portal Friday with the question “Are you redhawk ready?” but with no letter. I had a sinking feeling it would be a no since others have gotten updated portals with acceptance letters only a week after the audition. Now I have to plan a cross country visitation schedule…USF, Towson, and Buffalo (which admitted her into the honors college and offered a 15K provost scholarship this weekend). Or she could just go to UMass Amherst and double major in dance and special education, or go to nursing school with a double major in dance at a state university in MA. Still waiting on Connecticut College.
@Massmomm I’m so sorry that you and your dd have had such a rough weekend. This whole journey really can be such a gut-wrenching roller coaster ride. I don’t know if it’s any consolation, but I do think that it’s pretty difficult to double-major at Montclair (which I think your dd wants to do?). But no matter what, getting a no is no fun at all.
Best of luck figuring out your next steps. We’re in the process of deciding whether to visit Ohio State or take it off the list, and also realizing that we’ll probably need to re-visit the top choices before she can really make a final decision (in fact, I am sitting at VCU right now while my daughter observes class!). And never mind waiting on the $$ info we’ll need.
Hang in there, everyone!!
thank you for your kind words @threegirlpileup ! Good luck as your D decides!
@Massmom72 I’m sorry. My daughter’s rejection to her then first-choice program was devastating. To add salt to the wound, she would continually get emails from the school congratulating her on her acceptance and such, since she was accepted academically. Now, with the benefit of nearly two years at her current school, she can see that she is in an excellent program for herself and can’t imagine being anywhere else. I hope the same will hold true for your daughter. In the meantime, I hope she is kind to herself.
HI to you all - I’m following this thread as I have a freshman in HS; She talks about dance all the time; and I have a few questions for you guys when you get a chance. But first I want to say I think there’s some pretty talented, dedicated dancers in this group; and good luck to you all.
So - are any of your girls/sons on HS dance teams? I assume they do studio dance - and how many hours a week does your kid practice? Do they want to do a college dance team in college? Or - is that type of dance not done by classically trained dancers? Any here that do both?
Do your kids want to dance professionally ultimately? Own their own business? Teach? Is a dance major in college as demanding as the hours upon hours spent in studios during high school? Do they compete in college? or perform? I am so curious on this all, and knowing something, anything about being a dance major in college would be helpful to us. THANKS for your thoughts!
I don’t know a thing about dance team except that especially in college it can be a huge time commitment and a challenge to do with a dance major.
My dd is planning to work professionally in the dance field, as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. She’s also interested in musical theatre, both as a performer and choreographer.
Dance programs vary a lot from school to school. My dd narrowed her list down to 12 schools and even then there are a lot of differences between the programs in terms of performance opportunities, time spent in technique class, types of dance offered, number of credits required in the dance major, professional goals of dance students, technical proficiency of the students, opportunities to create their own work, emphasis on teaching, etc.
Reading through the threads here and the websites from different dance programs will help give you an idea.
@bgbg4us My D18 did HS dance team freshman year, as a social thing, they performed at football games etc. But it was a distraction from/conflict with her studio time and so she gave it up after that. She was doing 20-25 hours per week at her studio during HS, plus competitions. Most BFA students will have had 8-12 years of dance training before college, if applying to an audition-based BFA (although many boys will get in with far less).
In college the BFA students have 12-15 hours of studio time per week plus another 8-10 hours of dance related classes (Pilates, music, choreography, lighting/stagecraft etc), then rehearsal can be 5-10 hours per week if you are cast for a performance. And she has 3 more academic classes to fit in each semester for her double major. So she’s very busy even with slightly less studio time than HS.
Like most BFA students she’d like to get a professional ballet contract, but most of them won’t, so we will see.
Dance (cheer) at college football games etc is not really something the BFA students do (especially not ballet), it is a lot of time and would conflict with class. But there are ballet performances every semester which you audition for.
Parent of classically trained dancer - here are my brief answers:
*No dance team in high school or college
*In high school she had about 15-20 hours a week at the studio for class and rehearsal
*In her BFA program she spends about 10 hours a week in technique plus additional hours for pointe or partnering, modern or jazz, choreography, Pilates, etc.
*Rehearsals are an additional amount of time and that varies widely depending on how they’re cast
*on top of that are academic BFA classes, general ed, second major, etc.
*She does perform but everyone auditions and casting is not guaranteed
*Post graduation she hopes for a contract to dance somewhere but also envisions working as a counselor with dancers, teaching, possibly getting an MFA, etc.
@bgbg4us my D is a good bit different from most girls on here. She’s danced for many less years leading up to college auditions (she’s in her 3rd year), and she has no intent or illusions of working professionally in the dance world after college. She just wants to major in dance because she loves it. She will double major to handle her future adult needs. We’ve discovered that there is layers of programs and that once you get below the top layer you don’t have to be a phenom or lifelong dancer or have a perfect figure, but it will be harder all the same. There are a fair amount of disappointments and the process is stressful and expensive. That said, to answer your other question, my D has no interest in dance team in college. The schools she is looking at have a wide range of training hours and performance opportunities. She currently dances 22 hours a week of classes and many (but varied) hours of rehearsals.
@bgbg4us Allow me to add my 2 cents, as @Twoin18 pointed out when speaking of the years of dance most BFA dancers have, my DS is in his 3rd year of studio dance and 4th year if you count HS dance team (which I don’t), most programs understand that boys usually get into dance later in their teen years for many reasons. Several start dance when they get into high school which was my son’s route.
He was on the HS dance team his freshman year and the only thing he got out of it was a love for dance. He left that in his sophomore year and went to a studio where he spends about 15 - 20 hours a week with dance and rehearsals (ballet recital and competition practices included). As far as being on a college dance team, in speaking to recruiters for several universities, it is not something that they encourage. As one told my son, “you will still be on the hook to get in all your class hours, even with the requirements that the dance team has”. So most BFA programs really frown upon dance team membership. And from the sound of things, BFA programs have so much of a time commitment that I don’t think it would be a good idea to try and do dance team anyway.
As for his future plans, He is looking to double major and minor in finance/marketing. He is looking to double major in performance and choreography, this is contingent on getting into his top choice school which offers both BFA in those two tracks. If not he is looking to double major in choreography and business, again finance/marketing. He would love to perform professionally and would ultimately like to open his own dance studio.
I would say, start your DD thinking about WHERE she would like to go to school? What type of focus she would like out of the program (ballet, modern, jazz, etc)? What would she like to do with the degree when she graduates from college? And start doing your research now on the schools she is interested in, including contacting the dance department and looking into summer intensives. Not sure if this helps at all but again my 2 cents.
Hey all, just wanted to say that I started a group on the big social media site that starts with F called Dance Parents: College Edition if anyone is interested. I’ve been enjoying other pre-college/college application groups over there but there doesn’t seem to be one that is dance focused!
Thank you! I have wondered why there wasn’t one!!! Appreciate it!!!
-my D is both classically trained and trained at a competition studio
-my D did her high schools kickline team for the past three years to be more involved in school (wasn’t a demanding time commitment, her school doesn’t compete- just dances at the high school football and basketball games).
-she currently dances in the studio about 25 hours a week between technique classes and rehearsals
-she does not plan to do any college dance team, just her BFA. typically the BFA students do not participate in college dance teams, both because of the time commitment required by both the BFA and a dance team- and usually the dance team requires a lot less technical training than the BFA students have (typically two different levels of dancers in my experience).
-however, I do know for a fact that there are several dancers at Michigan who are in the BFA program and also on the dance team which is highly ranked.
-there are no “competitions” in the BFA programs, each program puts on their own performances typically at least one in the Fall and one in the Spring.
-post graduation- her goal is to dance on Broadway, and eventually open her own studio and get her masters in elementary education to teach as well.
VCU came through with merit aid!
So happy for DD that she can make her final decision without money really being a factor.