@dancemajor23 @ucsb82 Just looked on the USC Undergrad Admissions page of the website and it now says that “First-Year Applicants: Admission decisions will be available in the USC Applicant Portal on Thursday, March 26. We will notify you via e-mail when your decision has been posted.” https://admission.usc.edu/
I wish all our dancers good luck!
DD has been accepted into Point Park University dance program - yeah!!! Even with scholarships it is extremely expensive. Does anyone have information about the quality of the program and school or know where I can find out info? Thanks.
@kush22 So I found that when I tried to get an answer to that question the answer was always yes - but when we were going though the application process for colleges for DD I was SUPER concerned. She had attended a professional full day ballet training program during high school. She did not do tradition high school (did online). She is smart enough but her focus was on dance and and not academics. She did fine academically but definetly not high honors program.
We had to get creative for her extracurricular portion of the applications in that they are not set up to fit her type dance commitment or things they did for the community. It was more difficult to get it all in and to not downplay her accomplishments.
Her essays, however, I have to say were awesome! She was able to express how her commitment and experience in the dance world offered her experiences and the discipline that colleges are looking to have in their programs. I think its what set her apart.
I have found that its difficult for dancers to boast about themselves so we had to encourage her to state the facts - It was never an issue of her inflating her accomplishments but rather it was challenging to get her to write about her accomplishments.
I had feared she would not get accepted in to the colleges she was wanted to audition for academically - but she did academically with scholarships - I have no doubt her dance training was instrumental. (she also got recommendation letters from her dance world instructors). Not sure what colleges he wants to attend but she got in academically to PACE, Point Park, Marymount and Montclair.
Again you may be looking for him to apply for higher level colleges - her dance not academics in high school was no doubt considered favorable by these colleges (plus scholarships academically).
Not to mention - if he enjoys dance then go for it! If he doesn’t - I would say find something he has a passion for and do that 
This was at least our experience - our point of view :). Good Luck!
D accepted into Connecticut College for dance today with a 22K scholarship. We love David Dorfman and would love to have her attend school here. The problem is that no other grant/merit aid was offered and the tuition/room/board is 75K 
Still so proud she got in, as it is a beautiful liberal arts college.
Hofstra, however, did accept D into honors program and offered a 33,500 scholarship bringing tuition down to 33. They have modern classes five days per week for 1.5 hours and ballet three days per week for the same. Lots of performance opportunities and close to NYC.
Still considering USF, Towson, and UMASS.
Nazareth, Springfield, and UB also possibilities (Nazareth because they offered her a dance scholarship and she can double major in nursing, Springfield because she can double major in dance and OT, and UB because she can study ballet, modern, jazz, and tap).
With no visits allowed, we are at a standstill.
@Massmom72 sounds like your dd has a lot of great (and very different) options. Best wishes to both of you as you figure out the path ahead for her.
Thank you for taking the time to post a detailed response. It definitely helps. He is extremely passionate about dance but not sure if he wants to pursue it as a career. Still unsure about it. So I want to make sure he has good options if he decides to pursue let’s say Business or other majors and do dance as an EC.
thanks again and good luck for your daughter
@NevrMynd51 @ucsb82 what day did your S audition? how did they feel about the day?
DD auditioned at Kaufman on Sunday 1/27, and thought it went well (allowed to perform full solo without being called for time, and said she left the judges laughing). She thought the day went great, and also the pizza party.
I think DD’s biggest obstacle will be her ACT scores. She will have her AA from a JC prior to her HS diploma but her test scores might reduce her chances.
With any luck, the dance department will work it out with admissions and all will be good come Thursday.
@ucsb82 they said in a meeting at a discover kaufman weekend that most of the time they work well with the admissions and if they want someone talent wised, admissions will agree most of the time.
@dancemajor23 DS auditioned on Sunday 1/26 (was at the audition when the Kobe news broke). He was really impressed with the day as a whole. He did his solo at like 5:35 pm, which having check-in at what 8 am made for a long day but other than that he really thought it went well. He said he liked the live audition so much more than the Discover Day that we had gone to in November. After the Discover Day he wasn’t really feeling like USC would be a good fit but that changed after the live audition. What day did your D audition? How did they like it?
We as parents got to go on a tour of The Music Center which was pretty fun. Did you go on the tour or simply hang out at the Kaufman Dance Center?
@NevrMynd51 My DS auditioned on 1/18, which was the first audition day. He felt very good about the audition. Solo was around 3, one of the earlier slots, and he felt confident about interview. USC is his number 1 school for dance and he felt strong about the day so I guess we will wait and see.
@mom4dance A relative recently graduated from PPU in MT. I spoke with her mom today and she said PPU is one of the top dance school programs in the country. Big big deal. PPU conservatory is brutal. Not nurturing. Her other daughter is majoring in dance at another college that is a better fit in terms of a positive collegiate experience. That is just one opinion though. Congratulations to your daughter!
While we wait for Kaufman results, anyone have a reliable number of the number of dancers auditioned (M/F), and the expected number of openings?
I think I heard word of approximately 120 total dancers (70 female) for 11 openings per gender, but don’t quote me.
@dancemajor23 That’s great! Where else has he applied to? Acceptances? DS is waiting for this USC decision to have a complete picture of where he CAN go to. Acceptances to Pace, UCI, UCLA, UCR, CSUF. Leaders in the club house are UCI and UCLA…USC may throw a wrench in the program because of all they had available to the dancers. But we’ll see the results tomorrow! I do wish everyone luck!
@ucsb82 No reliable numbers, everything is just conjecture. I believe there was approx. 40 kids per audition x 4 days = 160 that made it through to live audition. Heard that approx. 1200 kids submitted prescreens, so we were just excited to make it to live auditions. Gender split I’m not sure about but they did mention like 10% of the dancers in the program were M, so I don’t think it is an even 1:1 ratio. All this is just information that I have gathered from conversations with people who have gathered information from people, so take with a grain of salt. I was kind of using it as a sort of guideline.
@ucsb82 @NevrMynd51 there was 140 that made it to the live audition. At our day they mentioned they like all their classes 1 to 1 for partnering and they mentioned that they will go anywhere from like 24, 12 and 12, or like 32, 16 and 16, just depends on who they want each year.
My DS has been accepted to Pace, Marymount Manhattan, Fordham, and University of Arizona. Cut at Juilliard, and is just waiting to hear from Kaufman and NYU!
@dancemajor23 Thank you for the information. I can only hope that they go for 32, lol!
Congrats to your DS on his acceptances, all of those schools are in the more selective range of schools, so again well done to him and you. Is your DS more of a ballet focused dancer? Just wondering because my DS is on the more contempory/commercial style.
@dancemajor23 Wow, great options for your DS so far, good luck with the remaining.
Ok, great, so 140 auditioned. If the M/F split was 50/50 and the 2024 class matches the class of 2023 (13/13), then the odds are (13 over 70) or, ~19%.
Chances are my assuption of a gender mix of 50% for the candidates is off, but, if they were looking for the same final outcome (and had the available candidates) they may have entered with a 50/50 mix from the start.
@ucsb82 Based on the mix from our audition day it was more like 70/30 split F/M. There seemed to be more F then M dancers. I think we counted like 6 male dancers, 7 with my son.
@NevrMynd51 he has been dancing for 11 years and trained in all styles equally. He doesn’t really have a focus because of such diverse studio training. That is why he loves Kaufman as it gives him ballet, contemporary, hip hop, and jazz, unlike some other programs.
Also at our day I believe there was 35 kids and 8 boys. He spoke with friends that there were around 6 boys the second audition day. So it is looking like maybe anywhere from 26-28 boy auditioned.
Kaufman faculty and current students always say that they cant tell you what they are looking for because it changes every year. So I think thats where their wide variety of overall class numbers come from. Im also hoping for 32 haha. He loves the conservatory mixed within the big campus so we are praying. Another thread said decisions will starting in the morning PST and roll out through the day.
Odds are looking good for the male Kaufman candidates: if only 28 auditioned and if Kaufman wants 13 (for example)…
I wonder if they will wait list some candidates (as some will select other programs).
I watched the YouTube of the first graduation ceremony from Kaufman and took note that Gloria Kaufman painted a work of art for each graduate - I wonder if she gets involved in the selection process (wouldn’t surprize me).