@emilyhuntnelson yes!! hoping that at the end of the process we’ll all be able to look back and realize that they end up where is best for them! fingers crossed it all works out!
For what it’s worth, my daughter definitely feels like she ended up exactly where she was supposed to be after a grueling audition season that lasted early October through late February! Keep the faith, everyone!
I can not agree with @mom2adancer more. There were a lot of ups and downs and soul searching, but my daughter feels she is exactly were she belonged and it was different than where she thought at the beginning of the audition season.
Thank you for the words of wisdom @mom2adancer and @shewants2dance !! My D already has completely changed her mind as to where she thought was her first choice for next year- after the audition, it dropped pretty much to the bottom of her list! So crazy how it all works out!
@gmfalv we had a similar experience with more than one top choice dropping right off the list, and other middling options rising to the top. It’s so hard to know until you get on campus and get a feel for the faculty and the department.
My dd and I were just talking about how hard we worked to come up with a reasonable list for her–and I think we did–and somehow even then the schools have turned out to be SO DIFFERENT from each other.
@threegirlpileup yes i agree! there is really no way of knowing if you’re going to like the school unless you go visit the campus, meet the faculty, see the facilities and take classes/audition.
D has her Shenandoah audition tomorrow. The day starts at 8:30 so we are driving over and staying in a hotel tonight. It’s a long day, in the neighborhood of 9-9, but she went for their dance day earlier in the year and enjoyed the classes, so she’s looking forward to a second chance to visit. They’re the first school to require that she take a gap year if accepted due to her age, so that’s interesting.
@milgymfam wow that IS a long day. Best of luck to your dd tomorrow! I’ve heard great things about Shenandoah. My dd really likes Matt Pardo, who teaches ballet there–he taught for two summers at a summer intensive she attended.
Hello All- my daughter is not auditioning until 2020-2021, but she’s looking at colleges now and going on visits with her brother who is 2019-2020. There’s just no way to squeeze all the visits/auditions in if she doesn’t weed some out first. I have a few questions if anyone could help.
- What is dancewave- I see it listed in a lot of the threads.
- She's finding that most programs don't include hip-hop as part of the curriculum or even elective, she wants a well rounded program to include, modern, ballet, cont & hip hop..any ideas (Pace & USC we know of already)?
- Lastly, the double major is not offered a lot, but a good minor would be acceptable too. I told her I wasn't paying for just a dance degree, so there needs to be at least a minor offed (and not a specialty minor in dance).
@katyjhop here’s the link to Dancewave - https://dancewave.org/dtcb/
As for minors, it seems that it would be pretty easy to minor most places that offer them. Even pursuing a BFA my daughter could have easily added a minor. She’s got a plan mapped out to double-major that is fairly aggressive in terms of units per semester and summer school, but it’s doable (and online class options help a lot). I’d suggest looking at a few schools already on her radar and then poke around in their general catalogs online to see what programs offer minors and how many units they would be.
Point Park added a Hip Hop faculty member this year. Minors work with their dance program but a double major would either mean an extra year or pursuing a BA as opposed to BFA. Chapman University also offers hip hop as part of their program.
@katyjhop ODU has hip hop as a part of their audition, so that might be a place to look.
@katyjhop Virginia Commonwealth has a hip hop elective, as well as jazz, tap, and African. I don’t know if UNC-Greensboro offers hip hop classes, but a lot of there modern is afrocentric/diaspora based and IIRC there was definitely some hip hop in their audition. I know they also have a number of street dance student groups on campus. University of Illinois has multiple levels of hip hop classes (definitely one of the few places I’ve seen that). Eastern Carolina has a strong commercial bent to their program and lots of genres, though I don’t know about hip hop specifically. USC (Southern California) has a really excellent hip hop teacher on their faculty (Moncell Durden) and we have a friend who is a classically trained dancer AND hip hop dancer who loved that program and found it to be a great fit. She is now working as a hip hop dancer.
With regard to minors or double majors, one key thing to look at is how much of a core curriculum there is, how many can be waived due to AP scores, and so how many credits are left over to take additional academic classes. A BFA may have 80-90 required semester credits, so if the core is another 20-30, there may only be 10-15 credits left within the standard 120 credits in four years (15 per semester x 8 semesters).
A minor might be doable in 20-25 credits, a major will need 50-60 credits, so squeezing in a minor with limited overload is feasible, but dependent on timing, given the amount of studio time for a BFA. Hence online classes can be very useful to fit them into a very full schedule.
A double major will require perhaps 150-160 credits. At many places that may be a whole extra year of courses, because not very many colleges are keen on allowing substantial overload (21+ credits per semester) which may be needed even if you take a summer or two of courses.
So for double majoring I think the key things to identify are:
- how many courses are offered in the summer for the double major you are interested in and how many credits can you complete in one summer (is it half a semester or a full semester?)
- are there online courses that you can take in fall and spring to fit them around your studio schedule?
- what is the policy of the college with regard to substantial overload (21+ credits in a semester): it may be up to you, require special permission, be discouraged or even be forbidden.
I do think @mom2adancer ‘s and my D are at a university that is much more accommodating than normal in all of three of these areas.
It seems most on here have already had their PACE audition, but we have ours coming up next weekend. The schedule says nothing about a possible solo or bringing music. I know some on here have been asked to stay for a solo, and it’s usually a very select few at their auditions. Should we bring music just in case, or does anyone know if they have they stopped doing solos? Thanks!!
@Momontoes there is no solo portion of the audition. They have the ballet, jazz, hip hop and tap classes and then some are asked to stay for an interview
@gmfalv ah ok!! Thank you so much for the info!
D just finished Pace audition in LA. Was asked to stay for short interview. Anyone know from years past if this has any reflection on being admitted? After all her visits and auditions Pace is her #1. So stressful waiting now!
So, D really enjoyed the classes (again) at Shenandoah, despite the looong day. She was on campus about 11.5 hours overall, with about 4.5 hrs being actual dancing. She hated the dorms (but she’s hasn’t liked any dorms, so probably will have to just suck it up somewhere) and the food was an issue (they had food marked gluten free that wasn’t- she knew not to eat it, but it was worrisome), but she loves the teachers and other students and really liked the show that we watched to finish the evening. I have no idea how long it takes to hear- her academic app has been finished since September, so hopefully not too long.
She has ODU next weekend, Radford two weeks later, and a dance scholarship day at Goucher that same weekend. Then all that’s left is the waiting, the accepted visits, and the decisions. Whew!
@shepmom4 Last year at my daughter’s Pace audition, they kept approx 6 for interviews (out of about 25.) I know 2 of the individuals kept were not accepted, my daughter was and I don’t know about the other 2.