<p>Hi Dancemom, I don’t know a lot about dance, but I do live live in Philadelphia (hi!) and, reading your post, I remembered meeting a Juilliard acting senior who did a prior undergrad degree at Howard University (in MT) before coming to Juilliard. Not sure how helpful that info is for you. One of my daughters goes to Juilliard and another to Fordham (in theater.) Fordham has the BFA dance program connected with Alvin Alley. I can’t answer your questions about the advantages of being in NYC for a dancer (but both of my daughters, in music and drama, did want to be in NY.) I think at the level of program he’s aiming for, diversity of gender or color is not going to be the kind of advantage it might be for students at the precollege level. But perhaps it would be the case for less competitive colleges. I guess it’s always a statistical advantage to be male vs. female in theater or dance, but it gets pretty crowded at the top.</p>
<p>[edit] That’s not to say he would not receive financial aid or talent grants at top schools, only that diversity might not mean as much at this level.</p>