I have been dancing for 15 years, and I am 18. I have taken 3 one-time professional classes. Is this impressive to Ivy Leagues? My GPA is a 4.0 in case that matters.
Admissions appreciates dedication, but “impressive” is overstating.
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Adcom’s like seeing applicants who have devoted a lot of time to perfecting/improving/advancing in whatever non-classroom activity interests them. And that’s you! Dance is great. Fencing is great. Playing piano is great. Creating an App to make it easier for restaurants to donate leftover food to a soup kitchen is great. Getting promoted to shift supervisor at the local pizza restaurant is great.
I think that you should read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. As I understand it, it recommends that you do what is right for you, whatever you do you should do it well, and you should treat people well. While this is on the MIT web site, the same approach makes sense and seems to work for other highly ranked schools.
15 years of dance to me seems completely compatible with this recommendation.
Ivy League schools, and other highly ranked schools such as MIT and Stanford, are still reaches for nearly every student.
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I have a dancer who applied to college (a notch below Ivy) a few years ago. She also had 15 years of experience. One thing she did was create a complete “narrative” around her commitment to dance,
Including leadership (team co-captain), employment (worked as a part-time instructor at a dance studio), entrepreneurship (started a “business” offering dance lessons and maintained a client base of more than 20 repeat students over 2 years), and community service (volunteered as an assistant in dance classes at a community center).
None of this is extraordinary and A lot of this happened organically wasn’t planned out to be so cohesive but when we started piecing the bits together she did try to fill in gaps a little bit to try to create a good story. Just an idea in case it’s helpful. Good luck.
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Dance is a wonderful activity and hopefully something you love doing. You appear to be dedicated, accomplished,.and talented. That is all a positive. But as far as I know the elite academic schools do not recruit for dance (as they do for sports) so excellence in dance is not likely to be that same kind of hook.
The elite schools get applications from more exceptional students than they have room in a class. Take your shot for sure. But also work to create a well balanced application list with reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be excited to attend.
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Your GPA certainly matters and is great if you’ve been taking honors and AP classes. As for ECs, it’s clear dance is important to you and pursuing an interest is part of what top colleges like to see—but they look at it through a specific lens. As Stanford says in its FAQ “In general, we want to understand the impact you have had at your job, in your family, in your school, and in the larger community. We also want to learn about the impact that your experiences have had on you.” Read thru the post above by @Bruno99 and you’ll see an example of the package of activities and leadership structured around a dance interest that makes someone a distinctive candidate.
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Yes, 15 years of dance combined with a perfect GPA is impressive. However, in order to impress elite, most selective schools, you need to express this commitment in a more insightful manner than just “I did this”.
Does it matter? This is what you’ve done - and I presume love. That’s what matters. It’s not like you can change it.
Will the Ivy’s care? I don’t know - but you care - so that’s what matters. And if you don’t go to an Ivy League school, the sun will still rise for you the next day.
PS - a 4.0 is - sadly - a dime a dozen today - but all are not created equal - as there’s varying level of rigor and it’s but one part of an application.
Good luck.
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@FlamingJo Could you please do a Chance Me/Match me thread and answer all of the questions on the template. Your dance commitment is very good, and so is your GPA…but what is your HS course rigor, what courses have you already taken, what is your SAT or ACT score…what can your family afford or do you qualify for need based aid. All of these questions are on the template and will help folks give you better feedback.
My son was a competitive dancer and danced growing up for about the same number of years. Commitment to dance looks great as an extracurricular. To be more impressive, you would need high level recognition as a dancer. My son is not at an Ivy, but the college he attends allows an arts supplement where you can show your proficiency which is evaluated by the appropriate arts department. If they need your talent, it can help an application.
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Your dedication to dance is impressive, But it won’t be the sole reason you’re accepted (if you’re accepted) and it won’t be the sole reason you’re rejected (if you’re rejected). As part of a big picture, it matters what all of the parts are. I do like @Bruno99 ‘s point about using dance to create a narrative. One advantage to dedication to a few activities over a long period of time is that you can use the range of experiences attached to these activities to tell a story about personal growth, leadership, artistic achievement, etc. And that would still have to be part of a bigger story that includes academics and other achievements.
But – resist the temptation to classify “Ivy” as a category unto itself. It’s an athletic league, not a uniform block of schools or a meaningful marker of academic distinction (I say this as an alum of one of these schools). They’re all different. Find the schools (Ivy or not) that are likely to value your experience and accomplishments, and that are likely to provide the space for you to grow.
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Agree with @Shelby_Balik You need to be more discerning than looking at Ivies. A student who loves urban schools would be interested in Penn while one who enjoys a more outdoorsy school could gravitate towards Dartmouth. A student who likes the idea of a large core curriculum might favor Columbia while someone else may like the open curriculum at Brown. Think about what type of academic, social, geographic environments resonate with you.
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As others are suggesting, “impressive” is not necessarily a great word to use for these schools.
In more pragmatic terms, are you planning to keep dancing in college? Have you looked at what they do for dance at your colleges of interest? Some might have Dance Departments, those might offer majors and possibly minors, they could have different student activities, you could look into whether they do auditions, or accept dance tapes as supplements for admissions . . . .
Generally speaking, though, the most selective colleges tend to get applications from very highly qualified performing artists, and they may have a high standard for it to really count as a plus factor. Like here is a bit from the Inside the Yale Admissions Office podcast discussing dance:
[Hannah] All right, let’s talk about dance.
[Mark] Yeah, dance submissions are a relatively new option for our applicants. They’re reviewed by the head of our dance program, which is now part of our theater and performance studies major. There’s a wonderful Yale faculty member who has really sort of built Yale’s dance program from the ground up. And so she has helped to develop what her evaluation process will be like. And she’s explained to us that she’s really focused more on technique than on choreographic creation.
[Hannah] Yeah. So, the top rating there is a student with exceptional and promising talent, exceptionally high quality pre professional training, could dance professionally in a top tier company with the potential for admission to top conservatories.
[Mark] And, again, in the middle is someone who’s exhibiting really solid technical proficiency, has the potential to be an engaged participant in various dance studios, and also part of the big student led dance community on campus and will go all the way down to submission sort of merits no special consideration.
That’s just Yale, but I think the three categories they rough out are likely generally applicable. Performing arts can potentially be a large plus factor for an otherwise well-qualified applicant who has conservatory-level demonstrated talent. It can be a good activity (among many other possible good activities) if you appear likely to be able to contribute at the expected level of their student groups. And finally it could also not be notably helpful.
Anyway, that’s a little window into how they think. Again, their mindset is centered on asking what they think you can do for them as a performing artist, if they admit you. The more value they think you are likely to add to whatever dance programs they have, the more helpful it will be for admissions.
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Honestly I think it depends on the type of dance, the level of achievement and artistry, where and with whom you danced, summer programs etc. If appropriate do an arts supplement with dance resume, video and letters of recommendation related to dance. There is a dance forum here under “majors.”
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