We are hitting the road early tomorrow to start our college tour. I’ll keep you posted as I can. 
Hello! I’d like to join the group and introduce myself. We live in Philadelphia. My daughter is class of 2018. She attends a performing arts charter school in Philadelphia. She is a ballet major and dances 12.5 hours at school and then trains for an additional 12 hours at a contemporary company. She takes all honors academic classes with 1 AP. She volunteers at the library every Monday after school with their tutoring program for elementary students.
We are going on a college road trip next week. She will be looking at colleges with BFA in dance (audition programs).She has a crazy weekend with her first ACT on Saturday and then 2 performances Saturday afternoon/evening. Younger daughter has a marathon on Sunday and then we will drive south in the evening.
@amom2girls I completely understand the ballet schedule! My daughter is at the highest level of her academy. She will not major in ballet but would love to audit a class wherever she ends up.
Two great schools we know of through friends’ experiences are University of Cincinnati and Indiana University. Good luck on your road trip!
@bearcatfan you can’t get into the highest level ballet classes at Indiana unless you major in ballet. A friend of mine’s daughter ran into this obstacle as a freshman. Could only take lower level ballet and was very disappointed. She’s transferring to Oklahoma this fall.
@bearcatfan Cincinnati and IU were at the top of our list 2 years ago. My daughter trained for 12 years at a stritcly ballet pre-pro in Philly. After 2 consecutive injuries and the resulting PT, she decided to take modern/jazz and contemporary and fell in love. She still trains most of her hours in classical, but has moved her focus to a modern BFA. As you can imagine, years of research in to ballet BFA programs were thrown out and I’ve been scrambling to look for modern programs, lol! We are finding that the modern programs really appreciate a solid ballet foundation, so that has not gone to waste.
She has a high gpa and is in the top 10% in her class, but standardized testing is a struggle. We have engaged a tutor and fingers crossed for the ACT this weekend. Together, they realized she prefers the ACT and have been preparing for just that exam. The result from this final mock test were wonderful, but I do not want to jinx her!
Anyhow, heading to George Mason, James Madison and Elon on Sunday. Then late spring we will go to NYC to do visits. Will finish off with Temple and Drexel in Philly. She also wants to audition at University of Arizona and U of South Floriday. The last 2 we will visit at the audition date.
Good luck to all your kiddos taking the ACT this weekend! S18 got his first college acceptance last week, without applying for it! LOL. A 2 year arts college in Florida saw his vocal audition at a MT conference in March, and sent him a letter saying he was accepted into their MT program. If only his target colleges worked that way.
@amom2girls Good luck to your daughter at her auditions! Solid technique is, of course, important for modern as well. Our daughter has a friend at Arizona and she loves it!
@homerdog Thanks for the info. It’s just one criterion she is using … she wants to join the school dance team wherever she goes, but I’m not ashamed to say I’m trying to crush that dream based on the demands of her intended major (nursing). I have PTSD from dealing with over demanding ballet schedules since kindergarten and I’m almost out 
@amom2girls Mine has also said she is starting to get tired of pointe work. I think she’d love to take a modern class - just something to stay active and keep her hand in things. She’s danced as a student with a regional company on a couple productions, and has enjoyed the non-classical roles. Hey, fewer pointe shoes to buy.
@homerdog thank you for the good wishes, but we are just in the visit stage, though each of the schools is allowing her to observe class and/or take a class and then meet with the director of the program. We will take the school wide tours in the afternoons. Auditions won’t be until next fall/winter. Daughter will have to work on her application and essays this summer because the school applications have to be in before scheduling auditions.
@bearcatfan modern has been wonderful. It is exciting to see her move in a completely different way. It took my ballerina a lot of work to transition in to modern/jazz/contemporary. We are proud of her because after the second injury she almost fell apart when she realized ballet was not going to happen. And, yes, pointe shoe purchases have been cut in half. She still does it, but far less. Her ballet mistress at the performing arts high school is not happy about this switch in focus, even thought it has not affected her choice of a ballet major at school. Very tense this year when daughter made the mistake of being honest with her intentions.
Daughter will often stay after class at the contemporary company and take a drop in class and loves that there are adults in their 30’s and 40’s who are still taking class. Some are even former professionals. Suggest it to your daughter, she may love it!
Also parent from Class '17 checking in!
@ShrimpBurrito We found that sometimes the school specific essays do change. It’s good to make sure the schools website is updated for the new application year. They will usually list the essay questions on their website, in addition to Common App when once it opens so I wouldn’t necessarily trust what’s showing in the CA now.
@crazy4info Yes our school required students to ask for recs junior year. That way they could properly budget their time and not get bombarded with requests in September. They usually don’t complete them until the fall though.
@labegg I personally wouldn’t worry about having a free period/study hall, gives them a chance to do h.w. etc with busy schedules.
@traveler98 I think it’s best to let your child fill out the applications. Better ways to help: keep track of ‘administrative tasks.’ Keeping a spreadsheet is very helpful! I’m happy to share my templates! I used one for possible college selection, admissions process - which included deadlines for applications, deadlines for applications if you want to be considered for any scholarships - these can be different!!, when certain items were turned in to each school, from LOR’s, transcript, SAT or ACT scores, etc. It can become overwhelming keeping track of all of that!
@sushiritto No, deadline is not universally November 1st. for all colleges. Be sure to check each school for their various policies, type of admissions and deadlines.
@LMHS73 I think the answer to your SAT/ACT question is if the college only requires one or the other, than yes, send only the ACT as the conversion is in your favor!
Two visits down, one to go this week. Both schools (University of Louisville and Centre College) did a great job. Organized and also personalized. Both were primarily student led.
At U of L he spent most of the day with a senior biology major who is pre-med and part of their GEMS (Guaranteed Admission to Medical School) program. Good overview of their honors program and got to see the honors dorm. Toured the campus, attended an honors class, and had lunch with the student he was shadowing. Also met with a professor as well as an admissions counselor.
At Centre he went on a student led tour of the campus, had lunch with a student, and met with an admissions counselor and biology professor. The professor was amazing and he had so many good things to say about the time he spent with him.
He had a lot to say about both schools, pros and cons, the different vibe and student body. These couldn’t be more different (large urban public research U, D1 athletics, etc. vs. small academically focused private LAC in small town), but they are both going to stay on his list. He said he could see himself attending either one for right now (assuming honors at U of L).
Not that he won’t eventually lean one way or the other, but it sort of confirms for me he has sort of a bloom where planted type of personality. Essentially every school offers an undergraduate biology and/or chemistry major that will prepare you to apply to medical school, so that won’t ever be an issue.
@Fishnlines29, thanks for dropping in and helping us out today! I’m impressed & grateful that you still have the energy to help the next group out after just going through the admissions wars yourself. ^:)^
Okay people, a parent has just posted on another (very reputable) website that she called NMSC, and they told her that the Commended cutoff for class of 2018 is 211.
Getting annoyed with one of DS classmates who spent spring break visiting a bunch of super reach schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Swarthmore) and now has convinced my son that these are the places to go. We are full pay. so is other kid but I think his parents are ok with that–I’m not. Just venting.
Hi. Just found this thread. DD is a junior. We live in the south but she wants to go out west - either west coast or maybe Colorado. We are going next week to look at Denver and Boulder. Am hoping she likes the Colorado schools because time zone wise - its an hour closer. We are ok with her going far away but will really miss her!
Her GPA is a weighted 3.9 and her ACT a 29. She is going to take it again to try for a 30. We are able to full pay but would obviously love for her to get some merit. She is a strong visual artist (drawing and photography) and very into social justice issues. It is important to her that she be at school with a diverse population.
We visited LA a few months back and she loved UCLA and liked Loyola Marymount (but worried it felt too private school like). She is very interested in U San Francisco but it unfortunately doesnt have a photography program. She doesnt want art school but wants to be somewhere with a strong art program so she can minor or maybe major in art.
She doesnt want a small LAC - looking for somewhere with at least 7,000 kids plus.
Looking forward to making some virtual friends on this thread and sharing info!
Welcome to those who are joining the thread!
I have just returned from a whirlwind trip for D to see Duke and U South Carolina. Not the ideal trip because I was sick as a dog the whole time. D really liked both schools, although they are clearly different. Duke is really beautiful (and much larger campus than expected) and the kids seemed energized yet relaxed. We spent time at the student union just people-watching, which we always try to do in order to pick up the vibe of the students. I think D was a bit intimidated by some of the accomplishments of those leading tours. At this point, it will be on her list as a super-reach.
USC also impressed her. The kids seemed happy and relaxed, yet challenged. She liked the campus. She’s interested in the Honors College, and a little worried about the gazillion essays required to apply. I don’t blame her! This may be a strong contender if she gets one of the big schollies.
She missed the whole week before spring break being sick (which she passed along to me) so she’s got her work cut out for her next week.
@LMHS73 Oh, no problem I’m so thankful for all I’ve learned from my cc friends that I feel the need to give back a little wherever I can!
Best of Luck to everyone on the ACT Saturday!
Good morning. I posted a quick question a couple pages back but then realized I never formally introduced myself to this thread.
S18 is obviously a junior. He’s an Eagle scout with 8 Eagle palms and a lot of over and above leadership training (NYLT, NAYLE and NAYLE staff for any scouters out there) currently serving as a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster. Other ECs include band, NHS, church youth group and youth group leadership and youth praise band.
Up until this year his grades have been pretty good. In December his GPA was ~4.5W. His high school class is large at 850 students and competitive. So even with that GPA he is at about 14% in his class. The first report card of this semester was terrible. He lost motivation to get his homework done (could have been the new girlfriend. sigh). After nagging, threatening, sleepless nights and gnashing of teeth we decided to give natural consequences a try knowing that he has a UIL contest coming up - as much as it pained us. Sure enough about 2 weeks before report cards he starts to realize he’s flirted with danger a little too much. He was able to pull all but Precal out from crashing. It pains me to say he failed Precal. Because it is an pre-AP class he was able to take an exemption for it to remain eligible for UIL but he will have to do well this report card to salvage course credit for the semester. Tough love hurts but so far it seems to have scared him back into action. It has kind of dampened my excitement for this whole process. As long as he can pull everything up I expect his GPA will take a hit but I’m hoping it won’t be catastrophic. Pretty sure this closed the door on top 10%.
His first pass at the SAT without much prep yielded a 1220. He is scheduled for this Saturday’s ACT. Baseline full practice test at home was a 28. This week he’s worked on sections one at a time and managed a 32. So there’s hope.
His dream school is U. Alabama. Other schools on his list are Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and U Houston (local for us) - in that order. We aren’t shooting for an elite school but we are shooting for merit. If he keeps his GPA up and if he can manage that 32 it gets him the Presidential scholarship at Alabama. His 1220 already qualifies him for automatic admit and a partial scholarship at Texas Tech. A&M isn’t very generous and Ole Miss is about the same stats as Alabama - although they do award an Eagle Scout scholarship.
His intended major is chemical engineering. See paragraph 2 for my concerns on that. I know he has the intelligence for it just worried about the discipline. Maybe that will come with age and a change of scenery.
So that’s our trials and tribulations. Looking forward to getting to know everyone on this journey.