Strong ballet meets needs

My daughter is looking for a strong ballet program within a meets needs college. She has trained for over 12 years in ballet and has done very 4.0 weighted GPA. 4 years of science, math, English AP. Does not have a high SAT but will continue work improving that score. Recommendations of programs she should be focusing on?

Is she looking to be a dance major? Ultimately dance professionally?

The meet full need schools tend to have low acceptance rates. What is her unweighted GPA, core courses only? How many years of SS and foreign lang? What proportion of her courses have been honors or AP?

You might run the NPC at a very generous school like Harvard or Princeton to see if meet full need schools will be affordable.

Join this group and post your question there. You will get lots of specific info.

1 Like

What is your state of residency? There are some very good dance programs in public colleges, but they generally are better at providing financial aid to in-state students.

And also is she looking for classical ballet or modern? There are more (and different) choices for modern.

More broadly I wouldn’t recommend pursuing dance professionally if you can’t afford to continue to support her after college. It’s very typical nowadays to have 2-3 years where you don’t get paid anything and you consider yourself fortunate to get a position where you don’t have to pay tuition to the dance company. After college, essentially all of my D’s classmates who didn’t have financial support from their parents and were trying to earn enough working in coffee shops etc found it overwhelmingly difficult and quit after the first year in a company. We were lucky that D got a full ride and so has been able to use her 529 money to support herself.

In that case it’s better to find a college where it’s either feasible to complete a double degree (BFA plus BA/BS) or you just do a BA or minor in dance.

1 Like

2 colleges with a solid dance major, very selective but not at the same level of uncertainty as sub 20% acceptance colleges, and that meet full need.