My daughter is applying to US universities for fall 2016 as an international student. Any thoughts on the best colleges where apart from academics there is also lot of opportunities to pursue passion in dance &drama /music. She is likely to major in liberal arts/humanities major.
Check out the SuperMatch on this site and the College Board site, https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search … try different searches, including things like dance, drama and music. Even if she’s not majoring in those subjects, if a school has a major in the area, that’s one possible sign that it has opportunities. Do lots of googling. Read discussion boards like this and college websites. She’ll also want to hone down her interests beyond “liberal arts/humanities.” And you’ll need to know her stats (GPA, class rank, SAT/ACTs) to see if she fits the selectivity. Then, of course, there’s price …
Yale
A friend of Da was a drama major at Harvard.
However, if you want a school that is not *too *demanding of your time & energy, so as to have some left to pursue extra curriculars, I would look at your states masters universities.
Could you please give an idea of your daughter’s grades and scores? Are you looking for financial aid? If yes, will you qualify for need-based aid?
Some suggestions among small liberal arts colleges: Bard, Smith, Wesleyan, Williams.
The biggest question is does she want to pursue the arts as a major or just an extracurricular. Some schools with the best dance/music/drama programs have a conservatory approach where it is difficult to access classes or resources unless you are a major. For example, NYU has a fantastic dance program - but unless you are a dance major you cannot take a dance class. If she wants an academic major there are many schools with great arts opportunities in addition to academics. More specifics on her interests, or the size or locations she would prefer, would help narrow it down.
Thanks all for the feedback. Her SAT score is 2100 and plans to take ACT as well. Dance/drama/music more likely to be a minor or an extracurricular for her although she is a fantastic talent. Her school GPA is around 3.9 or 4.00 unweighted ( she is an IB student with predicted likely to be between 39-42 I think). She likes colleges in Urban areas: city/large towns). Financial aid will be helpful if possible.
For dance, look at women’s colleges or formerly women’s colleges. They usually have great dance offerings for non-dance majors. Like Barnard and Skidmore and Vassar. For theatre, it’s hard to imagine any college without a variety of theatre troupes.
What’s your budget?
If you can afford 40-45k, she’d have a very good shot at St Olaf (excellent for music, very strong liberal arts college, music/dance/theater not restricted to majors, competitive music and dance scholarships); Lawrence (conservatory but classes there are open to non-conservatory students, easier to get into than St Olaf, tops for Physics and overall strong in the sciences), Muhlenberg (competitive for theater, good liberal arts) + the women’s colleges.
If you can only afford 25k or so, she’d need to increase her SAT or ACT score (which should be doable if she has 39+ on IB, wow!) and widen her search to include universities with automatic merit scholarships.
Duke has a dance program. Princeton may still be looking for more performing arts students. Look into Barnard and NYU.
What can you pay annually? Some of the above suggestions cost $60,000 a year.
Does your student have a geographic or climate preference?
Your ability to pay is the first thing we need to know. If you can swing $60,000 per year our suggestions will vary dramatically than if you can’t spend more than $25,000 per year.
“Dance” is a broad category. Do you mean ballet? Not many colleges have ballet programs at all, much less good ones. Modern dance is another matter. If she is a high-level ballet dancer, and wants to have access to appropriate classes without going to an audition program such as the Tisch School at NYU, then going to a NYC school such as Barnard or Columbia would enable her to take class at almost any level, since NYC is replete with dance classes. Other cities such as Chicago and San Francisco probably offer more serious dance opportunities than most. Is here interest in dancing/singing/acting for musicals? Being an actress with some dancing/singing skills?
A lot depends on the details of her interests and level of expertise and commitment. You might want to check into the musical theater forum here, too.
Northwestern has a full major in dance. I don’t know how accessible it is to the non-majors, though. The thing is - the better the arts / music / theatre programs, the less accessible they are to “dabblers.” (Nothing pejorative meant by dabbling, of course.)
Essentially the high level programs (for future professionals with real hopes of a career in the performing arts) are conservatory style. For high level amateurs who want to keep up their high skills yet major in something else colleges and universities without a separate school or conservatory will thus fit tour D’s goals best. Is that correct?
Are you or your ds a citizen?
What’s your budget?
Yale has performing groups of all kinds for undergrads…and they also encourage formation of new groups. Something in the arts for everyone…if you can afford it…and get accepted.
2100is not enough for Yale typically. But why not? Vassar also.
Less " reach for everyone " would be suny New Paltz, SUNY purchase, Lawrence (wi), st Olaf, muhlenberg… And start demonstrating “interest” by requesting info so that they don’t feel they’re safeties only:-)
As an international student, she needs to remember thst her application will be reviewed with other international applicants from her region. Depending on where you are from, this could be an issue in terms of acceptance to the tippy top schools where acceptance rates for international students are in the single numbers.
If she is a dancer, look at Goucher.
Sarah Lawrence is worth a look.
I have one dancer and one singer/actress. Their lists included Columbia, Barnard, Tulane, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Vassar, UPenn, Skidmore, UChicago for the singer, Northwestern for the dancer, WUSL. They both ended up at Tufts. Scholarships for non-US undergrads are complicated - many schools do not offer much aid for international students. Look into independent agencies. I know one girl from india attending a US school on a fulbright.