She has been a dancer her whole life and in a pre-professional program in HS. She does not plan to major in dance but does plan to take a few classes or maybe join a student company in college.
Dance is her #1 activity in her activities list and her common app essay talks about dance, as well as other aspects of her life.
She does have some other strong ECs besides dance and is a STEM focussed student with excellent rigor, grades, and very high test scores.
She has almost all her apps done and is applying EA most places that allow it, RD at the rest. She is feeling burned out with the whole process and doesn’t want to spend time making a video of her dance highlights to send as an art supp.
Since the EC is so prominent in her story, would it be considered odd or a red flag to the AOs that she has NOT sent a performing art supplement with her app?
She is applying to a good mix of schools but has about 4 far reaches (1 Ivy, and 1 public Ivy, and 2 other highly rejective colleges) that I wonder the most about regarding this question.
My S26 is a musician who has played since elementary school. Highest level band in HS, plus marching band, plus pit orchestra for the school musical. He wanted to play casually in college but not major in music (which is exactly what he’s doing now, as a freshman), and he wrote about music in his common app essay. There was really only one other EC that figured as prominently as music in his overall story. Sounds like my S is a bit less committed to music than your D is to dance, but many aspects of their stories are similar.
He did not send a music supplement, including to schools that welcome recordings and auditions from non-majors. It was just too stressful in the midst of everything last fall. He got into his ED school, which is usually considered a T5 LAC and is highly rejective.
I don’t see schools questioning what kids say they do. There’s no requirement to submit so I don’t see why it would be an issue at all. No one is going to say - she’s not really a dancer. And even if you submit, it doesn’t mean it gets you any more likelihood of acceptance.
Assuming the universities accept dance videos - and many don’t, even if they accept music or visual arts - it’s not obligatory.
Portfolios are not evaluated by admissions. Instead, they send a percentage to the arts department for review. The faculty is simply reviewing and evaluating the quality of the portfolio. And they do so without context; they don’t see the application, they don’t know (or care) that you’re doing this to show breadth. A low average rating of the portfolio can hurt chances as admissions can note a lack of self-awareness about one’s own skill level.
If they do for fun, great. List as an activity. If they also have a high quality supplement, great. Submit that where allowed. But don’t view the supplement as required (unless it is) or as a means to show breadth or for one’s own pride.
My daughter was one of the top pianists in our area and according to her teachers, could have gone to conservatory. She wanted to study engineering. She didn’t send in any arts supplements even though the bulk of her EC time was her music.
My only caveat is that there are some schools that will give extra scholarship money. Lehigh contacted my D in late January to say she would be eligible for a large merit award if she sent in a music supplement. I have another friend who had a D get extra awards from St. Olaf. So, it may be worth looking at the scholarships page for the school on your child’s list to see if there are any hidden awards that she might qualify for her dance.
Sample two…my DD. She absolutely wanted to continue playing her instrument in a college orchestra. It was a criteria that was an absolute. She did take a lesson with the instrument teachers where she applied, but she did not send a music supplement. Got accepted to and attended her number one choice. Her music activities were the vast majority of her EC involvement in HS both in and out of school.
Your dancer’s ECs will be listed on her applications.
Just coincidently, my DDs essay was related to one of her music ECs.
Did your daughter list these dance things on her application?
Agree with the others. I would not stress about the supplement. Her ECs will demonstrate dedication and skill and she is not pursuing dance as a major/career in college.
I would say that it is a missed opportunity, to not send an arts supplemental video, in her case. I hear you that she is not applying for a performing arts program, but given two applicants with similar stats, a school that wants to nurture a thriving arts program on campus might choose her because they are hoping that she will be an active participant in that scene on campus. For that reason, the dance video is an opportunity for her.
The lack of it will not harm her, per se, but she will be missing out on an opportunity to make her application stand out more than it could have. This is not like the applicant who was a varsity athlete but is not applying as a recruited athlete and who cannot/will not just walk onto the team. That student’s involvement in sports shows that their time was spent productively, not that the school wants him to play that sport in college. In your daughter’s case, she probably will continue to dance on campus, and the school probably will want her to do that. A brief dance video will help them to choose her, over the kid with identical stats who doesn’t have much more to offer them. So I’d say, if at all possible, compile something, anything, that shows clips of her best dancing self. No more than 3 minutes total should be plenty.
Maybe she should consider creating a “dance” video to get attention. Alternate graceful dance moves with vicious football or boxing hits derived from other non-copyrighted sources.
Creative intelligence is highly valued by many–especially when all applicants present top academic credentials.
Agree with the poster above (@parentologist) that this is an opportunity to distinguish herself from other highly qualified applicants.
I agree with this and it might be helpful. I encouraged my kid to send an art supplement. She wouldn’t and she ended up at the right place for her.
Not sending a video will not be odd or a red flag. It goes without saying though that competitive colleges have ridiculously low acceptance rates, much more so than when my kid started college in 2016. So I would say that if she is bound and determined to give herself a possible boost at getting in, she might want to strongly consider it.
While it’s another hoop to jump through, I would say that this is one hoop that really is optional.
After rereading this thread, I do think that the failure to include a performing arts supplement might raise concern from some.
Family member did not include a performance video when applying, but had won a prestigious award directly related to the art form. Apparently, that was deemed to be sufficient evidence of talent, achievement, and dedication.
Important to remember that when applying to the most selective colleges & universities an applicant needs to make his/her application stand out beyond the numbers.
My son did at William and Mary. It may have helped his application because strong male dancers are a bit rare. Academics will be the first thing your schools consider, but when decisions are made, having a very strong supplement might have the dance department pushing for you. And be clear that you will want to be involved in dance on campus.
I checked with d22 to be sure, and she did not submit a dance supplement to the school she attended: Barnard. I find this oddly funny since she graduated in May with majors in Dance (with departmental honors) and Chemistry. Her rationale at the time was that she did not feel that she would stand out among the hundreds of dancer applicants as a dancer from small-town Alaska.
I argued for submitting at the time because I think it never hurts, but it worked out brilliantly for her in the end.
This is great to hear, thank you. With school and dance in full swing right now, she is feeling pretty stressed. We know this would be the case so she did most of the work for her apps this summer. She is feeling like the added task of putting together a video is too much right about now.
My kid has similar thinking in that we are from a small, western town in the middle of no-where and although she spends a crazy amount of time in the dance studio, local performances, and is obviously dedicated, she feels like she wouldn’t stand out compared to other dancers with awards, honors, and more prestigious performances.
While I agree in theory there are cases where it might help, I would absolutely not try to force her to do it. Particularly not given this:
She may or may not be right about that, but I strongly feel the goal here is for her to feel confident she submitted her strongest possible applications. And so if she wouldn’t feel confident about a supplement, then that’s that in my view.
Please message me if she would like to have any information about dance opportunities at WM. There are a lot more than we originally thought he would have. If she’s interested in auditioning for their dance company, I can give you info on that, too.