Dance majors?
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Anonymous
| Does anyone have or know of anyone who’s a dance major? My daughter is a junior who’s interested in majoring in dance (with a minor in French) in college. Would like some feedback from any dance majors. |
Anonymous
| I know w someone. My DD considered it but didn’t end up going that direction. |
Anonymous
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My daughter is a dance major/dual degree with exercise science at Dean College in MA.
She is a freshman currently, so she only been there a month. Her runner up was actually Radford. |
Anonymous
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What schools is she considering?
If Indiana (Jacobs School of Music) is on the list and she has a realistic chance of getting in there, then yes, it’s a very good idea. Even the next tier down, as in Oklahoma or Butler, possibly a good idea. Below schools at that level for the dance department, I wouldn’t encourage my child to major in dance. |
Anonymous
She’s interested in Towson, Pace University, VCU, Temple, and Spelman. |
Anonymous
What made her choose Dean over Radford? |
Anonymous
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I have a friend who majored in dance at ASU and raves about that program.
I know another woman who did a double major in Dance and English at Goucher College which offers dance scholarships that are very generous for students who are serious about dance. Worth looking into. |
Anonymous
| If in VA, JMU has a BA in Dance. George Mason and VCU both offer BFA programs. These are all audition programs and well regarded. Many students can double major with a BA but find it very difficult to do so with a BFA program. In MD, UMD has a BA and Towson’s degree is a BFA. DD is looking at public schools offering BA programs because she wants to double major in another academic discipline. |
Anonymous
For her, there were a few reasons: 1) Dean has really amazing services for kids with LDs/neurodivergence. Radford has services too, but her access at Dean is immediate and doesn't require her to seek out the services. She has ADHD, so this was a huge thing for her/our family. 2) Boston/Providence corridor vs SW VA 3) Dean has one of the only athletic training offices specifically devoted to their performing artists. They also have ATs for their athletes, but the performing arts piece is quite specialized. 4) As her other interest was in exercise/sports science, Dean has an incredible partnership with the Kraft Group, which gives them opportunities for training and/or internships with big time sports teams (the Patriots and their Soccer team). This partnership is rather unique and allows them to punch far above their weight for students looking at their sports related programs (they also have sports broadcasting and management) Not really its own spot, but being in that area also gives her access to top notch medical facilities, where she also might learn/train. She hasn't decided if she is going to keep dance as her major, as she doesn't have aspirations of a dance career. It got her a scholarship and she can keep it even if she doesn't stay a major (confirmed that before we got to yes). Dean has options for both minors AND AAs (they used to be a junior college), so she could wind up an exercise science major with either a dance minor or AA if she decides to lean that direction. She just wanted all options on the table, and Dean gave her that, Now, price-wise, she didn't get as high a scholarship as some of the other dance majors (their BFAs are really top-notch dancers), so it was about a $15K/year price difference. We had planned more for Radford full pay price. So she is taking out the fed loans (we will pay the interest so it doesn't accrue), my parents are going to help out with some stock sales (some of her 529 money comes from when my grandpa passed when she was just a few months old) and she is hopefully going to be an RA or something going forward to help us not to have to take any extra loans. Radford is a lovely school and they just built a gorgeous new arts building. The view from the dance studio is just amazing. The price was certainly right! We would have been happy with her going there as well. Dean just had some things that were important to my kiddo. |
Anonymous
| University of Utah has an excellent dance program. |
Anonymous
UMBC also has a BA program. Salisbury has a dance minor and an audition-based dance company. In addition, Hopkins's BFA dance program is one of the top in the country (so is Towson's, in case you didn't know that). Shenandoah has an excellent dance program with BFA and BA options. Radford's program is also BFA and BA. ODU has a dance program as well - my daughter did their dance intensive 2 years in a row and really liked it there. It isn't as intense as others, but might be worth a look. NC and PA also have some amazing options - our favorite in NC was actually Meredith, and she liked Slippery Rock in PA. My child always intended on a second field and that IS generally easier at a BA program. I searched probably every single program in the country using the Dance Magazine College Guide. I am also on the FB group called Dance Parents College Bound. I have fallen in love with the most random places. My kid actually had Northern Michigan U as an option. Bets of luck! |
Anonymous
| Fordham has a program with Alvin Ailey in NYC...worth a look. |
Anonymous
| As long as she stays away from UMD she should be ok. UMD grads are unemployable. |
Anonymous
| NYU is #1 |
Anonymous
What makes you stay this? UMD is DD’s first choice. |