So You Think You Can Dance or Sing or Act? – College Bound Mentor Podcast #8

Welcome to the College Bound Mentor podcast! Each episode, hear trends, case studies, and interviews with students who have gone through it all.

This is Episode #8 and you’ll hear an interview with a college student, Brandon, who shares his experience bringing his incredible dance background to college. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re enjoying the show!

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• Show Notes
• Learn more about the College Bound Mentor podcast
• Transcript

College Bound Mentor Podcast Episode #8: So You Think You Can Dance or Sing or Act?

You can use a special talent like dancing, singing, or acting to your advantage to help stand out in college admissions. In the first part of this episode, we break down why special talents are helpful, how an Arts Supplement works, and how to frame your application. We then feature an interview with a college student, Brandon, who shares his experience bringing his incredible dance background to college. Hear how to stand out with your application, how special talents programs differ between schools, and whether to pursue a BA or BFA. This episode covers everything from special talents to Dance Moms. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

• What is a special talent and why is it helpful when applying to college?
• How did Brandon’s dance background factor into his college decision?
• What is an Arts Supplement?
• How did Brandon decide what degree to get?
• What’s the difference between BA and BFA?
• Why are more students with special talents looking for more balance?
• What should you do if you have a special talent but it’s not part of the application?
• How do private schools differ from public schools when it comes to special talents?

Subscribe to College Bound Mentor on your favorite podcast platform and learn more at CollegeBoundMentor.com.

Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes

• So You Think You Can Dance or Sing or Act?
  • [0:18] Welcome to College Bound Mentor
  • [0:24] Lisa Bleich, Abby Power, Stefanie Forman
  • [0:28] Subscribe to College Bound Mentor on your favorite podcast platform and learn more at CollegeBoundMentor.com
  • [0:51] What is a special talent and why is it helpful when applying to college?
  • [2:25] What is an Arts Supplement?
  • [4:45] What’s the difference between BA (Bachelor of Arts) and BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts)?
  • [6:52] What should you do if you have a special talent but it’s not part of the application?
  • [12:01] What is Brandon’s academic background?
  • Interview with Brandon
  • [15:04] How did Brandon’s dance background factor into his college decision?
  • [16:18] How did he decide what degree to get?
  • [19:02] Why are more students with special talents looking for more balance?
  • [20:25] What is Brandon’s dance background?
  • [25:02] How did he apply to colleges?
  • [30:54] How do private schools differ from public schools when it comes to special talents?
  • [32:02] Has dance remained a big part of Brandon’s life at Emory University?
  • [34:40] How many people are in the Emory Dance program?
  • [35:32] Is it easy to double major in Business and Dance?
  • [36:54] What would Brandon do differently if he were applying to college today?
  • [38:38] What does he do outside of Dance and Business at Emory?
  • [42:08] What advice does he have for future college students with special talents?
  • [43:57] Subscribe to College Bound Mentor on your favorite podcast platform and learn more at CollegeBoundMentor.com
  • Theme Song: “Happy Optimistic Americana” by BDKSonic

What is the College Bound Mentor podcast?

Lisa, Abby, and Stefanie know college. They also know students. With over 30 years combined experience mentoring young people, they’ll show you why understanding yourself is the key to finding the right college. Each episode, hear trends, case studies, and interviews with students who have gone through it all – giving you valuable insight to survive the college application process and beyond. Hosted by Lisa Bleich, Abby Power, and Stefanie Forman, Partners of College Bound Mentor.

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:02

Reaching out to the dance department and making yourself known is probably the fastest thing that’s going to set you apart from other candidates.

00:19

Hey, CBMers, welcome back to College Bound Mentor, where we help you survive the college application process and beyond. We’re your co-hosts, Lisa, Abby, And Stefanie. And today’s episode is called, So You Think You Can Dance or Sing or Act? So when Stef first started working at CIM, she got thrown into working with numerous kids who had a special talent in dance and quickly became our dance guru. So today we’re going to talk about how to use a special talent.

00:47

to your advantage to help you stand out in admissions. So first off, why don’t we just talk about how you would, what is a special talent and why is it helpful admissions? Stef, you wanna just tell us about that? So a special talent is what it sounds like. It’s something that a student is gifted in, whether it’s dance, whether it’s voice, whether it’s musical theater or the visual arts, they’re a painter, they’re into ceramics, they’re into drawing.

01:14

They’re in a specific instrument that they play, electronic music. And why is it helpful? Because again, at the end of the day, and this is something that we reference a lot on this podcast, a college wants to know how a certain individual is going to impact their larger communities and their smaller communities. So a special talent is a way to impact and to be an asset to a certain college. And maybe a marching band is looking for a drummer.

01:44

Maybe a dance program is looking for a certain person and certain personality to help grow their dance program because that’s what they’re focusing on. Maybe they’re starting a ceramics program and this person is their passion is the pottery wheel. So there’s all different ways that this can help you stand out. Exactly. Every college has different ensembles, different ways that they want to showcase special talents throughout their community.

02:09

And so one of the ways that they can see whether or not a student is going to add to the arts community is through something called an art supplement. And so that is something that could be done either as an audition or a portfolio. So Abby, can you walk us through what the differences between an audition, a portfolio, an art supplement, and why would one submit one versus the other? In large part, it depends on what the student’s applying for. If they’re actually applying for a major or a program,

02:38

in that special talent, then they’ll have to submit a prescribed portfolio or do an organized audition. You know, it’s usually those audition processes for the performing arts are pretty rigorous. And those are very prescribed. So for an arts portfolio, for an arts major, they’ll tell you the number of pieces that they want, the different medium they want to see. Often an artist statement will be required.

03:07

It’s pretty much almost a secondary application process for those programs. But in the case that the student might only want to be a minor or might not want to even concentrate in that special talent at all in an academic way, but they just want to show off their talent as a way of contributing to the greater college community, then you can submit.

03:32

Most schools will also allow you to submit an art supplement, which is really a way of just submitting your portfolio to them. So often you can do it on the college’s admissions portal or applications portal. Often they’ll use this secondary thing that is called SlideRoom, where it’s just another kind of digital platform where you can submit your artwork. And in that case, the student might just take all of their artwork and put it into a PDF and submit it.

04:01

or do some voice recordings or some instrumental recordings and submit them. And they’re not expected to be professional. They’re expected to be high quality, but it’s at a little bit of a different level. Now, all of that said, our understanding from speaking to admissions officers is that any art supplement or portfolio that’s submitted goes to the department for evaluation. So you do want to make sure.

04:29

that you are operating and performing on the level of, you know, their art students. Yeah, that’s a really good point. And then it really also depends on if you’re applying for a BFA or a BA. So a BFA is a bachelor in fine arts and a BA is a bachelor in arts. And in some instances, the requirements can be the same for a bachelor of arts, which we’ll hear later in the interview that we do with, that Stephanie does with one of her students.

04:56

But the main difference is how much of your curriculum is going to be based in that particular visual or performing arts. So a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Music, a Bachelor of Architecture, typically two thirds to 80% of the curriculum is going to be based on the arts that you’re going for. A Bachelor of Arts is that you’re studying a special talent, music, dance, theater, just like you would study any other subject.

05:25

it’s a Bachelor of Arts, about a third of your curriculum would be in that particular area. And depending on the school, and this is something that’s really important to understand, is if it’s, as Abby said, a Bachelor of Arts and you’re being admitted to the university and they want to see if you’re going to be someone who can be adding to that department, then you can do a arts supplement, which could be a video maybe five minutes long or a few pieces.

05:52

But some Bachelor of Arts programs are just as intensive as the BFA program, and they have a very long and arduous process. So it’s important to understand what are the requirements for your program. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you’re doing something where there is a very large part of the application, about 50% of your evaluation is going to be based on your academics and 50% is going to be based on your talent. And that’s a really big distinction because

06:21

we’ve often seen students who may not be as strong academically, but blow it out of the water from their special talent. And if they’re applying to a program that really requires that special talent, that could really give them an advantage in the admissions process. The other side of it, if you’re really strong academically, but you don’t really have a great special talent, but 50% of your application is based on that special talent, then it might be more challenging for you to get in. So that’s an important distinction that you want to be aware of.

06:49

when you’re applying to schools. So Steph, why don’t you tell us what if you’re applying to a school that you have a special talent, but they don’t actually provide you the opportunity to do an art supplement. And usually those would be schools where there is a BFA program. So for example, at Northwestern, there’s a BFA program in music and theater. So therefore they don’t give you the opportunity, actually it’s for music. So they don’t give you the opportunity to provide a special talent.

07:20

portfolio, but yet you still may want to communicate that to them. So what do you do? Yeah, that’s a really good point, because there are a lot of schools like that. So there’s a few different ways that I’ve had students go about that. Sometimes I’ll have students who like, for example, I had a student who was her special talent was baking. She was a gifted baker. And right, you would think making cakes, that’s not artistry, but it was because they were so intricately designed.

07:47

So she had her own business on the side. So she had a very successful Instagram and she had a website. So we wanted to find ways to share that. So one way you can do that is in the additional information section on the common app, you can put a link, but some schools, just to be fully transparent, some schools, they might not be able, it might not be a hyperlink. So when like they click on it, it might not go there. So.

08:12

Maybe they’re copying and pasting. We don’t know. I also encourage students, so the same students, I encouraged her to find her admissions counselor, so the region in which she lived, to email them because I did think it was a really big part of her story and I thought it shared a lot about who she was. So that’s something that I recommend. Maybe there’s a specific professor that I encourage them to do outreach to, to share.

08:41

like a Vimeo of a dance portfolio that they’ve done for other schools or just like I wanna learn about the program and I wanna learn information. And sometimes that outreach is really successful and sometimes it’s not. And if it’s not, sometimes it’s not personal. It’s just not how the school works. And you’ll sometimes see that school say, you know, really don’t send information.

09:05

unless you think it’s vital to your application. And although in most of these cases, I really believe that it is vital to their application, right? It can be a little subjective when they don’t have a clear space to submit that portfolio. I was just thinking that a lot of schools are now offering the opportunity to do videos. Sometimes they’re doing those instead of interviews. So sometimes that could be an opportunity to showcase a special talent if there isn’t another place to do it or they don’t accept an art supplement.

09:34

And then usually in the college portal, there could be an opportunity to upload something if they allow for it. But you do want to keep in mind that if a college doesn’t want it, doesn’t want to see it, you want to also be might you want to adhere to those rules because they get a lot of information and they and they know what they want to see and what they don’t want to see. And as Abby said earlier, it’s typically admissions.

10:01

they don’t have the ability to judge or evaluate the special talent. So they’re going to send it to the professor. And so that can act similar to a, an athletic recruit can pull you into that. So what happens if a student has a special talent, but they don’t want to major in it. They don’t even necessarily want to minor in it. They’ve spent a lot of time cultivating it and building it. And a lot of times parents are like, well, they’re not going to major in it or minor in it. So why should they do that? How is it going to help?

10:30

So I think as Steph alluded to earlier, the colleges really want to cultivate an artistic community. So even if you’re not focusing on your talent academically, you can really add to the community. Maybe you illustrate the literary magazine or you participate in acapella. There’s lots of different ways on campus in some kind of musical ensemble. There’s lots of ways to contribute and make the community a richer place. So I’ve had…

10:58

many, many students submit portfolios or supplements, even though they had no intention of pursuing it academically. A young man at Duke submitted a photography portfolio. A young woman at Cornell submitted her drawing portfolio. A young woman at Brown submitted voice supplement. In some cases, I get the feeling that they really helped. For example, my Cornell woman was a little bit

11:27

underqualified for the school, but her drawing talent was truly extraordinary. So I have to believe it helped. So I think anything that the student can do to make the community richer and is part of them, is part of their identity and what they bring to campus really should show up on the application in some fashion. And we’re going to hear a really wonderful interview that Stephanie did with one of her students, Brandon. And Brandon actually went to my high

11:57

And so it’s really great to hear him speak about it. And Steph, before we listen to the, cut to the interview, can you just tell us a little bit about Brandon’s profile, both academically and special talent wise? Yeah, so I’ll start with his academics and everything else. Cause once you hear about his dance, you’ll probably be like, how did he have time to do anything else besides dance? But he really did. He really created balance in his life, despite the large part that dance played in it.

12:26

But so he went to a school, so Santa Monica High School is about 2,700 students, so really, really large, and he ended up graduating probably in the top 15, 20% of his class. So his academics were really strong. He was part of National Honor Society. He also earned a community service award that was tied to his academics.

12:48

He, outside of dance, he also worked, I forget the name and I probably for privacy reasons shouldn’t share, but like a very trendy, popular bakery in the Santa Monica area. And I know he had a job a lot throughout high school. He was also the vice president of student government his senior year, sophomore year, he was secretary. So all four years he was involved in that leadership. He also did, he was very involved and had leadership in Hill the Bay Club of community service.

13:17

endeavor that was very popular at his high school and some other community service endeavors as well. And then dance, I don’t want to give away too much because he’s really thorough in his dance history, but I think all you need to hear that talks to his talent is that he many, a few years in a row or at a few different competitions, he was ranked as a top 10 male dancer in the nation.

13:42

He also, he was also on Dance Moms, which he talks about. Yeah, it’s a great interview. It’s a really great interview. So without further ado, let’s cut to the interview with Stephanie and Brandon.

13:56

All right, Brandon. Brandon is with us today and he is a gifted dancer. He’s gonna tell you all about what he does now and a bit about his history, but he just finished his second year at Emory University. So he’s gonna be a junior, which I can’t believe. And we worked together a few years ago on the college application process. So welcome, Brandon. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

14:25

and lend any insight that I may have to any students who are in a similar position or just want to get more information about like the arts within their application process. Awesome. Well, we’re very lucky to have you and I know you’re going to help so many students. So a little history about Brandon is that he, again, I’ll tell you about his dance history in a little bit, but he didn’t want to just be a dancer in college. He wanted to explore other

14:54

So we’ll get to that in a little bit too. So Brandon, how did dance factor into your college application and your college list? So yeah, I applied as actually a dance major to all the schools that I applied to. So it definitely factored in a heavy amount when going through the initial application process and first even just like picking the schools that I wanted to apply to.

15:19

I definitely made the list based off of which schools offered BA’s in dance or BFA’s in dance. So I’d be able to apply this school using a supplemental, which basically is like an arts package that the school sees your talents and your different styles that you’re like you excel in in dance. And that really strengthens your application and makes you stick out even more just not just based on your academics. So when applying to schools, I definitely factored that in heavily and looked at schools that offered those two programs.

15:48

And then from there, I honestly just started to do a lot of research about them, which ones were the best ones, even which ones maybe aren’t the best and being able to just see what their academics also offer. As you said, I did want to go to a school that offered both a very rigorous dance program, but also very rigorous academic program as well. Since I am a double major at Emory studying business as well as dance, I wanted a school that offered both programs that were very strong in both suits for sure.

16:14

Yeah, and can you just tell us a bit, like, because again, you had, when we met, you already had this decision made about why you wanted to major, get a BA in dance versus a BFA, which is more of a conservatory style program. So can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I think that goes like hand in hand with like my previous dance history. Being a competitive dancer, I didn’t study like the fundamental arts as much as I did like training for different like special skills.

16:43

which was like the competitive dance world, like acro, tap, ballet, hip hop, jazz, contemporary, all these different styles kind of blended together for me and they were kind of equally split up. In the BFA, it’s mainly focusing on like modern, contemporary, ballet, those three fundamentals. So when wanting to get a BFA instead, I wanted to go to a program that would offer like also my unique.

17:06

Dance style is the things that I really enjoyed as a dancer. I love jazz, I love tap, I love all these different things that are really fun for me, especially hip hop too. And I competed in these for like over six years. So I didn’t really wanna lose that in my dance, like in college, I wanted to continue that and even like strengthen it. So that’s why the BFA wasn’t as strong as like a program for me. And I leaned more towards BAs to all the schools I applied to.

17:31

So that’s interesting. So you didn’t want to feel limited. You wanted to do the type of dance that you loved. And again, as you said earlier, along with the really strong academic experience in the classroom. And just to blow up Brandon’s spot, I can play a proud parent. Like he would have, I’m so confident you would have gotten into BFA or conservatory style programs.

17:55

You were on Dance Moms back in the day. He was a top 10 male dancer in the nation. I mean, we’re talking to a top 10 dancer here. So, you know, that totally could have been an option. So I think that’s really great to hear that even though you would have been really successful on that pathway that you really wanted that flexibility and balance. Totally, I think I see like a lot more dancers nowadays trying to lean more towards that BA program.

18:21

because usually it’s a university that’s also more established within their academics. A lot of the people that I even competed against, the people that were in the top 10, the top 20, the top people, the people that won the competition actually started going to schools like NYU and Tisch and USC Kauffman that have amazing conservatory programs but also allow you to double major, unlike Juilliard, where at Juilliard you’re going to be just focused on your dancing 24-7, seven days a week. It is extremely like…

18:49

Janus on your body. Um, so I mean, I don’t know as now a 20 year old dancing is definitely going a lot harder So having a program that is a little more flexible is also super nice for me What do you think has caused that shift for that? You said like now you’re seeing dancers kind of do what you’re doing and wanting more of a balance As opposed to again, juliard will always be juliard and won’t have issues filling their class But what do you think is causing that shift? so

19:16

Being as honest as possible, I mean, in the dancing world nowadays, it is very hard to like make it as a dancer and be successful in this economy. Even dancers are not making enough money to survive. They’re usually often working two jobs. Even those people on Broadway that are at the top of the food chain. Those are the people that you want to be like, even in the commercial and the TV world that are booking jobs, it is a lot harder to keep booking jobs than it is to get one right off the bat. And one of those jobs might pay really well, but it’s not substantial.

19:45

So having a program like a BA that you’re also able to double major and let’s say like even literature or like political science, these other programs that allow you to like have a backbone and like support in this world sets them a lot better up for success and being able to let’s say if you got injured in dance, you have something to fall back on. You have this double major. So I think that’s what a lot of people are starting to realize and honestly just move not necessarily away from BFAs, but just exploring their options a little more and going more into the BAs as well.

20:14

Yeah, I think the key word right is options. It’s really smart to give yourself options. And then I know you’ve kind of touched on this, but just because I want to make sure our listeners understand, can you just tell us a little bit about your dance background in more detail than what you’ve shared already? I can kind of start from like the beginning. So I started off dancing when I was 10 years old, very recreationally. I went to a recreational studio.

20:40

that it was about like 50 to 60 kids, but there was no competition aspect. It was purely for fun and enjoyment. And I probably danced around like 20 hours a week. So around like four to five days a week, I studied in tap, jazz, ballet, and contemporary. And it was very just free form, come and go as you please. And we did like showcases at the end of each like semester. And then from there, my mom actually had the idea to move me to Debbie Allen Dance Academy. And this is where like my first dance journey actually, I feel like it began.

21:10

It was an extremely rigorous dance program. I was there six days a week, sometimes seven, and I was on average at least dancing 40 hours a week. That was the bare minimum there. And I was like probably a 12 or 13 year old. This was like a lot. I would get picked up at school right at 3 p.m., go drive an hour to Debbie Allen and then be there from four to nine or four to 10 p.m. And I would do my homework there, eat dinner there, do everything. I basically lived there. It was the second home to me.

21:38

But I think this is when I really fell in love with dance. I studied every single dance form there was. They offered anything you could imagine, which I really appreciated because I was just exposed to so much more dance, African style, modern, tap, all the basics again, but it just was very intense. And I kind of loved it. I really fed off of it. And after about five years of being there, I decided to move to a competition studio, which was ALDC.

22:04

People know most as dance moms in LA and Pittsburgh and they have a television show and I was really drawn to that because I love the show. So I bagged my mom. I was like, please can we go audition for dance moms? And I went to the LA studio actually around like 8 PM on like a Thursday. And I remember there just being like open drop in classes. And I went there and I saw Abby Lee, who was like the main choreographer. And right when she saw me, she was like, I like, what are you, like, what are you doing here? Like what class are you taking? She was almost like the.

22:31

I don’t know, like the person I was supposed to check in with, I was like, wow, you’re just here. Like, this is crazy for me. Like I was like fanboying, but at the same time I just want to take classes. And I was like, Oh, I just want to audition for your team to try to be a part of it. Like I don’t know what the process is. And my audition for ALDC, it was actually in the doorway. She had me do like five different technique things in the doorway. It was like the most fake audition I think I’ve ever done in my entire life. And then right after that, and then she had me go to like the back studio and she was like, sign all these documents. I probably signed like,

23:01

10 NDAs, 10 like, I don’t even know agreements. And it was basically signing my life over to ALDC for a whole semester, or technically it was two, because it was like the filming season was the fall semester and the spring semester is when like nationals happened. So that summer I was there with them and I had a ton of fun. I loved it. I just decided to move to a different competition studio to get a little bit more rigorous training, honestly, because ALDC I did feel like I plateaued there a lot and I wanted to keep getting better. And the last year that I went to before

23:30

Leaving for college was the company and I stayed there for at least 40 hours a week, competed regionally and nationally. Regional competitions happened every two weeks, so I’d be in a different city if that’s in California, Ohio, Florida. And this is when I truly started to travel. This is my first experience in the real competition world because ALDC was very sheltered. We only did the television competitions that they wanted us to go to. They selected everything. This is when my mom and I really started traveling. And I…

23:59

probably traveled to over 25 states and just competed in many different competitions. And then my second year there, I believe, I was ranked in the top 10 and then the top 10 again after that and the top 10 after that. So I was ranked in the top 10 three consecutive years. And then after that COVID happened. So I wasn’t able to regain any titles before I went off to college. But yeah, I mean, my training is basically all across the board. I had so much fun.

24:26

in all these different studios. And I think each really played a huge part in making the dancer that I am today, for sure. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it’s just so impressive. And I remember when I got to see you dance for the first time. So I’m in New Jersey, and Brandon, as he said, is in California. So we were meeting virtually. And I remember part of your portfolio, you had a video showcasing different dance genres. And I was like, I mean, it was clear you were gifted. But I was like, oh my. It’s just so exciting.

24:55

to see my student, Alan’s, like come off the page for me. And I was like, oh my God, like he’s like a big thing. I just remember that moment. So thank you for sharing that. And so can you- Of course. Process, I guess, maybe not by school because that’s a lot but maybe like just Emory or maybe another school that you think was really interesting. But can you walk us through the process of applying to maybe one or two specific schools or maybe just focus on Emory and how you felt- Totally.

25:24

you stand out, like, you know, how did you reach out? What was entailed? I would love to hear about that. So I think the two main schools I’m going to be focusing on are like UCLA and Emory. I feel like they both give you the best like makeup of what the dance application looks like for any individual. If you want to apply to a UC, if you want to apply to a private school, one being public and one being private. So UCLA’s application process for dance was, I can’t even like say any differently, was insane.

25:52

I remember, it was an education for me. It works with a lot of dancers, but never UCLA. I was like, like, anyway, go ahead. It was insane. It was when we opened it. I remember I was with you like on zoom and it was just like a mouth drop for me for sure. I was not expecting it to be like that. Most of the time you just miss supplemental and you’re good. But this one, they really want to know a lot about you. So they basically had a four short like essay paragraph

26:23

stages in your life and then also like what they want to get to know you a little more about. Like I remember being like, tell me about yourself, why dance, why UCLA, and then why like our unique dance program. Those were like the four and you have to do like a 200 to 300 word essay. And I was like, that’s totally fine. Super easy. I got this. Like I have so much to talk about. So it’s honestly just making it shorter, but then there’s like a five page essay that’s just like, give me a research essay that you’ve done about this topic and this topic and this topic. And it was just like,

26:52

Oh my God, there’s no way I’ve written a five page essay for this one school for a supplemental. And then on top of that, the audition, the actual dance audition, which was if it’s in person, it’s a three day audition. And I believe people do get cut since mine was on COVID or like during COVID. I actually did all online and it was just learn this dance and submit this dance. So I had to learn three different pieces of choreography, a modern piece from their modern department, their ballet department. And then I believe it was an improv.

27:21

So whatever I wanted to submit that shows showcases my unique talents, you can do a 45 second video as well. So three different videos, one essay, and then four short essays, just for one school on top of the UC application. So this is just for dance. And I don’t know. Like, I don’t know if your listeners would agree that this is a lot. And I applied to like, I believe like around 20 schools. So I thought this was going to be like the process for me. I was like, Oh my God, I’m never going to have a life. This is going to be my life for the rest of my life.

27:51

for this whole year, but that was probably the most insane application they ever did. And a couple of UCs actually did their own as well. For UCSB, that I was fortunate enough to get into, I remember their application process being extremely insane. It was three videos as well, a couple essays, and then they wanted to do an in-person audition, and they ended up canceling it the day of, and I was driving up there, which was absurd. I remember I was driving up there, and they’re like, we actually have a couple faculty tests positive.

28:20

please just return home for any of individuals that may be here. We will be giving you like instructions shortly. Luckily I only live two hours away. So that was totally fine. And then I went back home, filmed my virtual audition actually, and it was on Zoom. And then I submitted it that way. And it was just, I was like, wow, this is a lot. And I think the private school is honestly, like I can talk about Emory and specific, but I did a lot more like.

28:47

easy. There was a lot easier than any of the public schools. It was one supplemental package that you as an individual get to create and decide whatever you want to submit. And I remember this being a crossword for any art that you may submit. That being for like actual art, like if you’re doing virtual art or physical art dancers, musicians, you do a four to five minute video and you’ve submitted a part of your application on the common app. That’s it. And you’re done. Nothing more, nothing less. And I remember I filmed a reel that was around four to five minutes. It’s still actually online.

29:16

It’s like called Brandon Heron College Submission Video on Vimeo. And they basically just watch that. If you want to watch me dance, I guess, that’s where you can watch as well as YouTube. But yeah, I submitted that one supplemental, and that was it. That’s all I had to submit on my half. And I remember I then reached out to the actual dance faculty at Emory. Because I wanted to get to know more about their program and also see if there was any way I could maybe come there and show them how.

29:45

I am as a dancer and want to meet the faculty and just like, I think I’m really good in person with people. So I felt like that was like my way to shine. So I sent the dance, the head dance faculty an email. I think I did like a blast with three different individuals on the email. And I actually had a response the next day. And they offered if I wanted to take a couple classes, and this was in January, so literally a week after I submitted my application. And they’re like, if you want to fly out here, you’re more than welcome to. We can set you up with a couple of this classes. You can experience the dance classes.

30:14

We can also meet you and do a formal interview. And it was amazing. I fell in love with the campus, fell in love with the dance department, and I really connected with everybody that I met. And I just felt so warm on that campus. I remember, and the dance classes were exactly what I wanted. I feel like it wasn’t too intense, but right in the middle, it was the perfect, exactly what I wanted. So, I mean, yeah, that was my emory in UCLA, UCSB college dance application process. And…

30:41

I believe they keep them the same for every year. They don’t really change, especially for the private school. They’re all just gonna be usually supplemental packages. Yeah, so that’s really interesting, right? That dichotomy between the larger public university and Emory, a more like mid-size private university, but you felt like your outreach to Emory at the private school was a lot more effective than if you did any outreach to UCLA, and it was more of a personal experience, even though the-

31:10

arts, like your supplemental part of it was way less rigorous. Totally. That’s a huge point. The private schools, any of the ones I applied to for dance, reaching out to the dance department and making yourself known is probably the vastness that you apart from other candidates. If you’re just submitting the supplemental package, there is a very big shot they might just watch your video. Maybe they’re iffy about you and I don’t know, like that could just be it. But if you really show your ear about their dance department, reach out to many individuals.

31:37

they oftentimes will want you to come out and see the program. It did happen other schools, but compared to like the public UC schools, it is kind of just not necessarily fair game, but like it just one playing field. You submit this one application, then you submit all these supplementals and that’s it. There’s nothing more you can do. But with the private schools, I definitely also always recommend reaching out for sure. That’s yeah, that’s so helpful for people to hear.

32:02

And now that you’re at Emory, has dance remained a big part of your life? Are you happy about that? So, so yeah, now as a college student, you said besides being 20, that the harder on your body. Um, tell us about your experience with dance. Totally. I think being in college is a huge shift for me as like a competitive dancer overall. Coming into the major, I didn’t really set expectations, but I had kind of what the idea of it would look like. And.

32:31

I think it definitely did change a little bit throughout the years. I think with any like sport or with any like art form or whatever you really love, you fall in and out of love with it. Sometimes like there’s ups and there’s downs and being in college, like I definitely want to prioritize like the people that I’m meeting and like the friendships and being able to also just be like a normal college student. So I think the dance department at Emory does give you a really good, like work life balance, which is really important for me. I don’t feel like I have to be there on the weekends till 10 PM, which is very nice.

32:59

But at the same time, a lot of my schedule is taken from Monday through Friday. I wake up at 830 and my class schedule is done at 330. I literally feel like I’m back to high school. I have like six classes a day, Monday through Thursday, and then four on Friday. So it is a lot. And I do feel like my relationship with it has changed a little bit. I definitely don’t feel like I’m in love with dance as much as I used to be. But at the same time, like I do still really appreciate what I have.

33:28

I think like what I have is very special and very unique compared to other schools that my friends are at like like USD and like UCLA, they have to dance 24 seven, I actually have a lot easier. So I think when like not necessarily comparing myself to others, but just looking at what it could have been, I definitely like appreciate that and being able to say like I am very happy here. And it does give me exactly kind of what I want. But at the same time, like it is a lot to dance every day and my body I can definitely feel.

33:54

has gotten a lot more sore, a lot easier. I’m losing flexibility, which I’m not happy about, but I guess it just means I need to work a little bit harder to maintain it. But yeah, I definitely do love the program. I love the people. I think that’s the biggest thing that sets Emory Dance apart is the faculty. Every single one of them cares so much about their students. It shows in every single class that you take, all they wanna do is to succeed and just be the best dancer and best person possible through the dance department.

34:22

I’m so happy to hear that you found a really strong community, not just with your peers, but also with your faculty. And I do, I mean, with anything, when, when you find that community, it’s, it’s rare because that’s all we want is, is to have it. How many students are, are in the dance program are majoring in dance? And the dance program, it’s a little bit confusing. So we have a dance program, which anybody can join on campus. That’s going to be like Emory dance company, and it’s an audition based group.

34:51

We do showcases each semester and it’s basically like two days a week for two hours a day So it’s like a total of four hours a week. That is like anybody can join So that is around like 60 to 80 people. Honestly, that’s a little bit bigger than what the actual major is I think currently after this year’s past graduates just graduated. We’re like looking around like 20-ish majors It’s very small. Okay, very very tiny like 20 to 30 I would say and then plus minors you’re looking around like 40 people in total

35:20

Because the minors honestly do take up a lot. Since Emory allows you to minor in two departments and then one major, you can literally, you could be in like four different schools at that point. It’s like insane what you can do. And is it easy to double major in business and dance? Do you like that you have these two distinct communities like academically that you’re a part of? I think as a good dancer, I love being able to be in two separate schools, like the business school and the dance. Like,

35:48

department, which is like a liberal College of Arts and Sciences, that allows me to kind of escape my academics in a way I feel like dance is like my free time in a way in my schedule, I just can be able to like, I don’t have to worry about accounting, like finance, anything, I just get out of it. So I do really like that side of being a double major. But when it comes to like course registration and classic opportunities, there’s only very limited dance, like slots. So I’ve been having to really take the time and be like, which

36:18

If I take this dance class, they don’t get to be in this business class. And that then like sets me on this different trajectory. And I realized that I have to prioritize my dance classes first because the program is like based on a four year program that you want to, you have to do these certain classes every semester. So then be able to take this next class. Unlike business that really just lets you jump around. So I think it is definitely been a little bit hard in terms of scheduling, but other than that, no, there’s no, like it’s very easy. I love being able to be in both schools for sure. Great. So.

36:47

Looking back, I mean, you still have two years left, but looking back at the application process at your first two years at Emory, would you do anything differently? Hmm, that’s a great question. I think in my application process, honestly, I think I would start a little bit earlier. I don’t know if you remember, I started very very late. I remember, I remember. I don’t even remember what month it was. It was probably like…

37:12

September, November. It was September. Was it September? Yeah. September. And I like had these 20 schools, all these supplementals, I think starting earlier is probably the biggest thing that I would maybe regret. Having more time with like my essays and like the story and like everything that I’m like projecting to these schools and what these schools are seeing about me. I guess like solidifying that a little bit more would be something that I would maybe do differently and maybe a recommendation to students that are listening. Start a lot earlier than you think. And then once I’m at Emory,

37:42

I also feel like I don’t really have any regrets. Like I feel like I did everything that I wanted to do. I definitely like expose myself to many different individuals, different clubs, different like, I guess, departments even. Emory is a school that you luckily get into and you’re not declared. Even I wasn’t declared. Even getting in for a dance, technically, it’s as undecided. You’re allowed to go any path, even pre-med, which is unbelievable to me, which is amazing. So it really does give you freedom to take a lot of classes your first and second year.

38:10

you don’t have to declare until your junior fall. So I think I honestly wouldn’t change anything. I’m very happy with my life there currently and I feel like I wouldn’t want anything to change because then it wouldn’t be me who is sitting here today for sure. I love that answer and to your credit even though we started later than I would have liked even that was wonderful that you came through that mid-September your work ethic was incredible. So I remember like you were just

38:39

Do you, what, if you’re involved, I mean, I don’t know if you have time between dance and, and your business major. I know you’re such an involved person, but are you involved in anything outside of dance and business at Emory? Yeah. So I think this last, like not this last year, since like my freshman year, the biggest other time for me was definitely my fraternity. I didn’t even know that Emory honestly had brats and sororities and all this stuff.

39:09

anything like that. And I was honestly very worried about the social life there. It has literally blown my mind to see that this is like the academic prestigious school that it is, because the kids that come here and like what my weekends look like, it is so much fun. So I think the fraternity is definitely taking up a huge part of my life. And I’ve definitely loved every single second of it. It’s like I’ve made some of the closest friends. I’ve been able to live in the frat house since last year as a sophomore, which was a great experience. All of Emory’s frats and sororities are all on campus.

39:37

literally like across from each other. So all of your best friends kind of live on the same street and then it’s a three-minute walk to campus. So you literally cannot get better housing. So that I was very fortunate for. Along with that, I’m a part of different clubs on campus. I think the biggest one is GIMG, which is Goethe Investor Management Group. This was probably one of my proudest accomplishments at Emory. It was like an interview-based club for finance and I did this my freshman second semester.

40:05

There was 200 applicants and they selected six people. And I was teaching them to be one of those six people. It was, it’s like literally Emory’s most intense, like investment making club, or like, I guess business club overall. There was three different rounds of interviews. There was a behavioral, then there’s a technical, and there’s another behavioral mixed with technical. And I, like to me, being a second semester sophomore, I didn’t even know what these terms were. So like the fact that I even got in, I have no idea how. I think I literally was probably like a personality hire. I want to call it that.

40:34

Uh, and I, I’ve learned so much. No, I mean, literally it has, I don’t even understand, but I’ve learned so much from that club and I’ve been so fortunate to be in it. And I think that takes up a great amount of my time. I mean, we call it like a two credit hour class, which is like equivalent to about like six to eight hours a week of work because we like basically pitch slide docs that like invest in banking stuff, which doesn’t matter, but it’s been really fun to be a part of it and I’m still a part of it. So that’s great. I’ll keep congrats. I mean, and you are not.

41:04

You have a great personality, but stop with this personality hire talk because there’s no way. I mean, all right, I’ll stop with that. But I’m so happy to hear. So you dance takes up a huge amount of time. You have your business major and then you have a frat and you have this club, this investment club that is really going to help set you up for the work world.

41:28

I tried to balance it like that. So I have like one club in business and I have one club in dance, which is the Emory Dance Company. And then I had like my fraternity life. So I’ve like, I get the equal parts in both majors, just so like everything kind of gets split equally. And I think it has honestly, and within the last couple of semesters. Yeah, you did it. You, yeah, you’re doing it well. You’re doing all the things. So my, although I don’t want this to end because this is just.

41:54

So helpful and I all of your answers are I mean it’s nice too to our listeners like we’re catching up we you know we’ve texted here and there and we haven’t really gotten to speak so totally it’s really fun for me so thank you um selfishly of course thank you but what do you recommend to future students with special talents like dance you know what’s the best piece of advice you would give to someone going through this process now so I think any individual

42:23

matter if you have special talents or not, if you have music, art, like a sport, utilize anything that makes you like stand out as like a person, as an individual, as a college applicant. Colleges now more than ever I feel like are looking at students that literally set themselves apart from others and may not maybe have like the best 4.0 GPA, but if they’re extremely talented in something, especially a program that they may offer at that university,

42:48

you’re most likely going to plug it in over the kid that has the 4.0 and the 1600. And that’s just a personal bias based on like my friends in dance and my experience doing this application process and dance. I wasn’t the 4.0 kid. I didn’t even take a test. I didn’t do the SAT or the ACT. I was completely test optional. And I think that I obviously dance was one of the biggest things that set myself apart. So if you have any special talents, utilize them to your abilities, like reach out to the school, see if they have art departments, see if they have music departments, all that stuff.

43:18

Really do your research, start early and utilize them. Because at the end of the day, if you have a genuine passion for them, it’s gonna come shine through within your application and the university will love that. So I think that’s like my biggest recommendation to students for sure. Well, mic drop. I have nothing else to say after that. I’m just gonna run it. So Brandon, thank you so, so much. Again, it was wonderful catching up and hearing about your first two years at Emory. Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.

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Well, that was a really wonderful interview. Thank you so much, Brandon and Stefanie, for sharing that with us. And thank you, CBMers, for tuning in. To catch more episodes of College Bound Mentor, make sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and tell a fellow parent or student about the podcast. To learn more, visit CollegeBoundMentor.com. Until next time, you got this!