By doing what she loves without thinking about whether others will, too.
It really shows in applications-- even in the cohort of kids who are well-rounded, great students.
I agree with this - you can try to fake a great college app or buy a great college-entry resume, but at the end of the day don't we want our children to be true to themselves?
JMO, but I think that the thing to do is not to look for advice from other parents but for the student to seek the guidance of people such as counselors at school or dance teachers who both know the student well and who also understand what is needed to get into the specific colleges they are looking into. My youngest dd attended a ballet school for a number of years that is a serious ballet school - i.e., their program is put together with the expectation that students who continue with it through high school are on the path for a professional dance career. The teens we knew at the school were all getting very specific guidance from the studio owners, who are professional dancers. So my advice if your friend's dd wants to pursue dance is to start now taking advantage of any dance opportunities she can where she is either working with or studying with talented professional dancers - and look to them for advice on how to put together the college app resume. I'll also add - the places that the good dancers went to college were places that were never on *my* non-dancer background radar
polarbear
