Life at Urdang

[dancingmoll]

Hello, I'm interested in hearing from anyone who knows how they decide at Urdang if a student is put onto the diploma or degree? Is it solely reliant on grades or does your dance, singing and acting abilities come into the equation too? My dd has been offered a recall and we're desperate for her to get onto the degree so any help would be great! thank you

[carriecrafts]

Hi dancingmoll,
my dd is in her first year of the degree at Urdang (and loving it ).

To get onto the degree, students need to be strong in dance, singing and acting. This is because on the degree all students study all disciplines for 3 years, whereas on the Diploma they are put onto different tracks from 2nd year which have different weighting towards their strengths. (I think track A is the same as degree, so triple threat, but I think the other 3 tracks are singing/dance, singing/acting, commercial dance.) I think at the recall they are asked which course they prefer and why.

Based on last year, if offered degree after the recall the offer was conditional on 180 ucas points plus English GCSE (although dd never did GCSEs so a college level 2 English was accepted instead without query). I think this is stipulated by University of East London.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask anything or pm me if you prefer.
Good luck
x

[carriecrafts]

and congratulations on the offer so far!

[dancingmoll]

Thank you so much Carriecrafts, that's very helpful! I don't suppose you know how likely it is that an applicant will get onto the degree if they didn't also apply for the diploma do you? I'm worrying that now that we've got our hopes up at her being accepted, she wont be offered the degree and then wont be able to go (due to student loans etc)! Just looking through some of your older posts, I see your DD was offered quite a few places, what were her reasons for choosing Urdnag in the end if you don't mind me asking!?
And thanks very much, we're over the moon! x

[carriecrafts]

Sorry, I have no idea what the acceptance rate is. I think there are about 60 places on degree and 90 on diploma.
I would say that it is already encouraging that your dd has a recall for degree (and a guaranteed offer on diploma if unsuccessful I presume). One of dd's friends recently auditioned and has only been offered diploma, with recall for funding, but no recall for degree despite applying for it - so your dd must have been strong in all disciplines.

If your dd doesn’t get a degree offer would you consider the Diploma? I don’t know whether you qualify for DaDA or not but Urdang seem to offer some bursaries and fee reductions to Diploma students who don’t qualify for DaDAs too.

DD had different teachers giving different opinions about which college to choose. Laine wasn’t possible without DaDA (offer but no funding at 16 or again at 18), Laban was only Contemporary and she wanted Musical Theatre. We couldn’t see much difference between Bird and Urdang’s success rates, course content and standards so she based her decision on where she enjoyed the audition most. Also the fact that Urdang seemed to really want her (they phoned her the day after recall to offer either DaDA or degree with fee reduction bursary) helped to convince her that it was the best fit for her. She also preferred the idea of being in central London and that Urdang studios are regularly used by outside companies for rehearsals and auditions etc. The funny thing is, she was offered Diploma at Urdang when she was 16 but wouldn’t even go back to the funding recall as she was so sure it was too commercial for her. She changed so much between 16 and 18!
Good luck x

[dancingmoll]

Ah I see, yes that is definitely encouraging! I think we would consider it if she didn't get any degree places else where and if there was a scholarship or fee reduction offered, she would definitely prefer degree though.
My dd is feeling the exact same way towards Urdang, she loves how central the school is and in terms of location and connections prefers it to Bird, but she does feel like it could be a bit too commercial for her! But that's encouraging to hear that your dd is enjoying it there if she felt the same way before too!
I don't suppose you would know a rough idea of your daughters time table would you? e.g how much of each dance, singing and acting per week? So sorry for all the questions, were just finding it hard to find all of the answers online!
Thankyou xx

[carriecrafts]

Hi,
It really isn't particularly commercial so far; they were assessed during the first 2 weeks then put into sets based on ballet, jazz, tap and singing and everything else is based on those sets.
The timetable changed after xmas but I think she has 5hrs ballet per week, 3hrs each jazz and singing, 2hrs each acting, tap and contemporary, 1.5 hrs each street, MT and choreography, 1 hr each voice, accent and articulation... Last term they did music theory and dance history, this term it is MT history... There is also a choir session. 1-2-1 weekly singing, speech and piano lessons are available for a fee.
I'm under the impression that they are only on timetable until Easter after which they prepare for the summer show - but I don't know how that works yet
x

[Pearl]

I think a lot of people think Urdang is commercial but I didn't find that at all from last years show or the open day.

Possibly because they have the commercial track in the diploma it attracts more commercial dancers than other colleges but surely they only take a handful of that style of dancer.

At the audition the principal kept making the point of it being a triple threat course so maybe they are trying to steer away from that commercial image.

My dd really liked it and she's not very commercial at all.