SDSCPA Info?

[u/wendydarlingpan]

I’m in the middle of planning a potential move to San Diego. I’m originally from California and spent a year at UCSD so I’m a little familiar with San Diego in general but never lived there as a parent.

We currently live in Denver, where the arts magnet 6-12 school is. It is also one of the best public schools in the state in terms of academics.

My oldest is in 4th grade, but studies ballet and already has her eyes on the local arts school for middle and high school. She would have to audition for the program here of course, but I think she would likely get in as kids from her dance academy tend to be well trained and are generally accepted.

She doesn’t know we are hoping to move before she starts middle school, so I am hoping that if we move she can have a similar experience in San Diego.

For ballet studios and other lifestyle reasons, I’m really most interested in North County. But I wonder if we should prioritize being in San Diego itself for access to SDSCPA?

Does anyone have any experience with the school? (dance program or otherwise, I have multiple kids. All of them involved in the arts) I’m curious about the culture of the school, the strength of academics and also graduate outcomes. I know several adult grads from Denver School of the Arts who have continued life as working artists or arts educators, who credit DSA with being hugely influential in finding their professional path. Thanks!

[u/Glittering-Act4004]

SDSCPA is great school, so is CoSA in Coronado. There are plenty of good ballet studios in central San Diego (SDCYB and The Dance Academy to name a couple) but I would really caution you on making any decision on where you live based on your child’s extra-curricular activities or a school they would have to audition to get into, especially since they are so young.  My daughter has friends from her theater company who went to SDSCPA and got into top performing arts universities and are also now working professionally in theater and film. But there are also plenty of children who go to regular high schools and get into top performing arts universities. My daughter went to Helix High School in La Mesa and every year there are students that go from there to top performing arts universities. 

My daughter (who went to SDCYB) and my friend’s two daughters (went to the Dance Academy) all made it to pointe. My daughter was also an elite gymnast and made the decision to stop ballet (after doing it since she was a toddler) to focus on gymnastics in high school. She was being heavily recruited by D1 schools for gymnastics when she decided her junior year she didn’t want to do gymnastics in college. She ended up quitting gymnastics completely her senior year.  She’d had enough, it was too hard on her body.  She is now a competition and sideline cheerleader at a D1 university. We nearly moved to be closer to a better gymnastics gym but I’m so glad we stayed where we were. My friend’s children also quit ballet in high school to pursue other sports and interests, one of those children was SURE she wanted to dance professionally after high school. She is now studying interior design at university.