A visit to University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA)

UNCSA is both a high school and college (and includes a small Design and Production graduate program) within the UNC system. Besides having amazing faculty, facilities and courses, a definite benefit is its tuition for both instate and out of state residents often falls far below some of its competitors.

At the college level programs are offered in Filmmaking, Drama, Dance, Music, and Design & Production with many sub-specialties housed within each. It is a relatively small school of just about 1,000 undergraduates and is one of the most collaboratively based programs we've visited. If you're a student in any of these disciplines you will not be at a loss to fill your time. Besides intensive academics, you will have a multitude of opportunities to practice and learn with and from students in other areas. It was not at all unusual when we visited to see lighting students working on films, wigmakers working on a dance production, or musicians playing the score for a theatre production. The entire campus is a buzz of activity.

All programs at the school are conservatory based but have a liberal arts component that draws in the arts throughout the curriculum, you can see the course offerings here. Admissions to all programs are either audition or portfolio based, with two admissions cycles, the first starting in mid November with decisions released in mid January, and the second starting in mid January with decisions released in mid March. If you're planning a visit to UNCSA plan your visit to include one of their performances as it's a great way to see the caliber of the student body and the collaborative nature of the program. To learn more about some of their programs they also host an impressive Vimeo channel with at last count 54 videos.

In addition to this impressive college program, UNCSA also offers a high school program which is also residential conservatory style where students take both traditional (including AP) academic classes as well as in depth classes in their area of study. Admissions to the high school is also audition/portfolio based and admits a small number of students each year in these areas: Classical Ballet (grades 9-12); Contemporary Dance (grades 10-12); Drama (grade 12); Music, Instrumental (grades 9-12); Music, Voice (grades 11-12); Visual Arts (grades 11-12). Many of the students are winners in the most selective national competitions including Scholastic, YoungArts and the Congressional Art Contest. Application deadlines vary by area of study. 

If you need help with high school admissions you need to talk to Kelly Meyer, the high school admissions expert on the ARTriculate team who can help you navigate boarding school and public and private high school admissions.