The deadline for prospective students to apply for the 2025-2026 school year is February 12, 2025.

Conservatory Placement Activities provide applicants with an opportunity to demonstrate their art form proficiency. All CSArts-SGV conservatories require participation in a Placement Activity to be considered for admission. Upon completion of the Conservatory Placement Activity, applicants will receive a scored rubric with helpful feedback and a proficiency level from our conservatory staff. Applicants should carefully examine the specific Placement Activity Guidelines for each conservatory, as ALL aspects of the guidelines are required for an application to be considered complete. Conservatory Placement Activities may include an in-person experience or a submission of digital materials. In-person Placement Activities may include showcasing prepared materials or prepared performance pieces. If the guidelines specify that materials are to be submitted digitally, those materials will need to be included when the application is submitted on or before February 12, 2025 for prospective students and December 11, 2024 for current students applying for a transfer of conservatories.

CSArts-SGV admits all applicants on a space-available basis, except in the areas of dance and music. Conservatories in the School of Dance and School of Music do not have an entry level of instruction, thus applicants must meet a minimum proficiency level on their scored rubric in order to select the Ballet & Contemporary Dance Conservatory, Commercial Dance Conservatory, Instrumental Music Conservatory, Popular Music Conservatory (grades 9-12 only), or Vocal Arts Conservatory for admission. Minimum proficiency levels for these conservatories are indicated on the feedback rubric documents, which are located in the conservatory application. The minimum proficiency levels are based on the skills necessary in order to be successful within CSArts-SGV’s arts instructional programs.

Upon completion of the Conservatory Placement Activity, applicants will receive a scored rubric with helpful feedback and a proficiency level from our conservatory staff. Applicants will only be able to select a conservatory for admission for which they have completed a Placement Activity. If an applicant does not meet the minimum proficiency in their Placement Activity for the Ballet & Contemporary Dance Conservatory, Commercial Dance Conservatory, Instrumental Music Conservatory, Popular Music Conservatory (grades 9-12 only), or Vocal Arts Conservatory, they will need to select their alternate conservatory choice for admission. Applicants will not be able to change their conservatory selection after submission.

Should the number of applicants exceed the space available, a public, random drawing (“lottery”) will be conducted by conservatory, grade level, and when applicable, concentration, to determine which students are offered admission. Each applicant will be given one (1) entry for the admission lottery. Applicants may place their lottery entry into their desired conservatory's lottery pool for admission. A public lottery will be conducted, in accordance with the admission preferences in CSArts-SGV’s approved charter petition, in order to determine admission in each conservatory. Once all available spaces are filled for a particular conservatory, Applicant Numbers will continue to be drawn and placed on a waitlist in the order drawn. All applicants who participate in a Placement Activity will be notified of the results of the admission lottery via email by early March 2025.

Prospective students can apply to a maximum of two (2) conservatories.

Only PDF, JPEG, and PNG document file types may be included in the application submission. All other file types must be converted into one of these file types to successfully upload into the application. If you need assistance converting a document, please contact our Admissions Office at admissions@sgv.csarts.net or 714.560.0900 ext. 5510 as soon as possible. Please do not wait until the application deadline to request assistance.

Applicant status information can be viewed in your Applicant Portal. If additional information is needed, you will be contacted via email. The email address used to set up your Applicant Portal is the primary email and will be used for all communication from the Admissions Office. Please use a parent's or guardian's email address when setting up your Applicant Portal.

All in-person Placement Activities will take place on the CSArts-SGV campus in January and February 2025. Space is limited for each available date. Changes to a scheduled Conservatory Placement Activity appointment can only be made due to illness or in the case of an emergency.

CSArts-SGV currently receives more than 500 applications annually. The school is forecasting capacity for approximately 300 new students for the 2025-2026 school year. The majority of available openings are in grades 6-9.

Yes. Current CSArts-SGV students are welcome to apply for a conservatory transfer once per school year. Current students wishing to apply to a new conservatory must submit a complete conservatory transfer application and participate in a new Conservatory Placement Activity. The deadline to apply for a conservatory transfer for the 2024-2025 school year is December 11, 2024.

Depending on available classroom space, students may be offered admission mid-year. Mid-year offers of admission may be extended to applicants currently on the CSArts-SGV waitlist.

Additional support is available for students, parents, or guardians who require translation in order to best understand our admissions processes, as well as for those who need technology assistance. Applicants who have received or are currently receiving special services are encouraged to request any necessary accommodations to support them during the admissions process. Please contact admissions@sgv.csarts.net or call 714.560.0900 ext. 5510 to receive support. All students who have a passion and/or interest in the arts are encouraged to apply.

Preview Days are traditionally held on the school’s campus three times each year. At Preview Day, prospective students and families receive an overview of CSArts-SGV’s academic and arts programs. They also have the opportunity to meet with conservatory directors, participate in conservatory activities, and take a self-guided campus tour. Private tours are not available; however, high school applicants who have completed a Conservatory Placement Activity are invited to attend a "Shadow Day" in the spring semester, prior to offers of admission being issued.

Applications for the 2025-2026 school year will be available online in mid-October 2024. Conservatory Placement Activities will be held in January and February 2025.

CSArts-SGV is a donation-dependent public charter school, but no student is offered or denied admission based upon financial capacity. While the academic program at CSArts-SGV is funded publicly by the State of California, the arts program is funded entirely by donations. Each school year, CSArts-SGV must privately raise approximately $2.8 million to fund the arts conservatory programs, and the school relies heavily on its families and the community-at-large to reach this goal. Families are asked to make an annual tax-deductible donation ($3,500 for middle school families and $4,500 for high school families) to directly support their child’s conservatory budget, including salaries for the conservatory director and teachers, facilities, equipment and supplies, performance opportunities, guest artist master teachers, and field trips.

While students may only select one conservatory for admission, we encourage all applicants to participate in Placement Activities for two different conservatories, in order to best prepare themselves to select a conservatory that would be a good fit for them. We strongly recommend that all applicants who have selected one of the minimum proficiency conservatories [Ballet & Contemporary Dance Conservatory, Commercial Dance Conservatory, Instrumental Music Conservatory, Popular Music Conservatory (grades 9-12 only), or Vocal Arts Conservatory] also participate in a Placement Activity for another conservatory with no minimum proficiency. If an applicant does not meet the minimum proficiency in their Placement Activity for one of the conservatories listed above, they will need to select their alternate conservatory for admission.

Concentrations are areas of specialization within an art discipline. For example, the Visual Arts Conservatory has specialization areas within Digital Media, Pictorial Art, and Spatial Art. Should the number of applicants exceed the space available, a public, random drawing (“lottery”) will be conducted by conservatory, grade level, and when applicable, concentration, to determine which students are offered admission.

Applicants must create an Applicant Portal in CSArts-SGV’s Admissions System. Families with multiple students applying must use an individual, unique email address for each applicant. When creating your account, please enter the student applicant’s first and last name, but the parent’s or guardian’s email address. All admissions information will be sent via email to the primary email address associated with the application. Once an application is submitted, log in to your Applicant Portal to view your status.

CSArts-SGV will not request that prospective students submit any student records, including transcripts, grades, birth certificates, individualized education plans, or 504 plans prior to admission at CSArts-SGV. For Placement Activities, depending on the conservatory for which you are applying, a prospective student may submit an art portfolio or YouTube link(s), along with the application submission. Please carefully review the Conservatory Placement Activity Guidelines prior to submitting your application.

As part of application processing, all submitted documents must be confirmed as meeting the Placement Activity Guidelines. Checklist Items, such as submitted artwork and YouTube videos, will initially show as “Not Received,” highlighted with a red X. Once the submitted materials have been confirmed as meeting the Placement Activity Guidelines, these Checklist Items will show as “Received,” highlighted with a green checkmark. Placement Activity participation will be recorded and included with the Checklist Items shown in the Applicant Portal. Please be sure your application submission contains all necessary materials listed on the Conservatory Placement Activity Guideline sheet.

Applicants applying to a conservatory with an in-person Placement Activity component will be scheduled into the first available Placement Activity appointment by the Admissions Office. An email confirming the date, time, and location of the Placement Activity will be sent to the primary email address used to create the Applicant Portal. A reminder email will be sent a few days prior to the appointment. Please be sure to monitor the primary email address used to create your Applicant Portal for important Conservatory Placement Activity information. Please also regularly check spam and junk folders.

Yes. All applicants who wish to be considered for admission to both California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley and Orange County School of the Arts must submit an individual application for each school. It is necessary for applicants to participate in individual Conservatory Placement Activities for each school and conservatory. If the applicant is offered admission at multiple schools, the applicant will select the school of their choice for enrollment.

Yes. A new application is required.

No. As long as the student wishes to remain in their current conservatory, they will not have to complete the admissions process again.

No. CSArts-SGV does not provide I-20 paperwork necessary to support student visas.

CSArts-SGV is a closed campus and private tours are not available. However, high school applicants who have completed a Conservatory Placement Activity are given the opportunity to attend a "Shadow Day" in the spring semester, prior to offers of admission being issued.

All admissions-related deadlines and events appear on the CSArts-SGV website.