That makes sense. Waiting on Visual Arts auditions. Anxious because in their save the date for auditions start this Saturday.

Waiting on vocal but haven’t heard. Maybe the school can’t set auditions until after recommendations close on the 9th? Would be crazy with auditions the 11th but it is DCPS so anything is possible.

Anyone receive Va audition invites yet?

Anonymous wrote:For instrumental music there was a short essay in the initial application -- a paragraph, not 5k words. Just a brief statement of what the arts mean to you and your art in particular.

Op was wrong. It’s up to 5K characters.

For instrumental music there was a short essay in the initial application -- a paragraph, not 5k words. Just a brief statement of what the arts mean to you and your art in particular.

Anonymous wrote:My kid wrote a very brief essay and was accepted. It does not need to be that full length - I think that sincerity is the key for this one.

Again at least for CAMPs there are two different sets of requirements: the two paras in MSDC and the one in the CAMP specific form.

Scroll down for the requirements for each HS.

https://www.myschooldc.org/how-apply/applying-high-school

At the Open House this month they said Workshop dates would hopefully be posted by the start of winter break. They also said Auditions were second week of February. We also are vocal music.

My kid wrote a very brief essay and was accepted. It does not need to be that full length - I think that sincerity is the key for this one.

Op here. yes, sorry 5K characters

There are two short essay questions in the MSDC portal. You have to find the instructions for DESA.

My kid wrote a brief essay and uploaded a photo. Just a heads up that auditions can sometimes be extremely lacking in organization. I would upload items AND bring hard copies. They lost my kid's stuff last year, but luckily he brought his full application packet to the audition.

Are you sure it isn’t just the 5000 character limit for the form?

While they may be expecting a written submission, I do not believe they are expecting 5000 words. More like 500 words probably.

OP here. Vocal music department

What department are you applying to? The essay requirement may depend on that. My DC is a senior at Duke and vaguely remembers writing an essay for the Visual Arts department where they had to write about an art piece.

I attended a few open houses for DESA, virtual and in-person, and no one every mentioned a student essay as part of the application. As I begin the lottery today, there is a space for a 5k word essay.

Is this required? Optional? Recommended? Did anyone upload the photo? Any reason to wait for the photo? MySchool says you can bring a photo for the audition or at some later point.

Also, the audition calendar still has the audition dates for 2025-2026. Do you get specific dates from the program you're applying to after filling out MySchool?

Thank you!