The deadline to apply for the 2027-2028 school year is December 30, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.

Conservatory Placement Activities provide applicants with an opportunity to demonstrate their art form. All OCSA conservatories require participation in a Placement Activity.  Each conservatory has its own Placement Activity, and applicants must complete the appropriate activity for each conservatory to which they apply. Upon completion, applicants will receive a scored rubric with helpful feedback and a proficiency level from our conservatory staff.

Prospective students 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. If submissions do not match the Placement Activity Guideline requirements, the final rubric score will be affected.

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. When guidelines specify that materials are to be submitted digitally, those materials should be included when the application is submitted on or before December 30, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.

Please Note: Applicants may only enter the lottery for a conservatory in which they have completed the appropriate Conservatory Placement Activity and met the minimum proficiency level. The exception is the Arts & Enterprise Conservatory, which has no minimum proficiency requirement. As long as applicants complete the required Arts & Enterprise Conservatory Placement Activity, they may enter the lottery for this conservatory. To apply, Arts & Enterprise applicants must list the conservatory as either their first or second choice on the application.

Concentrations are areas of specialization within an art discipline. For example, the Strings & Orchestra Program has different concentration areas for Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Harp. Another example is the Musical Theatre Conservatory, which has concentration areas for Soprano/Alto and Tenor/Bass. At the time of the admission lottery, applicants are drawn by conservatory, grade level, and when applicable, concentration, to determine which students are offered admission.

For the 2027-2028 admissions session, OCSA has established the following Public Random Lottery Preference Sequence:

1. Students who were previously enrolled at OCSA and are returning from an administrator-approved temporary leave of absence.

2. Children of OCSA staff (defined as current full-time employees of OCSA at the time of the lottery). 

3. Siblings of currently enrolled students or graduates of OCSA.

Important Note: This preference is suspended for the Arts & Enterprise Conservatory pursuant to the Equity and Non-Discrimination Analysis Admissions Lottery Preference Sequencing Clarification that the OCSA Board of Trustees conducted on May 28, 2026.

4. A preference shall be extended to students who reside in the elementary attendance area where OCSA is located because OCSA is located in the attendance area of a public elementary school in which 55 percent or more of the pupil enrollment is eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

5. If a charter school site is physically located in the attendance area of a public elementary school in which 50 percent or more of the pupil enrollment is eligible for free or reduced-price meals, a preference will be given to pupils currently enrolled in that public elementary school and to pupils who reside in the attendance area of that elementary school in accordance with Education Code section 47605.3.

6. Preference shall be extended to pupils who reside in the Santa Ana Unified School District except as provided for in Education Code section 47614.5. 

7. All other students.

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@ocsarts.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 OCSA campus in January 2027. 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. 

Yes. A new application is required.

OCSA currently receives more than 2,000 applications annually. The school is forecasting capacity for approximately 500 new students for the 2027-2028 school year. The majority of available openings are in grades 7 and 9.

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 OCSA 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@ocsarts.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 OCSA’s academic and arts programs. They also have the opportunity to meet with conservatory directors and take a self-guided campus tour. Private tours are not available.

Applications for the 2027-2028 school year will be available online on September 8, 2026. In-Person Conservatory Placement Activities will be held in January 2027.

OCSA is a donation-dependent public charter school, but no student is offered or denied admission based upon financial capacity. While the academic program at OCSA is funded publicly by the State of California, the arts program is funded entirely by donations. Each school year, OCSA must privately raise approximately $15 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 donation, ranging from approximately $6,000-$7,000 depending on the conservatory and grade level, 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.

The conservatory minimum proficiency levels vary between conservatories and are indicated on the feedback rubric documents. The minimum proficiency levels are based on the skills necessary in order to be successful within OCSA’s rigorous arts instructional programs. The rubric document for each conservatory is located in the conservatory application and on the OCSA website.

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 may only enter the lottery for a conservatory in which they have completed the appropriate Conservatory Placement Activity and met the minimum proficiency level. The exception is the Arts & Enterprise Conservatory, which has no minimum proficiency requirement. As long as applicants complete the required Arts & Enterprise Conservatory Placement Activity, they may enter the lottery for this conservatory. To apply, Arts & Enterprise applicants must list the conservatory as either their first or second choice on the application.

Each applicant will be given two (2) entries for the admission lottery. The two (2) lottery entries may be placed into one (1) single conservatory admission lottery or can be distributed between two (2) conservatory admission lotteries. Applicants will not be able to change their lottery conservatory selection(s) after submission (due February 15, 2027). 

In accordance with OCSA’s Board-approved Public Random Lottery Preference Policy, when the number of applicants exceeds the available enrollment capacity, a public lottery will be conducted. The lottery process follows the admission preferences outlined in OCSA’s approved charter, as required by Education Code sections 47605(d)(2)(B)(iv) and 49011, and will determine admission for each conservatory.

Each applicant will be randomly assigned an Applicant Number at the time their application is submitted, which will be used as identification in the admission lottery, in order to protect the privacy of prospective students. 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. Mid-year offers of enrollment may be extended to waitlist applicants.

All applicants will be notified of the results of the admission lottery within three (3) business days of the lottery.

Applicants must create an Applicant Portal in OCSA’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.

OCSA 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 OCSA. 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.

Charter Preferences:
Requests for a charter preference must be verified before the preference can be applied to the applicant. Once the applicant’s request for a charter preference has been verified and approved, the red “X” will turn to a green checkmark. Expect this step to be completed before the admission lottery takes place.

Placement Activity Attendance:
Placement Activity attendance will be marked as “Received” and highlighted with a green checkmark after the conservatory review team has posted the Placement Activity feedback rubric information. Expect this step to be completed by early February 2027.

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 Orange County School of the Arts and California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley 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. Current OCSA students may apply to transfer to a different conservatory once per school year. To be considered, students must submit a complete Conservatory Transfer Application and participate in the Placement Activity for the conservatory to which they are applying.

Students interested in transferring are strongly encouraged to apply early. If the desired conservatory requires an in-person Placement Activity, it is especially important to complete the application in time to participate in the early January Placement Activity.

For the 2027-2028 school year, the Conservatory Transfer Application deadline is:

• December 12, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. for conservatories with an in-person Placement Activity.

• December 30, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. for conservatories with a digital-submission Placement Activity.

Conservatory transfer decisions will be released in mid-January 2027.

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

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

No. OCSA is a closed campus and non-OCSA students may not visit classes at any time during the academic or conservatory day. 

All admissions-related deadlines and events appear on the OCSA website. Please refer to the Admissions Timeline at the bottom of our Admissions Overview page.