Denver School of the Arts

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The Denver School of the Arts was founded in Fall 1991 as part of the Denver Public School District. It started as a separate program at Manual High School with an enrollment of 190, and has since occupied Cole Middle School, the historic Byers building and its new, permanent home at 7111 Montview Boulevard, where the enrollment has grown to 900. DSA is unique in the Denver Public School District in that it serves both middle school (6th through 8th grade) and high school (9th through 12th grade) students. DSA requires an audition for prospective students hoping to join one of the eight offered majors: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music (with subsets Concert Band, Orchestra, and Piano), Stagecraft and Design, Theatre, Video Cinema Arts, Visual Arts, and Vocal Music. Entrance is highly competitive. For example, 120 prospective students interviewed for entry into the 2006-2007 Visual Arts program for 6th grade, but only 30 were accepted. DSA also boasts some of the highest standardized test scores in the state, ranking 5th in Colorado for excellent performance on the ACT college entrance exam. DSA has a rigorous academic standard: any student with less than a 2.25 GPA is placed on academic probation, and is sent to his/her assigned enrollment area if his/her performance does not improve. Students must participate in the audition process each year to maintain performance and ensure fair and equal selection. DSA graduates attend some of the most prestigious art conservatories and university programs in the United States, including the University of Southern California, Juilliard, Boston Conservatory, Brown University, Ithaca College, Oberlin Conservatory, Berklee School of Music, Yale University, Mills College, California Institute of the Arts, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College, New York University, Indiana University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the College of Santa Fe, among others.