The selection process for the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts is two-tiered. The first level takes place at the intermediate unit serving the region in which the student's family resides on a full-time basis. The intermediate unit assembles a judging panel consisting of professionals with experience in each art form.
The intermediate unit judges may forward to the state level up to 10 of the applications that best fulfill the aesthetic criteria provided by the Governor's School in each of the following areas: Visual Art I, Visual Art II, Dance, and Theater Arts. They may forward up to 6 in the creative writing division. They may forward 10 in music, and within that 10, they are restricted to no more than 4 vocalists who only sing, providing at least 2 are male and no more than 2 are female; no more than 4 pianists who only play piano; but no limit within the 10 of band and orchestral instruments.
Students who are successful at the first level of screening are designated "semifinalists" and are invited to final, state-level auditions for performing artists and interviews for creative artists. The judges at the semifinalist level are professional artists, many of whom are PGSA faculty. The semifinalist level criteria is restricted to aesthetics as presented in the application work sample and in the live audition or interview. While students are compared to others in their intermediate unit at the first level of screening, they are compared to all others in their artistic group across the state in the final level (all poets are compared to one another; all violinists to each other, etc.). All semifinalist auditions or interviews involve extemporaneous exercises as well as the candidate's presentation of prepared work. The extemporaneous exercises are not revealed prior to the audition/interview, to allow judges the opportunity to see the candidate's skills and creativity in an unprepared light. The second (final) level judges do not make their decisions until they have seen all semifinalists across the state. There are no regional quotas in the final selection process. Academic achievement and resumes are not criteria in the Governor's School for the Arts selection process.
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