What is it like to study performing arts?

Hard to get a place at a good school/college, many years of very hard work if you did get a place, followed by many years of getting unpaid experience afterwards, and then decades of fighting to get even a tiny role in any professional production.  

Do you want to teach performing arts at a school? Get a performance degree or education degree.

Do you want to be a professional performer? Study privately, audition for gigs, and work your *** off to pay for it.

If you can get into a program that will pay for your education to study performance then take that route.

My colleagues who were working professionally (thanks Covid) either studied privately or received phenomenal scholarships to incredible programs.

Why did I major in performance? My high school counselors and parents pushed college on me big time. The only thing I knew to do really well was perform. I got a decent scholarship at a small program at a state school. The state school taught me the things I needed to know but didn’t provide many opportunities for me (this isn’t the case at programs like CCM or Michigan where they provide countless life changing opportunities)

It wasn’t until I started auditioning for summer stock or intensive programs that doors began to open for me. And guess what!?! You don’t have to be enrolled in a program or have a degree to be accepted into these intensive programs or summer stock...

Audition EVERYWHERE, local, regional, and national! Start coaching and preparing your pre-screening materials at the start or end of your Junior year. I can go on and on about what students need to do to show programs they are serious. Don’t be that person who decides they want to have a coaching session or starts preparing stuff a month in advance.

It's like studying anything else you want to succeed at - it's hard work. 

just try it and see and then you'll know

a waste of time and money

First you need a gaping asshole.