Please read this information carefully before submitting an application to us.
We do not have a deadline that you need to submit your East 15 application form by. However, we do suggest that you apply as soon as you can. We usually don’t close our courses until at least the end of May, but can close them earlier if we feel that we have made enough offers.
UCAS applicants will need to submit their East 15 application as soon as possible in order to allow us time to process your application and for you to attend a recall audition, if required, before the UCAS decision deadline.
If you have any questions, please visit our FAQs page or email us.
Information about entry requirements for our courses can be found on the individual course pages on the University of Essex website.
Complete either a UCAS or Direct Application form. Please do not complete both. If you have already done this and are applying for a course that requires an audition, go to Step 3 below for instructions on how to complete the East 15 Application form.
If you are only applying for BA Stage and Production Management or BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film) you do not need to do anything further. Following receipt of your UCAS or Direct Application form, you will receive an email from us inviting you to book an interview. There is no fee for attending an interview for these courses.
UCAS or Direct Application form?
If you are not intending to apply to any other universities or enter UCAS this year, you must first complete our Direct Application form (if you are applying to other institutions as well and already have a UCAS application, you cannot use our Direct Application form).
If you are already in UCAS, or intending to apply to other universities through UCAS, you should first add us as one of your choices and submit your UCAS application form. Please see below for the UCAS codes you will need. You only need to use one of your choices on your UCAS application as you will be able to add further course choices at the next stage of your application.
Once you have submitted either a UCAS or Direct Application form you will then need to follow the instructions in Step 3 below and prepare your audition. You will need your UCAS or Direct Application number and the URL link for your video audition when you go onto Step 4 and complete the East 15 Application Form
We believe in fair access to training and therefore provide free auditions to applicants from low-income households.
To apply for a free audition, you must meet all of the following essential criteria:
In addition to the above essential criteria, applicants should also meet at least one of the following criteria:
Proof of income may include:
*if you are an independent student
**if you are supported by more than one parent/carer, please include both of their P60s
If you are awarded an audition fee waiver, your application and audition will be sent to the tutor for a decision.
If you are unsuccessful or we require information from you in order to complete the assessment, we will contact you by email. If your Audition Fee Waiver is refused, you will be told the reason why and asked to pay the audition fee before your application can proceed any further.
This form must be completed and submitted at the time of application. If you have any difficulty uploading your form or supporting evidence please email us.
Overseas applicants are likely to require a Student visa to study in the UK. If you think this applies to you, and you are offered a place following audition or interview, you may be required to provide the following documentation:
Further information about the documents you will need to provide will be sent to you by the Admissions Office at the University of Essex as part of your offer.
All applicants are required to submit a video audition or participate in an interview.
Applicants may only apply and audition once in each academic year.
We strongly suggest you read our information about what to prepare for auditions thoroughly before applying.
Following submission of your application to East 15, you will receive confirmation that it has been received. If we require any further information from you, our Admissions Team will contact you by email. If you have applied for an auditioning course, our tutors will review your Round 1 video audition and we will notify you of the outcome. If you are successful, we will invite you to a Round 2 audition. If you have applied for an interviewing course only, we will be in touch as soon as possible following receipt of your application to arrange your interview.
Please read our audition guidance and the Terms and Conditions for Audition (.pdf) for more details.
All correspondence from East 15 and admissions will be via email. Please ensure that you check your inbox regularly (we also recommend that you check junk/spam folders just in case your email provider filters our emails).
You should expect to hear from us via email within 10 working days of your application - at busy times (usually January to April), this might take longer. The outcome of your audition/interview will be one of the outcomes below:
Outcome | Meaning |
Round 1 video audition applicants | |
Progress to Round 2 audition/workshop | You have been successful in the first stage of your application and will receive an invite to participate in a Round 2 audition/workshop. This may take place on campus or online. |
Unsuccessful | You have not passed the Round 1 audition and we are not able to offer a place on any of our acting courses at East 15 Acting School. If you have also applied for one of our courses that requires an interview, we will contact you by email to ask if you are still interested and to set up an interview date. |
Round 2 audition and interview applicants | |
Conditional Offer | You have been successful at audition/interview and made an offer. If you applied through UCAS, they will inform you when a decision has been made on your application. You'll also receive information from us if we make you an offer. If you applied via our Direct Application form you will receive all the information you need from us if we make you an offer via your myEssex applicant portal.
Your offer may be based on conditions, such as your exam results. All East 15 offers are conditional on paying the refundable £300 course deposit (refunds subject to Terms and Conditions for Course Deposit (.pdf)) by the deadline stated in your offer. In some cases, we may ask for further information from you before we can process your offer. It is important that you respond as quickly as possible to any information requests. If you fail to provide requested information, you may lose your offer of a place at East 15 Acting School. |
Wait List | You are wait listed for one of our courses and we will contact you by email if a place becomes available on an appropriate course. There is no guarantee of an offer. Applicants to undergraduate programmes through UCAS will see a ‘rejection’ on their UCAS record – as we cannot record a wait list decision on UCAS. East 15 will hold them on the Wait List and bring the applicant back through UCAS if a place becomes available. Offers to Wait List applicants can be made at any time, up to the start of the course. You will also be told by email if we close our wait list and are not making any further offers. |
Unsuccessful | You have not been successful at audition/interview and we are not able to offer a place on any of our courses at East 15 Acting School. |
If an applicant is offered a place on their first choice of course, they will not be considered for any other choices. East 15 will consider applicants for all courses, taking note of the applicants’ course choices. You could therefore, be recalled and/or offered a place on a course that you have not applied for, but is one that our tutors feel would best suit your skills. If an alternative course is offered, then you have been unsuccessful in your application for your other course choices.
Successful applicants must submit a response to the University (accepting or declining the offer). If you applied through UCAS, once you've received a decision from all your choices, UCAS will ask you to accept one offer as your firm (first) choice and one offer as your insurance (second) choice. If you applied through our Direct Application form, you will need to follow the instructions provided in your offer letter to accept your offer.
UCAS Applicants only: East 15 Acting School is unable to keep places open for applicants who make us their Insurance choice and you should either make us your Firm choice or decline our offer.