Hello all! I am applying to the list of schools below for scenic design in theater with hopefully a double major or minor in Sociology/English:
Barnard (ED)
Boston Univ
Emerson
Fordham
NYU
LMU
UCLA
UC BERKELEY
Depaul
Occidental
Calarts
SUNY Purchase
Tulane
Macalester
Southern Oregon University
The reason I’m posting is that there seems to be very little information surrounding the acceptance rate, portfolio expectations, work experience, or general applicant pool in the theater design and specifically set design community. If you are a current applicant or student at a school in theater design generally or set design specifically, please tell me anything you can!
There are some good “what should I include in my portfolio?” resources available online, especially on YouTube videos. As far as work experience, etc., D19 and I have found faculty members emphasizing applicants should not know everything yet, because that’s why they are applying to schools to learn this stuff. 
Each applicant will be coming from a different background – some from performing arts high schools, others not; some with community theatre background, others not. (etc.)
As for your list – a school like Barnard is very different from a school like Southern Oregon (etc.). Each school has its own “feel” and niche.
My S17 is a lighting design student at SUNY Fredonia. His portfolio was pretty sparse since he didn’t decide until the spring of junior year that he wanted to pursue that. He had some playbills, a resume, a couple of scripts that he had marked with lighting cues, some photos of things he helped build or construct.and the like. He used a looseleaf binder and had clear plastic divider sheets to keep each thing separate. He attended a regular HS which focused on the bright kids and the athletic kids and theater was kind of a stepchild.
A word of caution about taking out lots of loans for school for this major. You may have some years of slow build for your career. I support anyone going into the arts if it’s their passion, but be sure that you plan to have a back-up skill set for the times when set-design jobs are few and far between as you build your career. In other words: plan ahead for a “day job”. English and sociology may not provide that.
You may want to also think about taking (maybe in yuour summers) a certificate course of study in Comptia A+ – which is the credential you need to do helpdesk work for computers – average pay for that currently is about$50K and it’s in demand. Helpdesk work you learn to set up computers, update them, trouble shoot. This certificate course prepares you for that.
Or you may want to get a certificate in EMT – health care related
Or you may want to take a certificate course in grants writing – a form of writing that non-profit orgs like theater desperately need. If you like to write, this would pay the bills while also giving you access to the theater. Theaters need money and you can help them get it.
Development work – that’s the fancy word for fundraising. If you take courses at your community college in development work in addition to set design you could get into theater orgs to work–a great place to network to get your set design jobs. From the inside.
Best of luck to you – I love Ashland btw – glad to see Southern oregon on yoru list.
You can go on the school’s websites or call the department heads and they will tell you what they want to see. If you have some work to do then pictures of the work you did. They also want any art work like paintings etc that you did. My daughter was accepted into Emerson but we couldn’t afford to send her. Only like 10 people get the merit scholarships and it’s really expensive. She used a real portfolio binder and just tried to be as professional as possible with the limited work she had. She did go to a performing arts school and did a 5 week program in design at Emerson. She had 2 years worth of theater design work to show plus art work. She used this book on making a portfolio for theater https://www.amazon.com/Show-Case-Developing-Maintaining-Design-Tech/dp/0240819268
And actually reach out to the author with questions (he is really helpful). Don’t get overwhelmed… What’s in the book is really great work and usually for college kids moving on into their profession but there are great ideas and tips.
You only need to showcase a few things. At DePaul they said she could of come with a. Few pieces of paper.
Depending on the school it can be pretty competitive like Calarts, DePaul and Emerson and NYU, Berkeley.
I absolutely agree about loans. That’s why my son is at a SUNY school - because I can afford it without loans.
I also agree about having a back-up plan. My son had a gig with a video company over the summer (it was an unofficial internship) and they liked him enough to actually pay him $1000 for his work (about 5 days total) and to offer him more work over the winter break. He also really likes the technical aspects of lighting - that is, doing the actual electrical wiring and set up, much more than the design aspects, so he is looking into taking a course over the summer in electrical stuff. If theater doesn’t pan out, he can become an electrician. If he can get into a union, he’d be set…
Help desk and EMT are great gigs but if they are not for you, there are other things. One of my son’s cohort is a make-up artist on the side, etc.