Guitar playing and singing in the hallways. Schedules split in half between two days. Watching dance practice between classes. Sounds cool, right? For some students, this artistic-fantasy is reality.

At Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, located in Dallas, Texas, the above is an accurate description of a normal school day. A freshman at BTW, Jensen Soderlund, said that her favorite part of going to a performing art school is the unity of the students.

“Everybody who goes there wants to be there. Everybody is nice to everybody. It’s not your typical high school,” Soderlund said. “Everybody is one unit and it’s great.”

To get into the school, students must go through an auditioning process. They only allow around 800 students into the school at a time. Students must send in an application for the cluster in which they are auditioning. At the auditions, juniors and seniors from each cluster show the students around and help them along with the process.

“You also have to interview with the school’s faculty so they can see if you’re a good student,” Soderlund said.

Soderlund also said that BTW classes are different from most high schools because of the block schedules.

“We have four classes a day and each class is an hour and a half long, and you have your four core classes and then you have your four cluster classes,” Soderlund said. “That’s your drawing classes if you’re a visual student. Or music, acting or dance classes. They focus a lot on the arts but they also make sure to keep up with the academics.”

Soderlund said there’s always something going on; students are constantly entertaining their peers during school.

“You’ll be in class and you’ll just have a string quartet playing down the hall. You can hear everything that goes on,” Soderlund said. “It’s really cool because you get a sense that it’s an art school when you walk in. You just know.”