Audition process for acting courses *PERTH* audintionees speek up!

I auditioned for WAAPA straight out of highschool, and know several people who have graduated from their courses. The main reason you are likely to get turned down from WAAPA, in particular (apart from lack of talent) is your age. Whilst they will not write you off straight away due to being 17, they do prefer their applicants to have 'life experience'. Essentially, WAAPA courses are VERY demanding and take up a large apart of the successful applicants time and, indeed, life. Therefore they like for applicants to be in an appropriate headspace to completely dedicate themselves to the course, and be able to handle the concepts and themes that will be given to them to tackle, during their training. Not to say that all 17 and 18 year olds are incapable of handling that, but to be fair, I think many do underestimate what will be expected of them. I certainly did. I'm not even going to audition again until I've finished my first degree, and know I'm not likely to collapse under the massive amount of stress that will, inevitably, be heaped on me if I'm ever successful :P Don't know about the other schools, though. However I think, most of the time, highschool grades are not hugely important. It's nice to have a good academic background (if only to show that you are a dedicated student), and there are some things that might be advantageous (for example having studied, and done well in, a TEE drama course), however it isn't necessarily what they will look at. Anything that will give you 'an edge' however, is a good idea. For example, having done plenty of amateur theatre (outside of highschool), or having done vocal training/acting classes with another institution (or even with WAAPA themselves - they offer short courses which are open to anyone [who can afford it]). I think generally WAAPA accepts about 20 - 25 people per year, per course (though I could be off, there). There are a LOT of applicants. Like...a lot. Anyway, I'm sure this is the point where ten thousand people comment and contradict everything I've said, but that's my understanding of it ;) best of luck. I believe auditions for this year (2008) are already over, however.