Berklee College of Music vs. Belmont University

@honestmom My D is a vocalist that plays guitar and piano, too. She attended the Songwriting Workshop at Berklee last summer and that is the direction she is thinking of going. However, she is fairly new to songwriting, so it’s a little nerve wracking. She’s also considered music ed, music therapy, music business, and some others. We’ve got a binder full of printouts of all the degree requirements for all the programs at all the schools she’s interested in. She’s (supposed to be) going over them all very carefully.

Berklee is her first choice - I really think this is because she had the opportunity to do the workshop there and she likes the all music, all the time atmosphere. I, personally, prefer Belmont. I wish they had a summer program for HS students. I’d have her signed up already! We would like to visit Miami soon as their program looks like it could be a front runner, too. (but that’s off topic for this thread!)

Wow! That second post was not typed today. This is the first time I’ve logged on today. I did “lose” my post yesterday and retype it, though. Guess it was “found”. lol Sorry!

Belmont has an interesting songwriting program. It is in the Curb College of Music Business and not the School of Music. I personally love that because the student learns how to write songs that are sellable, and how to market their songs and not just write and perform them. Musical audition is not required but a song portfolio is. Vocal performance is the most competitive program in the School of Music at Belmont. But it is a great program. You can apply to both. I don’t know much about the songwriting program at Berklee. I know their vocal performance program is great too. BM music majors at Belmont don’t have much opportunity to take music business classes unfortunately. There is a pretty bright line between the two schools.

I just came across this and wanted to share my son’s experience since he was in the same position last year. I’m sure you’re settled into your decision by now. My son was interested in the songwriting major at both schools and chose Berklee after our visits. He was accepted to Mike Curb songwriting major, with a nice scholarship. Belmont’s campus was beautiful and the food was delicious in the dining hall. The program was very business oriented with less emphasis on musicianship and more placed on succeeding in the music industry. The local music scene was hopping with performers, mostly country and folk music. We flew from our visit in Nashville to Boston for a visit to Berklee and on our drive from the airport to Boylston St. he knew he would choose Boston. He had taken a summer program for the prior 2 summers so it was familiar territory which I believe helped him decide. Berklee requires first year core music program before declaring your major. My son’s experience has been amazing. He’s been in advanced harmony, ear training, arranging, recording technology, private lessons, ensembles, lyric writing, as well as philosophy and creative writing this year. He’s collaborating with incredible musicians from all over the world both inside and outside of his music classes, and he records in the studios until the wee hours of the morning whenever they can get space. The faculty is amazing and has offered his new band professional performance opportunities as well as connecting them with industry professionals. He’s also starting busking on Newberry St. with a couple of fellow musicians and has developed a local following. I know he made the right decision and his experience this year has been phenomenal and worth every penny of his tuition, which we paid in full btw. Despite the record snowfall this year, Boston is an amazing college town and he loves it there. He has declared his Songwriting Major as planned and looks forward to immersing himself in it in 2015/2016.

Shortly after posting, my son chose Berklee also! We are very excited and he felt he would regret not choosing Berklee for the rest of his life. Both schools have their own advantages but in the end Berklee is his dream school. Glad to hear your son is having such a positive experience!

Congrats to all!

Glad to read all this information - Thanks everyone. My son is a junior and aspiring singer/songwriter/producer. He’s looking at Belmont, USC and Berklee We have visited them all. All have merits. He’s leaning towards a songwriting major.

We’ll need some scholarship money to make this work. He’s a 4.0 UW GPA and should score high on his SATs so we’ve always figured some $$ would be offered. but Berklee does not give academic scholarships. Belmont and USC don’t have merit money for songwriters. It will be a interesting next 18 months.

@JerseyParents, USC’s music scholarships are all small anyway, so going after academic money is a much better bet. Their NPC tool was quite accurate for us if you think you might qualify for financial aid; the tool takes grades/scores and potential merit awards into consideration.