Berklee Five week Summer Program

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I am considering and most likely going to do the 5 week summer program (2013) because I feel like this will widen my skills (I play the violin and piano). I am currently 16 years old and would really like to go through with this but with the limited info. I can't really say that I am really that eager to go. I have done some research on the program but the information is really vague so it is leaving me with a lot of questions that I can't really find anywhere. I hope that somebody that has previously attended will give me some insight about the program and as well as answer my questions. I am planning on going to this five week program with a friend of mine so having the information is really appreciated. I found out about this pretty late so I couldn't do the "scholarships" that they had.</p>

<p>Here are the questions I have:
1) How much is the entire program all together (ticket to fly there, application/registration fee, etc.)?
2) Is it really worth it (money wise, skills, experience, etc.)?
3) How were the classes you attended?
4) How much spending money should I bring (you know...for emergencies)?
5) How much experience did you get out of it?
6) Where did you stay during the 5 weeks?
7) How do you apply for the program (sorry the site isn't really informative with these things)?
8) Should I bring my instrument (violin or piano(electric)) to the program?
9) Is it okay to go there with a limited amount of knowledge?
10) Will they have auditions as soon as I get there?
11) Should I prepare for the worst?</p>

<p>My daughter attended the flute weekend (as I understood it was a part of the 5 week program, although I’m not positive), and her roommate was attending the 5 week program. Here is what I can tell you:
She did learn a lot having never played flute in jazz before. The course she attended was entirely jazz. She stayed in one of the dorms. Take a fan. The old buildings are beautiful but do not have air conditioning. We drove 27 hours, so I can’t tell you about airfare. Coming from the SW, everything was pretty expensive except the taxi. It was much more reasonable than we expected. It is very liberal. I’m still surprised at things she experienced, but she had a great time. Boston is a great place to visit, especially if you enjoy history. She brought her flute and an alto flute. She played her alto in the concert. I assume there’s more than one concert for the 5 week program. If you have specific questions, call the school. They were very helpful to us. And bring walking shoes. The different buildings you will be in are spread around Boston, and you will be walking. We were there the end of June, and the entire week was low 60s and drizzly. You’ll want to bring a jacket. Big adjustment for us as our weather was about 105.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, auditions were very laid back. We just happened to meet the chair in the elevator, and he took us up for auditions. We were just looking around and auditions hadn’t been scheduled yet. Limited knowledge is fine. My daughter is more of a classical player. At the time she only had one year of jazz, and it was alto sax not flute.</p>

<p>My son did the 5 week a couple of years ago. At that time, he had been playing electric bass for several years, and upright bass for only a year. </p>

<p>In terms of cost, there should be a section of the website under “summer programs” that addresses the cost. Berklee has housing that you can stay in, and a meal plan, which are both additional costs. If you stay in Berklee housing and use the meal plan, you’ll only really need pocket money. </p>

<p>They do have auditions right away to place you in an ensemble with others whose skill level is similar to yours. You should bring your violin, but I doubt you would need your electric piano. </p>

<p>My son learned a lot. </p>

<p>The application should be right on the webite under summer programs.</p>

<p>@AliTO173:: Thank you for the reply it was very helpful. After hearing about your daughter’s experience, it makes want to try going there. Your advice and tips are extremely helpful for us (my friend and I).</p>

<p>@electricbassmom:: Thanks, I wasn’t really positive about the price for the trip so guiding me there was helpful. I was just thinking what should I do if I had to resort to bringing my electric piano along (that would have been scary). And REALLY, I didn’t even notice that the application was there, I guess that means that I wasn’t looking hard enough.</p>

<p>AikoNae,
A few additional things. I had two son’s do the five week. One did it when he was 15 and the other did it when he was 17. One commuted (as we live locally) and one stayed in the dorms. The program is intense. You take classes and are put in ensembles. The classes are real music classes similar to the classes that you might end up taking if you attend a conservatory program. But rather than meeting 3 times a week they might meet four-five times a week. There is ear training and theory and a class for your instrument. And the program is international. My son met kids from Israel, Sweden, Ireland and Japan. As a future musician interested in contemporary Jazz that alone made the 5 week worth it, because our son got a real feel for what was happening around the world with music.</p>

<p>What you get out of the program depends on what you put into it. Plenty of kids come to the 5 Week to goof-off, dapple in music, and experience Boston. But there are also plenty of kids who come, like my oldest, who want to work intensely at their music so they can get better and improve before their senior year of HS. Those kids seek out other kids, form their own ensembles, jam when they have free time, and embrace the experience by immersing themselves in the music culture. </p>

<p>In addition to Jazz there were bluegrass, rock, hip-hop, country and other ensembles so if you are not 100% into Jazz you can explore other genres.</p>

<p>While attending the 5 week you can audition for scholarships. If you are not yet a senior in HS you can audition to get a scholarship to attend the 5 week the following year. If you are a senior you can audition for a scholarship to attend the college. Getting a scholarship does not necessarily guarantee that you will be accepted to the college, but I don’t know anyone who got a scholarship who did not get accepted. I think if your academics are solid then you are basically going to be admitted to the college. Doing an audition during the 5 week is a nice way to get audition experience, so even if you don’t think you are in the running for a scholarship you should do it anyways.</p>

<p>If you are considering studying jazz or other types of contemporary music, I highly recommend this program. You can also find out on the website how to apply for scholarships to the program. There are several small scholarships they offer if you show previous music success that can help defray the cost, but you to have to apply well before the program to get considered.</p>

<p>Transportation to Boston is up to you, and would not be shown as part of the program costs.</p>

This is a great thread and great information to me. Hoping to revive it with @SnowflakeVT and @StacJip. My D is a HS sophomore jazz vocalist currently at Interlochen Arts academy for a singer songwriter camp this summer. She loves IAA and the vibe but is pretty much the ONLY jazz vocalist there. She really wants to find a program where she can flourish in jazz. She also plays a bit of piano and is self taught on the tenor uke. We will get her into jazz guitar lessons as well as voice this upcoming year. I am looking seriously at the Berklee 5 week for her for next summer. Can anyone tell me about the scholarship audition process? She did get a small scholarship for Interlochen this summer. Nothing big but anything helps. Any idea what kind of dollar amounts they give for merit scholarships? Based on the threads this seems to be a perfect fit for her and possibly college as well. I also want her to look at USC Thornton among others. Thanks so much!

When my D attended, she filled out a separate request for a scholarship. I recall her getting references and also writing a short essay herself. The scholarship covered only about 10% of the total cost, but it helped her parents feel a little better about spending the other 90%.

My D still keeps in touch with friends she met at this 5-week. The other poster is right, the kids self sort on the ones that are really there for the music and the ones that are there to party and dabble in music. My D ended up sorting into the intense music side, and that really caused her to kick up her game. The international students that attend are at the top of the application pool so you really get exposed to what is out there in the world of music, and she was in an ensemble with a few of these too musicians.

Great info thank you so much! My D will definitely be in the serious musician group. It’s pretty much all she wants to do. She is getting run through the ringer at Interlochen right now…like boot camp! Your D is a vocalist right? Jen’s vocal coach here is a grammy nominated jazz singer that used to be on staff with MSU jazz. Sadly my DD has no intention of going to MSU even if they had the best program in the country! She’s lived here all her life going to MSU football games etc, she wants a change of scenery. I don’t blame her!

You should check the website for the scholarship process. When my son went four years ago, there were two deadlines. The first deadline was in February for a special scholarship for a substantial amount of $$, and the second was in March for more general scholarship consideration. My son applied for the second. He had to submit a couple of videos with the application. He got some $, so it was definitely worth doing.

The five week was a great experience for him.

Good luck to your D, @SpartanDrew. Yes, my D is a vocalist but was a pianist first. She had some background in jazz going into the 5-week, and had also arranged a few pieces for her a Capella group, so she selected the Jazz genre at the 5-week.

Hi @SnowflakeVT and @electricbassmom ! I had forgotten about this thread when I posted yesterday. Hopefully you will both see this message. My D sent in her scholarship audition for the 5 week jazz workshop by the priority deadline of Feb 1. She submitted 3 videos. I think they came out great but hard to know what they are looking for or if she is good enough. We will see. She did 3 jazz videos. I think the jazz workshop scholarship is a super longshot because it’s a full ride but you never know. If she doesn’t get that she will be automatically considered for other scholarship for the 5 week. I wish I could have filled out a different scholarship form for that as she has written her own songs and recorded them, the most recent one with a band and it’s fantastic. We are visiting in April for a college tour as well but she will just be a junior next year so we are plenty early. Do you recall around when you heard about scholarship money for the summer? Also I know Snowflake’s daughter either is or was a student at Berklee. Did the 5 week help her get in and did she get any $$ for college? Thanks so much!

Hi Spartan,

I don’t recall how long it took for 5-week scholarship news. My daughter was talented but not in a band or doing regular gigs, so we were happy she got some money. The actual 5-week showed who the international players were in the world of music and jazz.

As far as Berklee auditions, the scholarships given during the 5-week were only for the top top talent. My D was not in that group. There were many students in the 5-week that were Welkom their way to being professional.

My D was accepted to Berklee when she was a senior, no scholarship. While a Freshman at BostonU she decided to try again and was offered a very nice scholarship (12k/year) which was as good as it gets since she had not financial need to qualify for the presidential scholarship.

Do not expect a full ride as those are saved for the top five in the world.

Good luck!
S

Hi @SnowflakeVT ! Great info and thank you so much! No we don’t expect a full ride at all. We won’t qualify for a need based scholarship either but I’ve told her that we will pay “reasonable” out of state tuition which is usually in the 45K per year range. Beyond that she needs to get scholarship money or something.

On the 5 week also good info. My D is also talented and also not in a band or doing regular gigs so might be the same. She auditioned for probably the most competitive toughest thing too, the 5 week jazz workshop so I’m not holding my breath but I’m hopeful. So clarify for me, your D was accepted to Berklee senior year but opted instead to go to Boston U freshman year? Then auditioned again and got 12K/year (which is great by the way!!!)? Just curious of the timeline and why she decided to do that if I’m understanding correctly.

I think we will be notified on 2/28 on scholarships. Fingers crossed and hopeful.

I would call the scholarship office, or just send an email with the additional material. When my son interviewed for the college program, they encouraged him to send in Tumblr with additional material.

I think the 5 week was super valuable for a couple of reasons: (1) it solidified my son’s decision that he really wanted to study music in college; (2) it gave him some audition experience; (3) he got exposure to what the other talent he was completing with was like. I don’t recall when we got the information regarding scholarship to the 5 week. He went between his junior and senior year, so if your daughter doesn’t go this year, she could always go next year.

I believe that my son was awarded 8K in scholarship money for the college program. We decided that that was not enough to make Berklee financially feasible. He deferred his acceptance, but decided not to audition again the following year since he was happy at Hartt.

Great info and thanks for the scoop! I will wait and see what they say. If she doesn’t get anything for the jazz scholarship maybe I’ll call then and ask about sending in her own work. Thanks again!

SpartanDrew, If you are hoping that a summer program might serve as a platform for a college financial award, I
have some information which I can share, with the caveat that it is somewhat dated. As a high school junior My son received an award that allowed him to attend the Guitar Session summer program. Hundreds of guitarists descend on Boston for this program. Upon his arrival (Sunday), he had a brief audition which he was told was for placement purposes. On Tuesday afternoon he was pulled from his class (his intitial thought was that a check had bounced) and told that based upon the placement audition, he was selected to audition that evening for one of three 4 year college scholarships. The point of my message is that the placement audition was the gateway to even being considered for the college scholarship, take it seriously and be ready to perform when you check in. The 5 week program might be different, but I suspect the initial audition is utilized for the first cut.

@halcyon4ever thank you for the great info! Where did your son end up going? My D is a current sophomore. We are supposed to hear about the Jazz scholarship on Feb 28 so fingers crossed. I do think her audition videos are great. I stalked some other vocalist videos and outside of a 22 year old Latin you tuber I didn’t see any that I felt were better than her so I’m hopeful. They say they prioritize high school kids so hopefully that’s the case. I am indeed hoping that scholarship money may turn into some money for college as well and at the very least a hopeful admission. We will see. Thanks for your experience!

@SpartanDrew , my son was one of the lucky three, and he ultimately went to, and graduated from, Berklee.