@ScreenName48105 :
LOL, as most of us who have gone through that remember. Congrats to your son for his admission to Berklee, knowing you will have that as a ‘safety’ is kind of neat. However, don’t be surprised that when the other admissions notices come out, that you won’t face another round, agonizing over where to go, which teacher to study with, etc, and then after he chooses, second guessing, wondering if it was the right choice, etc smile.
Screenname, I heard that Berklee and Boston Conservatory have signed their merger, if that helps at all.
@musicprnt, believe me, that “agony”, if it happens, will be nothing compared to the “150 words for the 500-word essay, 600 words for the 250-word essay, 12 prescreen songs all too big to upload… all at 3AM in the morning and I have a calculus test tomorrow at 7:50AM” fun we had for the applications deadline. My son was ready to punt college. 
@compmom, thanks for the info, though Boston Conservatory hasn’t been on his radar. I think Berklee is a bit of a mill but they do have some great faculty if you can get into their studios, and you can’t argue with the name recognition and the connections that provides. My son has a friend there, who isn’t happy, but I think mostly because finances have been tough and he’s working too much. My impression is that it’s a school where it’s easy to get lost and neglected if you’re not proactively engaged or one of the “stars”. That said, jazz departments are always somewhat small and insulated, so that may not be as much of an issue for my son. The public image of the school, at least as presented during the audition weekend, was very decidedly “popular” music.
Congrats to your son on getting into Berklee @ScreenName48105 My son has just finished his first semester at Berklee and absolutely loves it. He can’t imagine himself anywhere else. As with most schools, you get out of it what you put into it. The great thing about Berklee is that you can study just about any kind of music you want to. If you have any questions about our experience thus far or want to hear from other parents with students at the school private message me. I will add you to my Berklee parent group I started. Good luck in the rest of your journey!
I was just saying that BoCo may add another dimension for Berklee students (but maybe not jazz).
With my daughter, now in her senior year of vp, the schools she got accepted to gave her about 20% merit to begin with. Some were 60K a year schools, so that was just not enough. She ended up loving and going to the most affordable schools she was accepted to, which was such a blessing!
Keep in mind that wherever you end up, you may begin with a certain amount of merit for freshman year, and get more as the years progress. That is what happened for my daughter as the years went along as different scholarships came up and she was awarded them through the school based on professor recommendations. That, in addition to competition winnings, has been incredibly helpful paying for college. We were so grateful for the additional money that she was able to get each year. Her school has a very active arts support community and some of these group fund scholarships for students etc, so that is where the different merit scholarships came from over the 4 years she has been there.
It really is a crazy process, but in the end, things do work out. Now we are looking at grad school - the next great undertaking. Best of luck to you all!