<p>Hi all</p>
<p>I have read several discussions with parents having the same questions and concerns that I am currently faced with. I have a son that is going into his senior year of high school, and we are planning accordingly for his next moves. His is a guitar player with a rock based interest for performance. He, as with so many talented musicians is passionate about his art and works tirelessly to that end. He has performed for many years with many musicians and we recently returned from Germany where he performed for significant crowds with other talents in a big rock festival. This past spring we visited and toured Berklee and we thought our search was over. With further research and given the very mixed comments from past students and graduates, I am left very very confused and deeply concerned. My sons interest lie in meeting other talented musicians, forming a recognizable arrangement of players and making good contacts for advancement within the industry like so many others. He & I want the best preparation and opportunity available.like all of us do. Given the great cost of going to an institution like this, great compromise and sacrifice is going to have to be made to make this happen for him. I lose sleep over the cost of the admission along with the bone crushing debt he along with us will be exposed to. He is in preparation for the audition currently and takes training in theory to include classical from two different teaching facilities. Is the degree worth it, are there other schools better suited to his desires, should I be looking in other directions. I have read of USC, (Thorton)? Please help!!., Tons of money, lots of pitfalls and mixed signals I think we all have the comments… If even a percentage of the negative ones are true, I have deep concerns. I have heard and read so many instances where many enter for one year, make contacts then leave. I should note, my son in not a great student academically and a 2.5 will be the expectation along with his art contribution. Please help!!</p>
<p>The ticket price at Berklee is very expensive, but many people do not end up paying the ticket price for the college they choose. Our family’s strategy was to apply to schools that were appropriate for our son with the caveat that some of them might end up being out of reach financially. I do not think that a kid who is a music student should be taking on major debt. </p>
<p>My son was admitted to Berklee, but with insufficient scholarship funds to make it a feasible choice for us. He was interested in jazz, which gave him more choices than popular music. He is currently a happy student at the Hartt School. </p>
<p>I would not be particularly concerned about the comments of others. You have to focus on the right fit for your child. </p>
<p>Some of the other schools you might want to look at are Frost School of Music at University of Miami, and Belmont University in Nashville. </p>
<p>Thank you very much for that insight and your advise is well advised relative to the massive cost.I am in complete agreement. With the limitations of my son to the popular music sector, I am faced with exactly that focus concerning what may or may not be right for him. The comments concerned me not only because of what I read but because of my identical concerns and as borrowed from another post. “Are other students of his same direction happy in the program, is it supportive rather than cut throat? Are there opportunities for them to form bands, groups, and perform gigs around campus? Are the professors/teachers also working in the music industry? Are the pop music kids well-integrated into the rest of campus.” These would be my exact questions and concerns and I know it is a tremendous earful. I am greatly appreciative for your feedback and welcome any further insight. I have reached out the USC Thrornton today as well. All of the above will have to be consistent will the financial end… even upon acceptance. </p>
<p>I second everything electricbassmom says. My son was accepted to Berklee (he sounds quite a bit similar to yours!) and was strongly considering them. It had been his “dream” school. During the process we discovered so many other alternatives that we were equally happy with.
To answer all the above questions (cut throat, gigs, teachers) I would say yes yes and yes (and yes, all of that conflicts with each other! lol) The bottom line is there is much to be gained, but some possible drawbacks. Supportive, yes, but it is still very competitive.
I would look around – USC Thornton, Miami Frost, Un. of Denver Lamont, Belmont, New School… there are tons of great places. My son ended up at Middle TN State where he’ll be double majoring in jazz and music industry. Poor boy is “required” to intern at a Nashville studio. lol How he will suffer… Anyway, my point is that look at the music centres and find some places you may not have considered (ironically Nashville was not on my personal list because my son is not country, but evidently I’m behind the times and there’s plenty of other genres there… who knew?)
Again, I totally agree about not listening to the nay-sayers. But do know that there are kernels of truth there. No school is perfect and there are going to be things that pop up at Berklee and elsewhere that you will be warned about and find out that they are very true. Some not so much.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you so much shellybean! I am digesting all of your insights and advancing accordingly! Berklee was my sons dream school as well but there is much to consider. Insofar as my son is not an academic with efforts to maintain a 2.5, we are further limited ! Like many artistic and creative kids, my rock star focuses with blue hot determination with things that interest him and completely discounts other things of critical importance lol… I have reached out to USC and it is very appealing and consistent with his desires and ambitions! Contacted both Belmont and Miami frost as well. The GPA weakness rears it’s ugly head and those institutions seem to place a great emphasis and balance with a significant liberal arts requirement! The search is narrowing and
Hopefully we can make the stars align. Thanks again and please feel free to add suggestions at any time.</p>
<p>Shellybean, I neglected to congratulate you on your sons success and endeavors and best of luck to him and your family.</p>
<p>I am in the same boat. Berklee is my daughter’s dream school and that is her main focus. She has an audition in November in Chicago. She is also looking at LA School of Music and McNally Smith in Minnesota. Anyone heard of those schools? I just don’t want her to lay all of her eggs in one basket (Berklee). She’s POSITIVE that this is the school for her while I want to explore as many avenues as position…in a short time span at this point</p>
<p>Just came back from a visit to Berklee’s open house. In the same boat as you all are and greatly appreciate all of the suggestions. My son is a junior so we have more time to look. He sounds a lot like some of your kids - a talented blues/rock/funk guitarist but definitely not an academic. Our visit to Berklee just reinforced that this is where he wants to be since I won’t support his true desire of hitting the road to head to LA and get into a band. He’s interested in studying performance, music business, and production at Berklee but I don’t want to see him put all of his eggs into one basket. Having a hard time finding other contemporary music schools/programs in the northeast that are not purely jazz and that don’t require SATs/ACTs or rigorous high school programs. Does anyone know anything about the New School’s School of Contemporary Music and Jazz or have any other suggestions??</p>
<p>How did you like Berklee MammaJill? If you look around on this board there are a few suggestions for contemporary music. </p>
<p>Hi @mammajill - my daughter is a junior as well who dreams of going to Berklee. The price tag is steep and we’re exploring options. She’s very much of a city girl and not sure what your son is but there are a number of suburban / rural schools in the Northeast you might want to check out that have contemporary music programs:</p>
<p>Lyndon State - Vermont
College of Saint Rose - Albany, NY
SUNY Oneonta - Upstate NY
University of New Haven - Connecticut</p>
<p>We’re looking at the New School in NYC as well as Drexel in Philly and perhaps UMASS Lowell in the Northeast. Outside the Northeast we’re investigating University of Colorado - Denver and a couple in New Orleans, University of New Orleans and Loyola. We also really liked what we heard about Columbia College Chicago at the NYC Open House we attended last month. </p>
<p>Check out Billboard Magazine’s article on music schools. We plan on looking into a few others too like William Patterson and New Jersey City University.</p>
<p><a href=“11 Best Music Schools: Top Colleges for an Industry Degree | Billboard – Billboard”>http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6259155/top-music-business-schools-colleges-programs</a></p>
<p>Good luck and let us know what schools your son will be applying to.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Berklee. He is a very strong student and has mentioned in passing (they don’t call home very often do they 
that the course work is really rigorous. This coming from a kid that did IB. He has found his feet and is doing well. His challenge has been the jazz focus, which he had almost no background in. </p>
<p>On the collaboration part, he has joined 2 songwriting groups and is already playing with a band, funnily enough of mostly Italians. Next semester he wants to write reviews for the paper and work at the radio station. It sounds like there are lots of opportunities to chose from. </p>
<p>When I asked him if he was happy the other day he said he couldn’t imagine anywhere else he would rather be. </p>
<p>Good luck with this roller coaster of a year! </p>
<p>My S is a senior at Belmont. He was also a rock guitarist. He was admitted at Berklee but with no financial aid we did not think we could afford it. He entered Belmont as a commercial guitar student, eventually planning to concentrate in arranging and composing. He did not like the commercial guitar program (all commercial music students start as performance majors), as he found it had a heavy jazz emphasis. He did very much like his guitar teacher though, and had a good experience in the Rock Ensemble there. He also formed a band pretty easily with some other students, and played a few shows and wrote several songs, but eventually they decided to go separate ways. He has a roommate who is still a commercial guitar major and has gotten many session gigs around Nashville and is enjoying it and planning to stay there after they graduate. </p>
<p>My S switched to composition with classical guitar as his primary instrument and has been very happy. He had never played classical before but loved it and is now composing for guitar. The music program is quite rigourous and many students do not make it past the sophomore year aural skills class which is very diificult. Guitar and voice are the most competitive programs at Belmont and I believe they are at Berklee as well. </p>
<p>My S had a 3.4 GPA and actually got a small merit scholarship with that. A 2.5 is on the low side, but if you really kill your audition you might still get in. I know grades are not as important at Berklee but they do matter some. </p>
<p>One of my S’s good friends did go to Berklee and loved it. As with many guitarists who go there, he found a band his first year and quit to go tour and record with them. He is very driven about music but not about school. I’m not sure Berklee really did anything for him other than allow him to meet some other talented kids and form a band.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your son’s perspective @honestmom. I’m curious about his campus experience at Belmont. I’ve heard rumors that they’re pretty strict socially with lots of rules and curfews and a bit heavy handed with their religious focus. Those factors have put Belmont further down on my daughter’s list but I’m not sure if they’re true. Forming bands and doing gigs sounds like great experience and there seems to be a ton of opportunity in Nashville though I’m also curious if it applies for Rock/Pop/R&B genres as well.</p>
<p>Belmont is VERY strict for freshmen in the dorms. My S could not wait to get out of the dorm for that reason, and was able to do so as a sophomore by finding a roommate who was a junior. In the first few weeks he was living in an on-campus apartment, he got busted for alcohol because he was outside having a beer on his (19th) birthday and a campus cop drove by and saw him. But all he had to do was write an apology to us and to the Dean of Students. </p>
<p>The religious stuff is not bad though. I tell people the school is as Christian as you want it to be, and that is especially true for the music majors (Belmont has a Church Music program, so the musicians who really want to do religious music go to that program.) They have a new chapel on campus, which I think they built because they are trying to appeal more to Christian families, as there is a growing market for colleges where devout Christian parents feel comfortable sending their kids. My son hasn’t been to church or chapel since he’s been there and never felt pressured or guilty about it. Students do have to take a religion class, but it can be a comparative religion class which most students find interesting. (My S took an Old Testament and New Testament class, and enjoyed both, while one of his roommates took the comparative class and really loved it. He even went to a mosque and read some of the Quran.) Belmont also has a “convocation” requirement that can be met with a combination of cummunity service (faith-based or other), and attendance at lectures and student music recitals and concerts. Again, that can have a religious focus if you want, but you can meet the requirement without doing anything religious. </p>
<p>Also it is important to note that all commercial guitar majors at Belmont must also take lessons in classical guitar and piano. That’s a lot of work and not everyone likes it. My S took to both classical and piano very well, since he was in the symphonic band in high school on French horn and had a strong interest in classical music. He hardly plays electric guitar now. I would never have anticipated this, but to me that is what college is for, to expose you to other areas that you might just love more and be better at. But if your S really is strictly a contemporary electric guitarist and has no interest or aptitude for classical guitar or piano, then Belmont is probably not the place for him. </p>
<p>You may also want to take a look at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which has a contemporary guitar program. It is more expensive than Belmont but not as much as Berklee or USC. It may be a little more jazz oriented than you want, but I think it is not strictly jazz. One of the finalists on NBC’s “The Voice” is a student there. It is a general performing and visual arts college so there are more than just musicians there, and it has a fine reputation. Philly has an amazing music scene and is a great college town. Nashville is probably better overall for aspiring musicians, but your S may have a better chance of getting in to an arts- or music- focused college than Belmont. </p>
<p>@honestmom - Could you elaborate any more on the strict dorm situation? Do you have any other examples or stories? I actually kind of like the strict alcohol and visiting hour policies 
, and they’re not a concern for my D at all. I was trying to read up on their website and the only thing that stood out to me was that the music practice hours was a pretty small window of time and that “band practice” was prohibited - which I normally would find reasonable, except they consider 2 people a band. My D often hangs out with a friend singing songs, working out harmonies, etc. while she plays guitar. It sounds like that wouldn’t be allowed even during practice hours in the dorms. Anything else to be concerned about? Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, “band practice” is a problem. There are not many practice rooms and you cannot get one for a band unless your band is in one of the Showcases. This is sort of a Catch-22, you can’t make a Showcase unless your band is really tight, but where do you practice to get that tight? This was a big reason my S went off campus as soon as he could. While in an on campus apartment, he was able to have some band practice during daytime hours but not with a full drum kit, and that was only because he got lucky and had a ground floor apartment. The apartments do have clubhouses with rooms that can be reserved for band practices. Most upperclassmen figure it out, but freshmen are pretty much unable to have any kind of group other than acoustic. If your D is doing mostly acoustic then she can practice in the dorm before 10 p.m., or of course outside when the weather is nice. It’s always cool to visit Belmont in the fall and hear all the music going on outside. </p>
<p>Dorms are strict as to hours, visitations and alcohol/drugs. They do call police if they suspect either. Kids get expelled if caught with ilegal substances, and sometimes for being in opposite sex rooms after hours. During my S’s freshman year there were 3 kids expelled after a police raid found weed in their room. Alcohol is not always punished as severely unless someone is found seriously intoxicated. </p>
<p>The good news is the freshman dorm rooms there are HUGE and that is good for musicians. They are also very close to the music building for the most part. </p>