<p>I'm currently a Junior at Berklee College of Music in Boston, majoring in Vocal Performance. I like Berklee because while it is a contemporary music school, we are still required to take classes in classical performance and composition. If you are thinking to come to Berklee just to perform or study music production and engineering you are wrong, cause you still have to take a total of 4 semesters in Ear Training, Harmony, Arranging, Counterpoint, Traditional Harmony, History of Western Music and Conducting. Also to receive a B.M you are required to take liberal arts classes such as English, Western Civilization, Art History and science. As well as music technology classes. When applying to colleges I knew I wanted to go to a music conservatory but I was torn between, contemporary music, musical theater, and classical/opera. I had gone to the Berklee summer 5 week programs for 2 years in a row and had already fallen in love with the school, and I applied early decision and was accepted early decision. It turned out I wasn't accepted to any of the schools I had applied to for Classical/Opera (MSM, Eastman, NEC, Mannes). And I finally decided I didn't want to major in Musical Theater undergrad, that I wanted a B.M in Performance. I think Berklee has been a great fit, obiviously there are some pros and cons about the school, but I think the best thing about Berklee is that there is so much, you can take classes ranging in all genres from Jazz, Rock, Country, Classical, Reggae, R&B etc. So I feel like in my 3 years at Berklee I have become a more rounded performer rather just being proficient in one genre, which is hard to get work in these days. Also Berklee has great business classes, I have learned so much about the industry about publishing your music, owning your own studio/record label/radio station and also information about music software programs, mics and pa systems. These are all required courses. I don't think I would have learned this info elsewhere. Also Berklee is one of the only schools with real live recording studios, I have had the chance for 2 semesters in a row now to have classes in the recording studios, to work on demos, jingles and background singing. I geuss the one thing I wish Berklee had was a Musical Theater Major, the majors Berklee offers are Performance, Music Education, Music Synthesis, Music Business, Music Production and Engineering, Composition, Jazz Composition, Songwriting, Professional Music, Film Scoring, Contemporary writing and Production. But no musical theater, we do have theater classes, but I geuss I wished Berklee had a musical theater as a major as well as a graduate school. I'm now looking at grad schools I'm thinking about Steinhardt at NYU and Boston Conservatory for Musical Theater, I'm not sure how competitive those programs are, my grades were horrible in HS and so were my sat's, and in college I have a 3.2 but I have a pretty great performance resume. For anyone applying to berklee, I would def reccomend coming to visit the school, take one of the summer programs, there are many to choose from such as the 5 week summer intensive program for all styles, and all instruments. Guitar sessions, gospel week, percussion week and the performance program are also great 1 week programs in the summer. I think going to the summer programs really helped me get my foot in the door with the coursework and the teachers. Berklee now requires everyone auditions, and in your application they want to see that you've been working on your theory, so study up on your music theory, take an ap music theory class at your high school, or buy some of the books berklee uses from berkleepress.com, the only negative things about berklee is that most of the teachers at the school graduated from berklee so it's kind of the same crew of people but we have many greatly known teachers at the school such as Livingston Taylor, Joe Lovano etc. Also, it is very expensive and like any school in the city housing is very limited, they do claim to have all this money in scholarships, but I have applied 7 times for a scholarship and have recieved nothing! Hope this all helps if you are thinking about applying to berklee, let me know if you have any other questions, or any advice for me on what my chances are getting into NYU'S steinhardt or Boston Conservatory for Grad school!</p>