http://www.robknopper.com/blog/2016/3/13/de7eb3s3xzgjpnah1vtrit8coecrmd
@ScreenName48105 here was your impression of Berklee early in the process:
“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.”
Isn’t the freshman class at Berklee larger than the entire music school at USC?
Hope your son doesn’t come down to the wire as my D1 did, although it was okay. I’ve asked my kids to decide a few days early and try “wearing” the decision to see how it feels emotionally. Happy? Nagging regrets? Morning of May 1, D1 still couldn’t decide between A and B. Before leaving for school, we said, okay, college A and I’ll text you at noon to make sure you still feel that way. Come noon, I text her and it’s “No! College B!” Sure? Yes! Okay. I still wait until 3:30 j u s t t o m a k e s u r e. Text her again: “College B?” “What?! You didn’t send it in?!” So then we knew it was really college B. Luckily D2 is currently “wearing” her decision and we will put money down soon. Phew.
@ScreenName48105 in case you missed the Admissions Welcome Event presentation at Berklee today I have posted UStream link below. I really enjoyed the part where they had Berklee alum answer questions.
Wow, thank you all so much for the feedback; so many great points.
I think he really wants to go to Berklee but is having trouble pulling the trigger because it was a safety and he put in so much more time and effort toward the other applications. (I’m trying not to think about how much money I could have saved!) He changed his tune from “I don’t know” to “Probably Berklee” over the weekend, but says he’s not quite ready to announce it yet. And, now, everybody’s calling… lol
Glad to hear he is close to a decision! Most, however, would not call Berklee a safety school.
Yes, you’re right, but it made sense as one for my son as a jazz saxophonist (but probably wouldn’t for vocalists, popular music, etc.) Acceptance rate is well above 30%, which is pretty high among its peer schools. No academic criteria and a really simple application process – no pre-screens, no essays, no test scores. My son applied EA and had a decision, including scholarship/FA, by mid-December. And to be brutally honest, he felt that if he couldn’t get into Berklee, he really needed to re-think his aspirations for a jazz performance career.
He had a meeting with his teacher yesterday, who is also the prof at one of his accepted schools. Gave him some good advice and things to think about… but we’re back to square one. UGH.
The thing about Berklee is that it’s acceptance rate is high among it’s peers but the top at Berklee easily compares to the top at all the other schools. So if a talented, highly motivated musician attends Berklee they will be among their peers in ensembles and classes. Berklee has some advantages over more traditional conservatories (this was explained to us by our son’s private teacher in HS who insisted our son not rule out Berklee even after our son was accepted to other conservatories). One advantage is that as a musician you will get a lot more “career training” at Berklee than you will at a traditional conservatory. You will likely learn a lot more about the business of being a musician, how to produce music professionally and how navigate today’s music industry and world. Berklee also attracts an international student body so there are opportunities to connect to musicians from all over the world.
Boston is indeed a great place to be a young artists. There is not only NEC nearby but also Emerson, Mass Art, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston University, MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern and more… All those students working in creative fields find ways to interact and i have seen collaborations between creative types across institutions in the Boston area because people get to know one another by where they live off campus and who they socialize with.
Whew! Decision made – he’s going to Berklee. Thanks to a bit of inspiration today – his combo won a Downbeat award!! =D>
Congrats on both fronts, @ScreenName48105 and DS - I am sure you are thrilled and relieved.
As a Boston lover, I am happy to hear this. I was too biased to weigh in 
Boston Conservatory and Berklee are in the midst of a merger, which presents interesting opportunities for some.
I believe there is a consortium including Northeastern nearby, where he can take classes if he wants.
Great area for young musicians. I get energized just driving by.
Congrats and maybe our kids will intersect. My son will be there for grad school at the global Jazz institute and can be seen around town playing with various groups.
Congrats on the decision. Go celebrate
@ScreenName48105, congratulations on your son’s decision! I think he’s going to love Berklee and Boston. Make sure he finds Wally’s early on (if he hasn’t already). And congrats on the Downbeat award too. That’s really a very nice recognition.
Congrats on the decision @ScreenName48105! Welcome to Berklee
Just catching up on this and see that he picked Berklee. A saxophonist from Berklee just graduated with a Master’s from the Monk Institute of Jazz at UCLA, and that program only selects 6-8 students every two years, so Berklee’s top is clearly top in the world. Good luck to your son.
Thanks, @SnowflakeVT. I have to say that, since making his decision, he’s had more than one musician ask, “You got into Thornton for saxophone… so why in the world are you going to Berklee?” It’s given him a little pause, maybe not to the full extent of buyer’s remorse, but a small backwards glance nevertheless. He’s had to remind himself that the choice wasn’t about bragging rights. It’s helping that one of his close friends is going to NEC; they’re plotting apartments for sophomore year and Monk Institute in the future.
You will always hear people questioning decisions, and music is no exception. Sometimes it is alumni whom of course will tell you that “of course X is better” (unsaid, they went there lol), others it is because of local bias ie west coast/east coast, others because of popular perception. The fact that Berklee doesn’t do the test scores and the like isn’t a big factor IMO, great SAT scores don’t translate into a great musician or the level of playing, and most conservatories don’t really give much weight to grades or SAT scores for that matter.
First of all, Berklee is a great school, and when you get into things like what percent of the people are accepted,you have to be careful, because that is on the whole. I don’t know much about Berklee itself and especially the jazz department, but you also have to look at the teacher as well. For example, a program with one teacher may only accept X%, but another program Y because they have more teachers, where X <Y. However, among the second program, you kid might get into a studio where the teacher takes only 1 or 2 students out of let’s say 50 that audition, so getting in with that teacher might mean a lot more. Juilliard takes on the whole something like 6% of the students who apply there, schools like CIM and NEC might be 30+%, but there on that instrument might be tougher with teachers to get into at CIM or NEC than at Juilliard, may be better teachers. Thornton is a great school, but when I hear “how could you go to X when you got into Y” that tends to smack of perceptions or personal bias, as if Thornton (in this case) is this magical place, when no school is…and the fact that 6% of Sax players get into Thornton might be that more kids audition there because when it comes to Jazz, there is a dearth of programs on the west coast (as a hypothetical) while with Berklee it is competing against a number of programs so it may not get as many applying (and folks, those are hypotheticals, to show how numbers may not mean much).
My son got the same thing with going to NEC, when he got into Juilliard, but he also got into a studio at NEC where the level is as at the highest levels and getting into that studio is likely harder than getting into Juilliard shrug…but such is the reputation of Juilliard that people assume it is “always the best”…in other words, don’t assume that when people question the decision, that they have mystical knowledge or ‘know’, in many cases they don’t.
@musicprnt, just so it’s clear, this parent is completely comfortable with the school he decided on. I’m of the opinion that the next 4 years is just the first 4 years of a long road, and like most destinations that are far, far away, there are many ways to get there. By the time he’s 40, I think the only people who will care what undergraduate school he attended will be high school kids aspiring to go to music school and their parents, if that.
Even so, and even understanding all the numbers in your argument above, it’s still tough for a 17 year-old who feels he’s just made the biggest decision he’s ever made. Maybe the first big decision made where a teacher or some other adult hasn’t come along afterwards with the “right” answer to provide concrete verification.
I hate that he has teachers/adults questioning his decision to attend Berklee. Berklee has plenty of bragging rights anyway!!! I would question those that are not giving your son support after he has made his decision! That is inexcusable to me! There are plenty of kids who choose Berklee over USC and who has the right to question his decision anyway!!! Shame on them.