Berklee College of Music
Locations: Boston, MA
Degrees: Diploma, Bachelor's
Programs: Music Production/Engineering, Film Scoring, Music Business, Performance, Composition, Music Education, and more (12 majors total)
Tuition Range: $14,000 - $17,000 per semester
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Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Berklee College of Music has a long-standing reputation for preparing musicians for professional careers, offering diploma and bachelor’s programs in such majors as composition, songwriting, performance and music education. However, Berklee’s curriculum also includes industry-related programs that include Music Production and Engineering (including recording), Film Scoring, and Music Business and Management. Berklee’s current annual enrollment is over 4000 students, and alumni from the school have gone on to win over 200 Grammy Awards. Among these Grammy winners are alumni Bruce Hornsby, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Aimee Mann and Quincy Jones.
Plan on a four-year commitment for Berklee’s bachelor’s programs, slightly less for a professional diploma. Tuition is about $14,000 per semester for diploma programs, and $17,000 per semester for degree programs, not including fees and housing. Summer semesters are also available for a slightly lower rate.
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Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Berklee College of Music has a long-standing reputation for preparing musicians for professional careers, offering diploma and bachelor’s programs in such majors as composition, songwriting, performance and music education. However, Berklee’s curriculum also includes industry-related programs that include Music Production and Engineering (including recording), Film Scoring, and Music Business and Management. [...]
Review by John D.
January 26, 2012 3I attended Berklee College of Music. Boston MA. BA in Songwriting. I chose Berklee because of it’s reputation as a top Music school on the East Coast (I grew up in upstate New York just outside of Syracuse). My passion was in Songwriting and Berklee provided this as a Major. It can be noted that I was one of the first people to graduate with a degree in Songwriting.
Upon completing my graduating requirements in 1990, I drove to Hollywood to join a band of other Berklee Graduates in a Heavy Metal (progressive Rock) Band.
From a musical craft point of view the school absolutely met and exceeded my expectations. The training was from excellent teachers who were passionate about teaching. From a post graduate Job placement point of view, at the time, a program to assist in getting a job in the music industry was virtually non-existent.
Upon graduation, I was able to play in a working band. I have joked that we were the house band at nearly every bar in the San Fernando Valley (playing up to 5 nights per week and getting paid (poorly). Because being discovered by a record label was the bands priority everything we made as a band went into recording and marketing the band (via metal magazine ads and building a national mailing list (yes, long before email). This band also played in Greenland at the US Air force bases located there. (2 Months Dec-February, Sub temperatures (you must take a cab to even cross the street type of temperatures). Eating a Turkey sandwich by myself on Christmas day was a turning point for me in deciding whether I was prepared for a life dedicated to the road. After that band broke up (2 plus years together, bad management, ego’s etc) I formed/joined an all original acoustic rock band that was Nominated Acoustic Band of the year by the National Academy of Songwriters in ’94 We Opened for America, Michael McDonald (Doobie Bros.) and even Motely Crue. We also had a song placed in a TV show ‘Party of Five’ and played frequently at the Troubadour, Roxy, Whiskey, Coach House, Ventura Theater as opening acts, and to showcase our band. Due to ego’s and lack of major label offers the band broke up (another 2 and half year project). It should be noted that though we played frequently, there was no income being derived. Each member had a day job. Since then I took a full time real job (insurance industry) and have been running in the rat race for 17 years. I continue to write, record and perform with my band Healios. We’ve recently had songs placed in a documentary and had a feature song in an International Family Film Festival winner. It’s more than a hobby lately and we have been building a web presence on Myspace and Facebook as we complete our Debut CD.
Would I recommend Berlee? Yes and No. Yes, For the mastering of your musical craft element absolutely. As an artist in any craft you need to have the proper tools to survive in a competitive industry. And Berklee provided that. Once given those tools (which are expected in the industry) then the real test is in your entrepreneurial spirit (building relationships with the right people so you can be heard). The No answer is based on whether the objective is getting a job. Transferring a musical craft into a job can be difficult based on talent alone (unless you want to become a teacher). Berklee, as I imagine most music schools (at least when I attended) fall short of teaching/connecting the students into positions (jobs) where they can make a living.
. With a 97% drop out rate (at least that’s what I remember) the school without meaning to, holds onto top rate musical talent while giving those others with talent a chance to see who the competition (Berklee in my case) and decide whether it’s really worth the dedication necessary, for what will likely be very little pay. There’s a saying; High risk, high reward. This sums up the music industry well.
Found work after graduation? Yes
Review by Alex E.
January 15, 2012 5I found it to be 4 years of amazing experiences surrounded by unbelievably talented people. I graduated this last May with a major in Voice Performance and a GPA of 3.8 Magna Cum Laude and also won the Voice Department Achievement Award on March 2010.
It was more than I expected. Coming from a little island like Cyprus into a completely new world in the US. the world of Berklee College of Music has truly shaken my entire life and has taught me a lot.
I came back to the US last September. Since then I’ve only been auditioning and I formed a band with which I’m rehearsing and composing music. I would definitely recommend Berklee to everyone that wants to study Music and learn professionally how everything works in the music industry.
Found work after graduation? Yes
Review by Mitch S.
November 13, 2011 2Take my review for what its worth since I am a parent of a former student and not an actual student. I agree completely with those that say you get out of it what you put in. I also agree that the contacts you make for networking will be useful as well. I also agree with one statement complaining about the performance opportunities there. There are thousands of music students with one major performance center which the overwhelming majority of students will never get to play on. There were more performance opportunities in high school.
Now for the reality part. Kids with good traditional college degrees from good schools are finding it difficult to find any jobs today (2011). College grads are lining up for retail jobs and jobs where you traditionally did not need college. Berklee is great to teach you about the music industry but should not be considered a college because it has the minimum amount of core requirements of a normal college and the education is not well rounded enough for the real world. This is important because the vast majority of graduates from Berklee will not have long term music careers and will need to fall back on something else, and Berklee will not prepare them for anything else. The degree is almost worthless except for a very small percentage of low or non-paying jobs. Berklee administration will tell you about all the new creative ways of making a living in the music industry, but ask yourself if those opportunities are realistic enough to warrant an investment of $40K+ per year.
Berklee will be great for some people, but that percentage will be very small. The name should really be Berklee School of Music because it is not really college. You really need to think hard about investing over $40K per year and 4 or more years of your life because most won’t be able to afford to go back to school after Berklee. If you are getting a full ride or close to it, then go for it. My child got a decent scholarship of $7K/year but it was still a bad choice and bad investment. After high school, I was all in favor of my child going to Berklee and I chose to ignore similar warnings from others. In looking back, it was the worst financial investment I ever made.
Review by Christopher S.
February 13, 2010 2I have to admit I maybe a bit bias because I’m a Berklee graduate but I expected much better when I came to the new Berklee Bookstore yesterday. I’m not exactly sure how recent the opening was but the store wasn’t very stocked. The store is much bigger than it use to be but it was like someone decided to keep the same amount of items and just spread them out.
I was hoping that with the addition of the extra space that there would be more of a college apparel section, lead books and, in general, everything else. I won’t doubt that the staff here is friendly and helped me find what I needed with much trouble. However, for a school that has an incredibly high tuition I expected more from the college.
Review by Renee W.
November 6, 2008 5Like anything in life, your experience of Berklee is dependent on what you put in to get out.
Most of my teachers were amazing, talented, caring people who taught me a lot about the industry and about music itself. The few that weren’t, well, were overshadowed by the majority that were.
I was constantly amazed at the talent and the drive of so many of my fellow students. Just being at this school where you have an automatic conversation starter of, “So what’s your instrument?” or “What kind of music are you into?” was like an instant bonding experience, the fact that everyone is there for the same reason, their shared love of music. I even fondly look back on the arguments I had with the hard core jazzers who thought jazz = the only kind of music ever worth of being recorded or played. Good times.
There were also quite a lot of burnouts…not sure if that was due to the whole college factor in general, or because it’s a contemporary music school, or a bit of both, but there was quite a lot of substance being done that I saw, dudes who apparently thought they were already rockstars.
The greatest thing about Berklee is the resources, if you use them to your advantage. I made friends pretty early on with a lot of MP&E majors (music production and engineering) so I always had guys wanting to use me as a guinea pig for their projects, thus getting lots of free studio time and semi-professionally recorded songs. Also having a bunch of musician friends around who were all rabid to play, for free, was such a cool thing. If you jumped in with both feet and networked and put yourself out there as a musician you got back a whole lot of opportunities.
The one thing I would complain about is the lack of performance opportunities. Being in the vocal program I saw how heavily politics played in the choosing of singers for the few shows Berklee did every year. But I suppose it’s that way in the real world as well. There just weren’t enough opportunities – I recall Singer’s Showcase, Singer’s Night, and then recitals if you were in the performance program. Outside of that, there wasn’t much if you were looking to get your feet wet outside of your classes.
Berklee was an absolutely amazing experience for me. In truth, I did suffer a bit of burn out after a few semesters of analyzing pieces of music to death, being critiqued on my songwriting, and basically eating, sleeping, and breathing music for several semesters in a row, but I learned so much, in a wonderful city, and wouldn’t trade my time there for the world.
Review by Ali M.
March 21, 2008 4.5This place changed my life, for better and worse. Arguably, the best contemporary music school in the world, far and away the best institute for music technology in the country, Berklee College of Music offers an education geared toward a (more or less) practical application of music in the modern industry, based on an understanding of theory taught from a jazz perspective, rather than classical, which most other music schools and conservatories prefer.
Be warned, Berklee College of Music has a notoriously low enrollment to graduation ratio, that is due in part to the intensive nature of the curriculum. Most incoming students enter with the misguided idea that they attending some sort of grown-up “school of rock” or maybe even “the Hogwarts of music” as one of my teachers put it, but instead they find Berklee’s courses difficult, the level of competition among peers very high and are faced with perhaps for the first time in their life the challenge of mental shifting their attitude about music from something that used to be pleasure to something that has to become very serious work.
That, I found, to be my greatest challenge, but once it was overcome, I appreciated the college as a dynamic, diverse microcosm of the music industry where I was lucky enough to forge life-long relationships with friends and supportive mentors that (despite Berklee’s high price tag) I consider invaluable.
Review by Aretha B.
September 2, 2006 3.5There is a lot of talent at the Berklee College of Music. There is a HUGE wealth of information to be learned from the accomplished staff, and from the diverse and VERY inspiring students, playing and having musical conversations with people you otherwise never would’ve met.
The film scoring major is great. Songwriting is great. You can find expertise and dive deeply into any and every area you want.
It’s just about as expensive a college as you can find, and it’s like pulling teeth to even get a dime for scholarship.
Berklee has a 3 out of 4 dropout rate. Only the strong survive. The connections you make at berklee can be deep and significant. It’s a wonderful college. I am blessed to have been able to go there.
Review by Dylan C.
April 25, 2006 3I took summer workshops here when I was in high school. I learned a lot, like that I didn’t want to go here after graduation. Seriously though, I am definitely a better musician for having gone to those workshops, but most of the kids I talked to that were enrolled in actual classes told me that since they had come to Berklee, they hate music on account of that is all they could eat, sleep, or breath day in and day out. And that, in my opinion, is not conducive to growth as a musician or a person.
Review by Jessica R.
August 31, 2005 3good music school in the heart of boston. tons of the local musicians you see around boston are currently studying here. They have lots of interesting performances from musicians they bring in as well that are open to the public.
Review by Jennifer W.
April 16, 2005 3.5If you can afford it (and it is expensive — one of the few downsides), Berklee is the best place to study contemporary music styles (Pop/Rock, Jazz, R&B, etc.) Berklee has a diverse student body, coming from Australia, Spain, Japan, Russia, Sweden, and every country in between. Their faculty is kind, knowledgable and talented, many having toured with, recorded or produced major artists. If you want to be a professional musician, you will get the straight scoop on what it takes from the faculty. No one is spoon fed, but the faculty is always there to help. Like I said, there are few downfalls. One is the cost, the other may be the lack of performance abilities– since it is such a large school there is lots of competition, and one is often reminded of the popularity contests that would ensue in high school to score a performance slot over so many other students. If you are looking for the perfect contemporary music school in the ultimate college town, look no further than Berklee.
PROS: World class faculty, Boston location, recording equipment and studios
CONS: Cost