Lebanon Valley College (LVC)
Locations: Annville, PA
Degrees: Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorates
Programs: Biology, Economics, Education, Digital Communication, Music Industry and others (30 total)
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Located in east-central Pennsylvania, Lebanon Valley College is a small school, with an annual enrollment of around 1600 students. Despite its size, the school offers a decent array of undergraduate and graduate programs in about 30 different majors, ranging from Biology to Business. Of particular interest is the fact that this small college offers a bachelor’s degree in Music Recording Technology through its music program, as well as a bachelor’s in Music Business. Additionally, the school offers a degree in Digital Communications, with an optional concentration in Design which encompasses Graphic Design, Digital Video and more.
Lebanon Valley College is traditionally structured, so expect to invest about four years to obtain a bachelor’s degree. However, the school has an interesting guarantee which states that if you are unable to complete a bachelor’s in four years, tuition will be waived for remaining classes. Tuition itself is fairly steep: $16,245 a semester for undergraduates, and $17,860 for graduates, not including fees or housing.
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Located in east-central Pennsylvania, Lebanon Valley College is a small school, with an annual enrollment of around 1600 students. Despite its size, the school offers a decent array of undergraduate and graduate programs in about 30 different majors, ranging from Biology to Business. Of particular interest is the fact that this small college offers a [...]
Review by Brendan M.
July 3, 2012 3.8I went to Lebanon Valley College (graduated in 2007) and studied Music Recording Technology. It’s a small liberal arts school, and the recording program was part of the music department, so all engineers had to be trained musicians. This was one of the attributes that really attracted me to the school. However, since it’s a small private school, tuition was very expensive.
Overall, I’d say the program met my expectations, in that you really got out of it what you put in. Since it was a small school, I could get studio time whenever I wanted, which I hear is a problem at larger schools. So much of learning in the studio has to be done in the studio, not in the classroom. I found that a combination of doing well in courses and having a ton of time to experiment on my own with projects was the key to really absorbing the complete picture.
Since graduation, I have been working full time in the music industry. Right out of school, I was working at a recording studio and teaching music. I dropped both of those part time jobs (that equaled full time) in favor of a full time job in the music publishing business (health insurance is nice to have). My audio background has been an asset in music publishing, as the maintenance of their recording library is essential, plus my course work in music business helped prepare me for the job. I have also done a lot of freelance work in live sound, composing music for film, mixing audio at a sports stadium, engineering recording sessions, keeping an active performance schedule, and have lately been getting into artist management.
Overall, I would recommend the school I attended to others, but only if they fully know what they are getting into. They need to be just as interested in the music side as they are the recording side. They also need to know that networking and connections will not be given to them; only through hard work is that achieved. And finally, they need to fully understand the debt they will undertake, and the sacrifices they will make in order to pursue a four year degree.
If I had to do it all over again, I think I would. I try not to have many regrets in my life, and attending that school has helped shape me who I am. I came out of school as a trained musician and recording engineer, with a strong knowledge in the music business as well. All of these tools have been useful to me in my career, since I am qualified to do a number of things in the field of music. These days, being diverse in your talent and skills offered is very important.
As far as advice goes, I will reiterate that I strongly feel that you should know what you want to get out of a certain school. I tend to not recommend trade schools, since they seem to rush you through the program, foregoing a lot of background info (the “how” of what we do), and many do not teach you a thing about music, which I feel is essential to becoming a good engineer. However, if your goal is to work in audio post or something non-musical, this may be the way to go. Figuring out what you want to do is really key before going to a certain school. And above all else, going to music school does not guarantee you a job. So much of this business is who you know and being in the right place at the right time. You have to be qualified and talented to stay there, but you also have to realize that getting yourself out there is just as important as the training.
Debt Accrued: Greater than $50,000
Found work after graduation? Yes