librarian377

In is IN. Rejoice. Be proud.

S has a friend who started Berklee in a Spring semester. If your son does accept their offer to begin in the Spring, he will not be alone -- there will be other students doing the exact same thing.

jazzzmomm

Guitardad, please tell your son to understand that this waitlist game is no reflection on his talent. So many of us here have been through this, and one thing that always seems to come up are the stories of getting waitlisted or rejected by one school and getting into another with no rhyme or reason. It is so much a numbers game, depending on how many openings a school has. And, yes, Berklee has become much more selective and more popular at the same time. Being a guitar player with serious musicianship is one of the hardest things, so I hear, so I am sure your son is talented and tenacious. (I have a guitarist too, so I am raising my hand in solidarity with you--hang tough.)

guitardad

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. I shared the posts with our DS and he is feeling much better (the chocolate truffles also helped).

Guitardad

gina225

Guitardad - Congrats for your son - just wondering if you could let me know if you son submitted any letters of recommendation along with his Berklee application and if so who did he have write them. Thanks

guitardad

Thanks!

He had three letters, his private guitar teacher, his private theory/ear training teacher and the third was from an English teacher (the faculty sponsor) for the HS guitar club. The HS he attends does not have much of a music program (it's a public HS in CA).

gina225

Thanks for the reply guitardad. My son had originally applied for early action & on Feb 1st was told he didn't make the early action group but would be re-considered during regular action. He called after Feb 19th as they had asked & he specifically asked if there was any other info he should send when his app was being re-considered. (When he filled out the app they did not ask for letters of recommendation & once he had sent in his application and transcripts was given his audition & interview date.) So back to Feb 19th he also asked about letters of recommendation & they told him he could send them in but that they are not read nor considered & would prefer not receiving them. So he didn't send them in. We got our "rejection" email March 31st at midnight. We just have wondered about the different answers we have received each time we have corresponded through email & phone with Berklee. Your son should be very proud of himself & I'm sure he is destined for success at Berklee.

HotCanary

My D is in the same boat as your son, guitardad. She left for school yesterday morning depressed when she read the email. At first, she didn't realize that she was in at all, because she read the email in a frenzy. I had to "talk her down" and get her to understand the part about secured admission for the spring semester. She was still insulted, haha, but she's feeling much better now. She took the option of "remain on the waitlist, but secure admission for spring" and I called the bursar with my credit card for the deposit.

She has been accepted at an in-state university for vocal performance, and she's planning to go there for the first semester if she's not admitted to Berklee in the fall. If she likes it there, she might stay. I hope this is the right way to handle this.

gina225, we got the same answer you did about recommendations, and we sent none. I,too, wonder if recommendations would have helped, because we could have sent some great ones. Other schools gave similar responses, in that if they asked for one rec they only wanted one, and would even throw out any extras.

PamelaMaeSnap

I have to heartily agree with the "in is in!" attitude ... the Berklee adcom folks made it very clear that though there is certainly a "numbers game" in terms of room in each semester's entering class, they will only admit the applicants they think are good enough and can hack it ... if they had a bigger-than-expected pool/yield among EA kids that was going to severely cut down the number of admits from RD. BUT the kids they felt were Berklee material would be waitlisted but also accepted for the January/spring term.

I also agree with the advice to make the most of these extra months to use them as a mini "gap year" ... financially if necessary, experientially, educationally. There are a slew of placement tests to take the first week of orientation that will determine your son's first and second semester courses and there is a lot of info about those (and sample tests) on the website. So this is a great opportunity for your son to focus on any areas where he may feel he needs extra work and get up to speed .. or just have fun with his music!

(And once he's there, let me know and my D can bring him a box of chocolate truffles as a welcome gift!)