<p>My son and I are visiting Musicians Institute later this week. In preparing for the trip, I came across this document on the mi.edu web site; apparently it’s required by California law. Pretty discouraging numbers. Does anyone have similar data on Berklee? I haven’t been able to find any and just sent an email to Berklee asking about it. Thanks!</p>
<p>I have no idea about their overall statistics, but the only Berklee grad that I know works as a salesman in a furniture store as his day job, and works part time at a local high school as a percussion instructor. I think thats fairly common among music degree students from any college. Of course thats fairly common among for any major also. I have never held a job that is in the field that I have my degree in (not music by the way).</p>
<p>My daughter’s guitar teacher went to Berklee. He supports himself as a performing artist (he has a band), doing sound engineer and recording projects, and with a teaching studio. He just went back to grad school to get a master’s in music education.</p>
<p>I love in the Boston area so I have had the privilege of knowing many Berklee grads. My DH and I got to know a young woman who worked at a tea-store we frequented. She was awesome. But she left the job after graduating from Berklee so she could go on tour with her band in Europe. I know many music educators who graduated from Berklee. A recent graduate just took a job teaching our town’s middle school Jazz program. The head of our school’s performing arts program is a Berklee graduate and he is known nationally as a leader in the field. Then there are all the private teachers in the area who went there. In fact almost every teacher my kids have had was a Berklee alum. </p>
<p>Berklee is not unlike going to an ivy league school. You get out of it what you put into it. Nobody at Berklee is going to push you to get involved or hold your hand. You have to be willing to do the work and engage. If you coast through Berklee you can graduate and find yourself doing some unrelated job such as sales . But if you immerse yourself in Berklee culture, play in bands, connect with other musicians, learn about technology and all that goes on in the music world, you are in a great position to succeed in the business.</p>
<p>Berklee alumni have won 229 Grammy awards so I suspect a few of them have found gainful employment in music. The most comprehensive empirical analysis of music careers, salaries, prospects, emerging career paths, etc. that I have come across and is up to date can be found on the Berklee web page. Go to the career services link and click on the Musical Careers Salary Guide pdf at the bottom of the page. Twenty pages of interesting information.</p>
<p>Music isn’t engineering. It’s not about the school (unless perhaps in the classical field) as much as it is about the talent, opportunities, entrepreneurship. At least not when it comes to contemporary music. So unfortunately no document is likely to (or really should) put your mind at ease.</p>
<p>Hello, I work at Berklee. We’ve done surveys of our graduates in the past, but since participation in surveys is voluntary the results are always far from scientific. It would be irresponsible to make estimates about median income, career/life satisfaction, etc. because everyone interprets those differently. </p>
<p>I can tell you that the 1/3-1/3-1/3 rule is fairly universal for our alumni. That is, roughly 1/3 earn all of their income from music, 1/3 earn some of it from music, and 1/3 earn none of it from music. </p>
<p>Berklee’s curriculum provides excellent preparation for a successful career - while music is and will always be its main focus, alumni thrive in many different fields. However, as others have said, it is up to each student to create his or her own opportunities by building a network and finding their niche among their peers (students and faculty). Berklee offers virtually unlimited opportunities for developing talent, but also for honing entrepreneurial, leadership and problem-solving skills through its liberal arts. It is very well rounded. The students who succeed bring a healthy dose of maturity and work ethic with them to campus. </p>
<p>Feel free to contact me if you have other questions.</p>