Hi. We are really stuck trying to decide which program to accept. My S is a songwriter and was accepted into both amazing programs. Pros and Cons for each program. Berklee gave him a generous scholarship and NYU nothing yet. We live in Brooklyn, but he would live in the dorms at school. So much money. Yet, it is a university vs a music school. So the education will be better.
The issue is he is afraid to leave NYC and miss out on all the connections and gigs. He is under the impression that Boston just doesn’t have the same opportunities as NY.
Boston has pluses like he will actually live in a new city. Has friends at other universities there and would possibly have a more college-like experience in a city school.
Anyone out there have experience at either of these schools? Any insight would be welcome.
If you can send him regardless of merit keep those connections alive and working and do NYU. That is such a big part of music life. Boston is a tough market to break into with oversaturation (much like NY but your S seems established there? Mine is staying in Texas this summer vs coming home because of his connections and the availability of work and gigs. I am very happy mine chose a “university” vs music school (Berklee was up there for him too with good merit). he loves his college experience
One daughter took a songwriting workshop at The Berklee College of Music when she was in high school. She liked it a lot. For a while she intended to apply to Berklee as a songwriting major, but then she decided to take a different path in life.
It depends upon what type of education you are referring to. At least in our daughter’s experience Berklee is very good at music from multiple perspectives. As one example, they covered some business related aspects of music in addition to the “just make music” part. Playing an instrument, songwriting, copyright issues, putting together a web page for your music (and making sure that you reserve the web address of your name before you get famous), how to get your instrument fixed, are for example all things that they know well.
If you are referring to differential calculus or quantum physics or premed organic chemistry or a rather huge range of other academic issues then I agree with you. If someone goes to Berklee to study songwriting, and then decides to change their major to applied mathematics, then I would expect that a transfer to somewhere else is likely (and it is not unheard of for someone to be good at both math and music).
My son is making the same decision for music composition/screen scoring. Very generous scholarship to Berklee, some $ for NYU. After visiting NYU this weekend, did a 180 from Berklee to NYU. The connections at NYU, especially with Tisch, and the city in general plus the strong screen scoring program that he’s already admitted to and stronger academics in general convinced him. We’re from NJ.
We felt exactly the same way. We were blown away with their program. We recieved no $ from NYU.
We are still going to attend the Berklee admitted students on 16th just to be able to compare the curriculum and opportunities. But I can’t imagine they can compete with NYU.
Our only con now (besides the giant price tag) is that my son will not be going away to college. He’s a little bummed that he won’t be leaving in a new place.
Update. My son accepted NYU yesterday. I’m super proud of him and believe he made the right choice. Congrats to everyone… and thanks for everyone’s replies. Most appreciated.