Berklee College of Music Admission
Berklee College of Music Undergraduate Program
Berklee College of Music Application

The Facts

Berklee College of Music offers a unique music training that leans more toward the contemporary music scene with an emphasis on rock, jazz and pop. Even though the music forms taught at Berklee are a bit unorthodox and far from stuffy, students are given a very solid base in music theory and music history, which helps them understand and appreciate modern music's classical roots. Students at Berklee are also given a well-rounded and thorough liberal arts education, as the administration believes that to be a good musician, one must be acutely aware of the world around him or her. The students are required to take courses in English, history, mathematics, languages, philosophy, and social and physical science. There is also a diploma program available to those who just wish to study music, and don't want a B.F.A. The college offers several majors areas of focus, including composition, contemporary writing and production, film scoring, jazz composition, music business/management, music education, music production and engineering, music synthesis, music therapy, performance, professional music, and songwriting. The most popular majors are in performance, music business and management, professional music, film scoring, and music production and engineering.

Admission to the school is not competitive numberwise; however, students are required to audition or send in an artistic portfolio or tape in order to be admitted. Last year, over 2,200 students applied for admission and approximately 1,680 were accepted; of those, about 745 students enrolled for the coming Fall semester. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1100 to 1310, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 25-30. When it comes to admission, the main focus is actually artistic, rather than academic.

There is an incredible student to faculty ratio of a mere 8:1, and most of the major-related classes are taught in very small groups or, for instrumentalists, in the form of individual lessons.

The Social Scene

Berklee College of Music is located in the vibrant arts city of Boston , and students are constantly taking advantage of the wonderful cultural offerings the city has. Many students actually play gigs at one of the many clubs and bars, and often frequent the many concerts in the city such as the Boston Pops. The campus is tiny, and is located on the beautiful Fenway. Students say the student housing is incredible, although sparse, and the off-campus housing is usually too expensive to take advantage of.

There are no fraternities and sororities on campus, and there are no sports either. However, students are usually way too busy practicing and network to worry about their lack of a typical collegiate experience.

The dating scene is doable; most of the guys and girls you will find are actually not students; the Boston bar and club scene is hopping, and we hear there are some real catches out there.

What’s Good

“You get such an amazing experience here, and you leave with a huge amount of professional and personal connections.”

“The housing is amazing; there are some dorms that are old brownstones. They're gorgeous.”

“The teachers are amazing and really help to coach you along. They end up being some of your best friends.”

What’s Bad

“There is no time to focus on the academics, so you end up getting really good marks in the artistic areas, and really poor ones in your academic classes.”

“The social scene here is pretty non-existant. There is a really harsh competitive spirit here, especially among the performance majors. It can be hard to make friends.”

“You really miss out on being a normal college student who actually has time to party a little bit."

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