Is Berklee Worth it? Weighing College Options for Child #2

My #ThemeSong today is Holocene by Bon Iver (Justin Vernon). Justin Vernon is one of my teenage son's favorite composers/musicians, and Holocene is one of his favorite songs of all time, which is why, for his NYU college application, he produced his own version of the song, maintaining most of Bon Iver's original - because "why mess with perfection"?

You should press the play button and listen to it while you read the rest of this article.

.

Seamus was waitlisted at NYU but accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music (non-liberal-arts Bachelor of Music in Production and Engineering) and UNC-Asheville (liberal-arts Bachelor of Science in Music Technology). We are still waiting for his financial package from Berklee, but our online research indicates that it will cost >4 times what UNC-Asheville has offered him.

We know UNC-A is a great value. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked it the seventh-best public liberal arts university in the United States, Forbes magazine ranked it #21 in the country for "Best College Value", and the Princeton Review ranked it within the top 13% of America's four-year colleges. In addition, the Lonely Planet and others have labelled Asheville "America's next major music city," so it's a fitting place for our budding musician-producer to start his career.

On the other hand, UNC-Asheville has two comparably small but well-equipped recording studios, while Berklee has "arguably the largest recording complex in the United States", including the Shames Family Scoring Stage, which rivals the facilities used by commercial enterprises like Lucasfilm and the major Hollywood studios. And while UNC-Asheville has well-respected, approachable and receptive faculty in its Music Tech and other departments, Berklee has big-name faculty with big-world experience: Berklee professor Prince Charles Alexander's clients include the Notorious B.I.G., Sting, Aretha Franklin, and other famous artists; and professor Mitch Benoff has produced music for Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson, among others. Plus, who wouldn't want to live in Boston for four years?

Nonetheless, we are having a hard time deciding whether Berklee's five-star faculty and studios justify its high cost. For one thing, while UNC-Asheville is a traditional liberal arts college, the only degree available to our son at Berklee is a Bachelors in Music - there is no plan B. We are also unsure whether our son will be able to maintain a good-paying job to subsidize his tuition while maintaining good grades and making the most of his Berklee experience. It's not helping our objectivity that his best friend and guitar accomplice for the last 10 years has already committed to attend Berklee next year.

Seamus has until May 1 to make his college decision. We welcome all input and advice in the meantime.

To see the next post in this series, click here: http://www.melissarooneywriting.com/blog/2021/04/seamuss-abyss/.

******