A question for musicians... and everyone else

[acmespaceship]

Musicians:  Is Berklee College of Music (Boston) really all that?

Everybody:  How valuable is it to attend a big-name "selective" college (Harvard, Northwestern) as opposed to a state school or an open(ish) admissions school like Columbia College?  How much does it sway your opinion to know the open school is only OMG expensive while the selective school is OMFG ROTFLOL expensive? 

Can a jazz piano player get almost as much mileage out of saying "I was accepted at Berklee but decided to attend Columbia?" 

Answer fast:  Larry will spend all day Friday at Columbia auditing classes, and Berklee needs a deposit by May 1. 

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

I'm not a musician, but they're different from everybody else. Other people have credentials; musicians have auditions.

I'd look at stuff like, can they help L reach his full potential? Will they be supportive of him?

Hope this helps at least a little...

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

I knew a really talented pianist who turned down Juliard for Indiana University because he said Juliard turned out the most well trained neurotics anywhere and that wasn't what he wanted. He was making a living off his music though...

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Larry toured Juilliard on a choir trip in 9th grade. He said the tour guide claimed to have Asperger's Syndrome. When the kids they send out to greet visitors are on the autistic spectrum, what does that say about the rest of the student body? Larry didn't apply to Juilliard because "It's too Aspie even for me" and he has Asperger's.