Preparing for College

ZachAttack · #1 08-10-2006, 11:17 AM

I've been looking into colleges for some time, im thinking berklee because its a big name in music. But i dont double yet and im gonna be a juinor in high school.

Well i went to register for my junior year today and i am faced with a problem.. all my teachers tell me i need a second language for 2 years if i want to go into a 4 year collage.. but i would have to drop either Jazz Band, Orchestra, Percussion, or Singing to do this.. and i figure all the music classes i can get will only help.

So do i Really need a second language to get into berklee or a music school of some kind? Professional Bassist is my ultimate goal btw.

cassanova · #2 08-10-2006, 11:29 AM

Im not sure about for Berklee, but for most colleges/univ you'll need the foreign language.

IMO youd be better off dropping one of the music courses and going with the foreign language just in case you dont get accepted to Berklee. At least this way, you'll have what it takes to get into other schools.

guy n. cognito · #3 08-10-2006, 11:30 AM

CollEge. That's the first step.....

IanStephenson · #4 08-10-2006, 11:34 AM

Well first you need to collect lots of bits of coloured paper. You can use magazines - photos and stuff with texture, or you can be purist about it, and just use blocks of colour.

I guess if you're really organised you could tear them up first, and make piles of each colour, but personally I'd probably just get out the glue and start sticking...

Ian

jazzbo · #5 08-10-2006, 11:37 AM

This might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage

Note the line: "Collage was often called the art form of the 20th century, but this was never fully realised."

In all seriousness, take the courses you need to graduate. I don't necessarily know that admission into Berklee is so difficult that you need to worry about your music course load.

And go to Berklee's webpage, and request information. Read the information, and email the admissions director with follow-up questions. They'll be there to answer your questions. It's their job, and they want your $100K.

RobinBetton · #6 08-10-2006, 11:42 AM

it really depends on how serious you are. If you're really serious and you practice a ton like i have for the last 5 years you can consider the going on the conservatory circuit (NEC,Manhatten,Oberlin, etc..). If I had only known what i DIDNT have to do in high school I would've saved a lot of useless rambling from "teachers" who didn't know anything about what they were teaching. I actually did take german for 4 years and french for two but you HAVE to realize that if you have a good audition and they like what they hear that will be the main factor in deciding if you get in or not. Good luck, keep listening,KEEP PRACTICING.

Poop-Loops · #7 08-10-2006, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZachAttack

I've been looking into collages for some time, im thinking berklee because its a big name in music. But i dont double yet and im gonna be a juinor in high school.

Well i went to register for my junior year today and i am faced with a problem.. all my teachers tell me i need a second language for 2 years if i want to go into a 4 year collage.. but i would have to drop either Jazz Band, Orchestra, Percussion, or Singing to do this.. and i figure all the music classes i can get will only help.

So do i Really need a second language to get into berklee or a music school of some kind? Professional Bassist is my ultimate goal btw.

You NEED at LEAST 2 years of a second language to get into any good university.

Also, don't set your sights solely on Berkley. It's a big name school, that doesn't mean there aren't any better schools. Ask around, do some research.

For example, Harvard is supposed to be "the best" school, right? Well I'm going into physics, and it's not the best school for physics. There are MUCH better schools out there for that.

Also, make sure to take generally "hard" classes your senior year instead of falling back on easy ones and coasting. It really reflects that you want to keep pushing yourself and learn more.

Unless you're going to a purely musical college, you'll have to take other classes (science, english, humanities, etc), too. College is about learning a diverse number of things, not just one specialty.

tplyons · #8 08-10-2006, 12:08 PM

Extracurriculars in more than one area help as well.

I got into a great school with a 2.23 GPA in high school because of my High SAT, and involvement in church youth groups, volunteering, music, theater and having a steady job.

If you're all music all the time, they might like that. But if you don't make it into Berklee, you're just hurting yourself IMO.

**Freddels** · #9 08-10-2006, 06:40 PM

You need 2 yrs of foreign language in college for a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree. You don't need it for a BS (Bachelor of Science) degree.

iplaybassguitar · #10 08-11-2006, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZachAttack

I've been looking into colleges for some time, im thinking berklee because its a big name in music. But i dont double yet and im gonna be a juinor in high school.

Well i went to register for my junior year today and i am faced with a problem.. all my teachers tell me i need a second language for 2 years if i want to go into a 4 year collage.. but i would have to drop either Jazz Band, Orchestra, Percussion, or Singing to do this.. and i figure all the music classes i can get will only help.

So do i Really need a second language to get into berklee or a music school of some kind? Professional Bassist is my ultimate goal btw.

you play jazz right? most schools only have music programs for jazz or classical, and a lot of the jazz ones want you to play double bass...im sure there are some schools out there that have other genres too but if your not damn good at jazz you better get practicing. id look into taking some buisness classes too in college, otherwise youll end up with a music major diploma and if you dont get a gig right away, your s-o-l.
at least with a business you could maybe open a music shoppe or go into recording or managing or something.

vindy500 · #11 08-11-2006, 10:19 AM

you guys need to be bilingual in the states to get into uni???

Nick Ioannucci · #12 08-11-2006, 10:26 AM

not fluently bi-lingual, but its apparently something you need... i just finished year 4 of highschool level spanish, and im now done with foreign language since my school doesnt offer italian. like the op i wanted to go to college for strictly music, now im looking to maybe minor in music, because its hard to have a steady career as a musician. so i am looking into electronics, and tying that into music, like some sort of electrical engineering to tie into amplifiers or something of the likes.

vindy500 · #13 08-11-2006, 10:29 AM

true true, you dont need to be in new zealand... where im from

ZachAttack · #14 08-11-2006, 11:21 AM

Thanks for all the input, im thinking i might keep my music classes, and save up for a online second language class or something.. But sense i dont double yet i better get reallly good at jazz

**WillPlay4Food** · #15 08-11-2006, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freddels

You need 2 yrs of foreign language in college for a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree. You don't need it for a BS (Bachelor of Science) degree.

That's absolutely not true. I needed 2 years of foreign language to get my BS CS degree.

**Freddels** · #16 08-12-2006, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillPlay4Food

That's absolutely not true. I needed 2 years of foreign language to get my BS CS degree.

Where?

dcartoon · #17 08-12-2006, 06:36 AM

On the other hand, I didn't need any foreign language for my BS degree. I don't think that any of the other schools that I looked at required a foreign language for their science/engineering programs. I don't have any experience with BA requirements.

Since it's still the summer, I might recommend having a look at the admission requirements for all of the schools in which you are interested. If it turns out that none of them want foreign language courses, then that might be a clue as to what HS courses you need to take.

Don't rely on my advice though, I have limited experience.

Good luck

Dan

vindy500 · #18 08-12-2006, 06:40 AM

learn how to do fancy tricks to pick up the chicks

**Freddels** · #19 08-12-2006, 06:45 AM

Here are two degree plans for a computer science degree at Univ of North Texas. One is for a BA (foreign lang req'd) and the other for a BS (no foreign lang req'd). Generally, a BS degree is more rigorous in the particular major.

Click on the "Download BA degree plan" and the "Download BS degree plan"

http://www.cs.unt.edu/education/degree_programs.php

wtg203 · #20 08-12-2006, 12:45 PM

Let me just say that you're very lucky that your highschool offers you all of those different classes. My highschool condenses all of those into one, called "Band". (Everything is available extra-curricularly except for orchestra

).