[This is a really in-the-weeds topic. So, most people probably won’t care about this haha. But if you do, this is for you! And if you just want the gist – skip over to the general overview of this [which I need to link after I write it a few days from now – remind me if you see this, and I haven’t!].]
I sort of forget exactly how much I’ve shared or not. So, for context, I guess Berklee has been wanting their graduation rates to be higher and they reach out to students who had over 90 credits completed to see if they want to do a “Degree Completion Plan.”
They don’t change the requirements of the majors much, if at all. They just try to find other ways you can accomplish them (e.g. if it’s liberal arts, through CLEP or community college. If it’s conducing, perhaps a directed study on zoom instead of a class in person. That kind of stuff.)
When I first started at Berklee, I started Music Business in my very first semester. I’d tested out Intro to Music Tech, and some Ear Training, and Harmony. I CLEPped out of English. So, not only did I have some space available, I also signed up to take extra credits – like the absolute maximum allowed. (I think maybe even enough that I had to petition to go above the allowed amount?) Whatever it was, it was a lot. And I was CLEPping out of a lot throughout the semester as well.
You can’t start to take MP&E (Music Production & Engineering) classes until you’re accepted into the major. You can’t apply until your second semester, meaning the earliest you can start is your third semester.
With all the space I had in my schedule, and all the classes I took, it was easy to make a HUGE dent in Music Business by the time I started MP&E, and ultimately finish it out, I think, in 4 – fall, spring, summer, fall [except that technically I withdrew from fall 2009 because of my health issues, so really, I finished out Music Business in the spring]. [And then I took an internship which I think was the final requirement for Music Business) after I left, because I’d wanted to keep my catalogue year.
[Somewhere around fall 2010 ish(?) (soon after I’d left), they had a HUGE change-up to the requirements, and started requiring a MILLION more [maybe slight exaggeration, but you get it] liberal arts credits. I just did not want to do all that.
(I mean, I wanted to broaden my horizons. But didn’t want all that to be mandatory just in order to graduate from music school.)
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow –