Enrollment Strength Continues for Berklee

In a world economy staggering from recession, Berklee is still fully enrolled.

In a U.S. economy where many lenders have either left the market altogether or severely ratcheted up the baseline standard to extending a student loan, Berklee is still fully enrolled.

In an ever-changing world with uncertainty seemingly on every front, students and families continue to make the commitment to a music education, ensuring that Berklee is still fully enrolled.

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Despite world events that have caused enrollment struggles at many colleges, Berklee will open the fall term at its enrollment target of 4,000 students. How has this occurred?

Continuing and Returning Students

The main source of enrollment each term is of course, those who are continuing their education. This year, roughly 3,000 students will continue their path towards a Berklee degree or diploma. In this number are several hundred students who have returned from a leave of longer than one term. These students may have “stopped out” for a term or two or, in other cases, may be returning to Berklee after many years.

As many will know, in light of global economic circumstances, Berklee made a decision last fall to significantly augment its financial aid and scholarship program extending roughly $2 million in additional aid to continuing students. Moving to the current budget year, we further increased aid support so that the annual total is now roughly $5 million more than just one year ago. This commitment from the College is specifically aimed at encouraging and supporting students in their quest to graduate. While we are not in a position to meet every need of every student, we do know that this initiative is making a difference in our ability to support, encourage and retain students.

The Entering Class

More than 1060 new students are joining the College this fall,the largest class in College history. How did they get here? Each of our entering students came from one of almost 50 audition sites in 23 countries. They all went through our admission process which includes the A&I (audition and interview) experience, and a thorough evaluation of their academic history and personal history – ultimately to answer the core question, “is this student a good match for Berklee and is Berklee a good match for this student?” Applications for fall admission also set an all-time record at 4755, up more than 10% from the previous year. As such, we were both blessed by a large group of highly talented students, and challenged to choose our entering class from such an abundance of riches. Ultimately, our matriculating class is extraordinary in many ways. To illustrate, what follows is some simple facts about this year’s entering group:

Number of States Represented: 44

Number of Countries Represented: 65

International Students Enrolling: 237

Primary Languages Represented in the Entering Class: English, Spanish, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, German, Chinese, Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, French, Greek, Romanian, Thai, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Arabic, Filipino, Telugu, Norwegian, Serbian, Icelandic, Persian, Bulgarian, Finnish.

Percentage of students receiving scholarship: 47%

Percentage of students receiving some form of financial aid: 77%

Female Students Enrolled: 320

ALANA representation (African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American): 235 students

Commitment to Accessibility, Internationalism and a Diverse Student Body

As the school year starts, once again the College finds itself in the enviable position of not only being fully enrolled, but indeed, fully enrolled with a class that enriches the diversity, depth and breadth of the Berklee experience for all. Our students are extraordinarily talented, committed and resilient.

More than ever, we remain committed to keeping a Berklee education accessible. Our financial aid initiatives have given particular attention to maintaining Berklee’s commitment to excellence while at the same time, supporting our longstanding traditions of attracting and retaining students from many different backgrounds, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and countries. That commitment lives on and with the support of alumni and friends of the College, we hope to augment our ability to make a Berklee education affordable to as many students as possible.

The Road Ahead…

Now that the fall term has begun, our admission staff is quickly shifting gears to focus on recruiting the next group of incoming students for January, May and September 2010. With support from faculty, staff, alumni and partners, our team will again deliver the Berklee message around the globe to prospective students and families. At the same time, enrollment professionals in our Offices of Financial Aid, Scholarships and Student Employment and the Registrar work year round to support and retain our current students. Later this year, the College will complete its first Comprehensive Enrollment Strategy which will aim to coordinate and align our efforts to recruit and retain the best student body possible.