In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ben Lagman

Ben Lagman

Freshman
Jan 11, 2011
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Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, United States
So, currently I'm in my 3rd year of High School. Academically, I'm doing pretty well. I'm not a superior student, and to be honest, my grades could do better. However my grades at the moment are in the B to A range for the most part. I was thinking of maybe going to BC or BU for Business, but I know that it won't give me a huge advantage in this industry. I WANT to go to College so I can get a degree, and just say that I got a degree and not regret it later, however, I don't know where to go. Everybody tells me not to worry about college, and just to intern at a local production company, however the biggest company I have near me that does big shows, or the types of events that I'm into, is over an hour away. I won't be in this industry forever, because I want to do other things in my life like do what my parents do and help families with finances, but for the meanwhile, this is what I want to do for a big chunk of it. I'm mainly into designing stage setups for Concerts, and Sound Engineering. Are there any really good colleges around the New England area that would be good for me? I'm extremely into designing, and am really creative, but I don't know where to start after high school. Any ideas?
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

The entertainment industry is one of the (very) few where the lack of a college degree does not make a huge difference. This dos not, however, mean that what you learn while getting a college degree won't be valuable in this industry. Personally, I don't think that a degree in theater is a wise investment, but a degree in a related field plus plenty of time working in the industry can be. By related field, I mean something like

* Electrical Engineering
* Mechanical Engineering
* Business
* Psychology
* Physics

There are plenty of good and excellent colleges in New England and the Boston area in particular. Names like MIT, Northeastern, BU, BC, Emerson, Wentworth, and Harvard all come to mind, but there are others as well.
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ben Lagman said:
So, currently I'm in my 3rd year of High School. Academically, I'm doing pretty well. I'm not a superior student, and to be honest, my grades could do better. However my grades at the moment are in the B to A range for the most part. I was thinking of maybe going to BC or BU for Business, but I know that it won't give me a huge advantage in this industry. I WANT to go to College so I can get a degree, and just say that I got a degree and not regret it later, however, I don't know where to go. Everybody tells me not to worry about college, and just to intern at a local production company, however the biggest company I have near me that does big shows, or the types of events that I'm into, is over an hour away. I won't be in this industry forever, because I want to do other things in my life like do what my parents do and help families with finances, but for the meanwhile, this is what I want to do for a big chunk of it. I'm mainly into designing stage setups for Concerts, and Sound Engineering. Are there any really good colleges around the New England area that would be good for me? I'm extremely into designing, and am really creative, but I don't know where to start after high school. Any ideas?
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Ben,

Great questions, way to be looking ahead. I cannot seem to find my old postings on this topic, but here are some of my thoughts. I've done both undergraduate and graduate studies, as a reference.

Practical Things for Admission and Cost:
  1. The folks that tell you to work for a local production company sweeping floors are right, it is the best way into A/V. Doing that is not mutually exclusive to college. I crewed and mixed in various capacities all through my undergraduate degree. Your less motivated friends will piss their time away getting hammered on cheap, terrible beer and trying to get in each other's pants. With a clear head on your shoulders, you will instead find plenty of time to work towards your production pursuits during college. Talk to Chuck Harrigan, as he's doing that right now.
  2. For getting into colleges, your grades matter, your SAT matters, your essay matters, if you're a legacy matters, and what you do in your free time currently matters. The University of Florida, where I studied for undergraduate, had a very systematic point weighting scale for all of these things to level the playing field between bad inner rural high schools and the state's exceptional magnet schools. Your local state schools will probably have the same.
  3. If you're not confident as a public speaker, go to your local toastmaster's club and start practicing. I've known several people who've sold their entrance to prestigious colleges by standing in front of the people who decide admission and making a good impression.
  4. You can, and should, shortcut most of #2 by starting college now. Good marks in classes taken at the best local community college will trump any high school GPA or activity. After you read this, go tell your guidance counselor you want to do either "dual enrollment" or "alternative graduation" at the local community college. You'll end up splitting your time between the HS and the college. In the 18 months of high school you have left, you will be able to complete a good fraction of an associates degree at a very low cost per credit hour. With those hours in hand, admission to a four year school of your will be much easier, and you'll probably receive better instruction than at the four year school. Had I the opportunity to go back to high school, I would have done a lot more community college.
  5. If you decide to study engineering, go to the most affordable ABET accredited engineering school, and you'll learn what you need. Don't get suckered in by the "big names" (e.g. MIT, Harvard, etc.) It was only when I got to graduate school that I realized how well I was prepared by my "lowly" public university education. School choice is not as clear for non-engineering, but ABET labels the playing field pretty well for engineers.
  6. Change your financial aid picture by changing your dependency status. I know that you make some income by doing lighting and DJ work for Primerica events. Use that income to pay your own gas, car insurance, buy food, "buy" your car from your parents, pay "rent", etc. Then don't have your parent's claim you as a dependent. YOU MIGHT LOSE YOUR PARENTS' MEDICAL INSURANCE. As long as you don't have any major health problems, buy individual coverage! You'll never be healthier than right now, shop around and your major medical insurance will be <$100/month. The <$1200/year that this costs will pay for itself many times over in the increased amount of student loans you will qualify for, and the interest payments the government will make for you on those loans over time. Most colleges have an affordable on campus infirmary to take care of minor medical issues. You'll learn to do your own taxes, and not be afraid of them. My parent's couldn't claim me as dependent when I went to undergraduate, and it was a huge blessing for financial aid.
College Realities:
  1. None of your engineering degree choices will specifically reference anything in professional audio. We are teeny tiny niche industry. Pick a major because you like it, not because you think you'll learn about audio. Those of us here who are self-taught in audio can help you fill in those blanks.
  2. If you decide that you want to work for an AV manufacturer, join AES, go to the shows, print out business cards, and schmooze.
  3. Regardless of your major, take/audit statics, this will help take the mystery out of rigging.
  4. Since you are creative, you might want to look into an industrial design program. Be forewarned that all the lab classes for ID are REALLY intense the last year of college, so you'll need to have your production connections well-established by then.
  5. Make sure you get to know at least two professors on a first name basis. Your GPA, and their references, are two of the most important things you'll walk out of college with.
  6. If you get the opportunity to have an internship in your field of study, take it. Everyone in my engineering major class from UF, except the guy that had no internship, either had multiple job offers, or multiple graduate school offers waiting for them. Internships that last two adjacent semesters (e.g. spring/summer) are generally much easier to find than a summer internship. Companies need to hire you long enough to get meaningful work out of you.
  7. Motivated people can get a tremendous amount out of college, and have it be very fun at the same time.
 
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Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ohh third year.. time to start settling down... :-)

My sister went to BU and she liked the communications program there.

The statistics suggest a college degree is valuable, while paying for college is expensive (go figure). Attending school in bean town was a target rich environment for fun, back when I was your age (a while ago). At this point in your life it's all about acquiring the tools, that will serve you well later. You know what you like, but don't limit your possibilities too narrowly in one industry.

Have fun, that's your job right now. You'll have to work soon enough.

JR
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Most universities have opportunities to work in the production world for pay and/or experience. Off the top of my head the university I went to offers:

Paid:
Classroom technology assistant (help set up laptops, assist with A/V installations)
Performance events student tech (set up a/v gear for special presentations and events)

Unpaid:
Student theater clubs
Theater production minor program (for credits)
Student center programming group (book entertainment, help set up for concerts, organize student events)

The one thing I learned when I was in college is not to limit yourself to what your particular college offers. Even if you go for business, find all the engineering classes you can that do not require prerequisites and take them. Those courses will give you good fundamental knowledge you can apply in the field later.

For example, I went to school for theater, but the university's agriculture program had courses in welding, electronics, electricity, and utilities that I was able to take even though I wasn't going there for agriculture. They were geared towards people who might have to work with farm equipment, but I learned plenty of things that you would encounter in the production field like electrical distribution, fabrication, and circuit troubleshooting and design.
 
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Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Alternative approach:

- Take a trade such as carpentry
- While taking carpentry, focus on drafting and design (not sure if they do that down there. Up here it is possible)
- This gives you a solid basis as to how things are built, and gives you a foot in the door as far as the design end of things. Added bonus of having a trade when you have had enough of the entertainment industry.

Substitute electrician or welder in there, both are also excellent skill sets to have when dealing with the infrastructure end of thngs in this industry. Either way, no shame in having a good solid trade.
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ben,

If you're into design, there are schools where you can take acoustics and sound system design in an architecture or architectural engineering program. We have an excellent one here at the University of Kansas, but that's not on the east coast. If you PM me, I can give you a bit more info about the program here.

On these forums, Brad Weber might be a good person to PM about acoustics education on the east coast. He's a practicing acoustical and sound system consultant in Atlanta.
 
I can say from my personal experience that Phil is right on with his suggestions. If you want to do some production work while in college, you need to find a company that understands that you are a student first and an employee second. I got lucky in that the company i work for does most of the events on campus, so I didn't have far to go when i was just helping with the in and out. Now I'm involved with much larger shows, but I still don't have to go to the shop more than twice a week, and have plenty of time for my coursework.

The most important thing for me was time management. I, unfortunately didnt learn this till the second semester of my sophmore year, and my gpa showed it. You also cant do everything on campus. I had to drop some things I was involved with as they were eating up too much time.

Id also suggest learning how to cook, as I've both saved money and eaten healthier by not having a meal plan. Though it adds another 1.5 hours of stuff to do each day.

Another note: a student who has passed a class with a certain professor can give you a much better idea of what to expect than ratemyprofessor.com.

Posted on the run
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

A lad with whom I've worked a few times goes to Ball State in Indiana. His major is (something to do with live sound and recording), with minors in business and physics. No law says you can't mix'n'match.
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

John O'Brien said:
Ever been offended by any comments? I've seen some really, really rough stuff on rate my professor.
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One of my brothers in law and his mother are both tenured profs. Some stupid stuff gets posted on that site, especially when they push students, but what I read was surprisingly accurate about both of them, both the positives, and the negatives
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ben,

Please don't take this as tooting my own horn, I don't mean it as such. I hope my experience can be a small inspiration to you (or at least a kick in the pants).

I chose to major in Communications because I knew that no matter where I went or what I did, I could use the things I learned. I decided to focus in Broadcasting because it was at least somewhat technical. I already had some 5-6 years experience with SR from church, youth group, school, etc. and that really helped me to get onto the student crew at my university's center for the arts. Our supervisor was the only adult and I picked his brain and helped him out every chance I got...paid or not. I also became involved with the film side of things when people noticed my work and wanted some help. I also got a minor in Communication Studies without meaning to, simply because the classes I wanted to take counted towards it.

I say pursue your passions and learn whatever you can. Take the pay if it's offered, but don't throw away experience if none is offered. I would've worked at my university even if I had to volunteer, just to gleen the knowledge and get the experience I did.

I literally use what I learned in college (both in-and out-of-class) every single day - people skills, effective communication techniques, and troubleshooting skills are invaluable.

Hope that helps - keep us posted!
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Wow, thank you all so much for the responses! I didn't think I'd get this much information, and sorry for the late response everybody. I appreciate all the suggestions from everybody, and I am absolutely overwhelmed with the positive feedback. I have a quick question though, I've heard that it's not all worth it, time and money wise, but everybody has a differing opinion. What do you guys think of 'Full Sail'?.. It seems more like a 'business that wants your money' type of thing from the comments I've heard, but somebody could prove me wrong....

Also, I would love to volunteer and work at a production company near me... But there are none that are within close proximity.. And my high school doesn't really offer any programs even closely related to what I want to do. Suggestions?
 
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In my experience with grads you take away from Full Sail what you put into it. Those that use it to improve their technical knowledge on top of their already good work ethic (usually they were gigging at the same time anyway) do well, and perhaps didn't really need it in the first place although it may be a good way to get a lot of technical knowledge quickly. Those who thought they would get out of full sail and have a career, or be hireable in any way, on the basis of that diploma have to start from scratch anyway.

In either case, it is a very expensive way to get an audio education, especially when at the same time you could be getting a lot of the same experience working for a national in their shop... While getting paid, instead of paying them.

You might also look into the other program at... Damn, now I forget. Uh... Somewhere in AZ?
 
Re: In my 3rd year of High School... Now what?

Ben Lagman said:
What do you guys think of 'Full Sail'?
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I agree with Bennett's response.

However, as far as formal academic production training goes, if you wanted to persue that, my guess is that the music production and engineering major offered nearby at Berklee, in Boston, would be far preferable than what's offered at Full Sail, especially as far as making contacts with music biz people.
 
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