Friday, May 13, 2011

Community College, Tech School, or No School. What is the better option?

Summer is coming to an end, and all the future music producers coming out of high school are deciding which college to go to. Through my experience as a audio engineer, I have received a ton of different feedback on what kind of education to get for this field of work. So I will provide a list of the positive and negative about each option based on feedback I received from developed engineers.



  • Community College
Depending on where you live community college can be considered one of the best routes to go to educate yourself about this career. Here in Arizona, Mesa Community College features a very developed and well known audio engineering program. Overall, community college is a safe route to go, plus it saves you a lot more money than going to a university or a tech school.



  • Tech/Vocational School
Tech school is the more pricey  route to go, but if you have the money to spend, and your heart is really in to this career then by all means go for it! From my experience tech schools can be helpful because most of them offer an internship at the end, (Some community colleges do as well.) and offer in depth learning about the subject. The one down side is the money! It's not worth it if you have to take a $20,000+ loan because you will be paying back for the rest of your life.



  • No School
Surprisingly enough school is not necessary for this career path. One of the chief engineers down at Salt  Mine Studios in Mesa, AZ told me  "Why spend the money on education when you can use that money to buy equipment and learn how to do it on your own?" With our day an age technology is advancing at a rapid pace, most of the curriculum taught at these schools can merely be found on the internet! But this road is risky because it requires more time and more effort. I would advise some business training if you take this route as well because it will be harder to find customers without a degree or certificate unless you can show them recordings that will blow them away.


Well that's my 2 sense! Thanks for reading! 

 

10 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing some beats man! Following for sure.

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  2. I had to make a decision around the first 2 options, community college or high tuition university, even though my parents offered me help if i decided to go for the pricey choice, i couldnt see them doing that extra effort for me, and having 2 bros and a sis still on school, so i went to community college, to tell you the truth, i dont regret it, best decision ive taken

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  3. Yeah Community college is defiantly my number one choice! I am already registered for this fall and ready to go!

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  4. Going to uni here and I love it! But it might be a little too expensive for what it's worth so college is probably the best choice!

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  5. Community college then transfer to a university.

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  6. I think it depends on what you're planning on doing. School only hurts you if you stack up a lot of student debt. :P

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  7. I vote college.. this is for a variety of different reasons.. mainly because you'll become so much more educated within the spectra of your field for a lot less money, there will be lots of networking opportunities (always chat up the profs you'll be surprised how much advice they can give ect) and also if you ever decide to do something else you will have credits and college experience to fall back on instead of having to start from scratch. Especially since your coming straight from high school (I'm not saying your going to change your mind) but statistically people change their minds about career paths more then once especially around your age... I did and most of the people I know did as well. Ultimately this is your decision so make it wisely and I wish you the best of luck!!! :)

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  8. No school is something everyone should avoid if they have the option to go to school.

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