My theme song today is, of course, the last college-apps composition and production from my 17-year-old son, Seamus. This one is called Mac, and it is intentionally the most experimental of the three. Seamus is still producing music daily and plans to have an album by the end of the summer, hopefully including a few of the people who have most influenced him musically and personally (mom's persistent request, smile).

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Now for the update on our Berklee versus UNC-Asheville college choice, which must be made today:

Given the problems we've had receiving Seamus's financial package from Berklee and that it looked like he would be offered the average $65K/yr (total) that most Berklee students are offered, I was holding off my next blog contribution until Seamus officially committed to UNC-Asheville (by logging his dad into his account so we can make the required $300 deposit).

From everyone he/we have talked to (including Berklee grads), if Seamus wants to go into Music Production he should just move to LA, New York, Nashville, or another music city (including Asheville but with some disdain toward Boston) and actually get an entry-level job at a music production company rather than going into debt to Berklee. It appeared that Seamus understood this until he hung out with his best friend and soon-to-be-Berklee student 🙄. Seamus and this boy have been together since they were 5; and his friend truly is an incredible guitar soloist. This friend also doesn’t care how much Berklee costs, because he has no doubt he’ll be able to pay it back - he's gonna be famous.

Two days ago, we finally received Berklee's financial package, and the scholarship they offered him brings the total costs down to $46K/year (including room and board), around $20K/year less than we'd all thought but still $20K/year more than UNC-Asheville's tuition.

A few days ago, my husband informed Seamus that he'd have to pay Berklee’s non-refundable $1K deposit (2.5 x that of UNC-Asheville) with his own money (deadline is today) OR *voluntarily* log him into UNC-Asheville’s site to pay their deposit, also due today. If Seamus does nothing, neither deposit will be paid, and he will not be attending (traditional) college next year.

We told Seamus to apply to more schools. It was my understanding that he didn't do so because he knew that UNC-Asheville was a better fit than most the other schools out there (Seamus was waitlisted at NYU). EVERYONE he/we talked to (including 3 Berklee grads) said he had a better shot of getting gigs in Asheville than in Boston.

Seamus argues that he isn't going to get married or have kids, so he'll avoid that extensive debt in the long run, freeing him up to take an (expensive) chance on Berklee now. (There are many reasons this is an unreasonable argument, but suffice it to say we're not going to make our 17YO son get a vasectomy.)

Another thought is that, if Seamus and his friend could live together and work on music all the time , they may, like many successful Berklee artists, leave Berklee after only two years; so their Berklee debt will only be half of what we anticipate. (Seriously? We're supposed to stand by and let our son go into Berklee debt only for him to leave without a degree?)

Seamus's dad and I had agreed that we will support whatever college decision Seamus makes, though we will not bail him out of the financial debt he may incur. But, while trying to see things as objectively as possible this morning (before our final talk with Seamus on the matter in a couple hours), my husband and I agreed that, not only is funding Seamus's Berklee education a bad investment for us money-wise, we would not be good parents if we let Seamus choose to go to Berklee based on his current reasoning.

[Note: If Seamus chooses to go to UNC-Asheville, he will get $14K/year from our "family scholarship fund" ($25K/child/year of college). If he chooses to go to Berklee, he will be responsible for $15K/yr toward tuition + $5K/year in student loans.]

www.MelissaRooneyWriting.com

To see the concluding article in this series, click here: http://www.melissarooneywriting.com/blog/2021/05/gum-stump-squirrel-and-asheville/.

To view my last post on this matter, click here: http://www.melissarooneywriting.com/blog/2021/04/the-willow-another-seamus-rooney-original/.

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