Navigating the world of college can be overwhelming-especially when youre trying to graduate on time and pay for it all. But there are ways to put together a plan that works for you academically and financially. Here are a few tips from Berklees Center for Student Advising and Success and Office of Student Financial Services to help you graduate on time, with your finances in good shape.
1. Create a Semester-by-Semester Financial Plan There's no getting around it: college is expensive. It can be overwhelming to think about paying for your entire degree at once. Try breaking up your financial plan into semester-sized chunks. Map out your funding for your entire academic journey, and always have a backup plan.
2. Explore Outside Scholarships While you're making that plan for each semester, you can search for and apply for literally thousands of third-party scholarships. Some search engines allow you to narrow the options to scholarships specific to you and your situation. It takes some work, but since you don't have to pay these funds back, the research and application process is totally worth it.
3. Only Borrow What You Need Every dollar you borrow will eventually need to be paid back, with interest. So, each semester (sticking to the plan you made above), only borrow what you need for tuition, fees, instrument maintenance, housing, and other expenses. Use a loan repayment calculator so you know what you'll be able to pay back when the bills come due.
4. Work It You can get an on-campus job with Federal Work-Study or through Berklee's Student Employment program. It's a great way to make money, gain practical real-world experience, and get to know the Berklee community at the same time. You can also check out the Berklee Career Manager for paid gigs and other opportunities. Getting yourself out there and meeting other musicians will build your network and lead to more jobs in the future.
5. Get to Know Your Support Team You'll meet your assigned academic advisor early in your first semester. They will be your guide to academic resources, such as planning your major and choosing classes. You'll also meet your Student Academic Mentor (SAM). They can help you navigate your first semester on campus: your SAM is basically an older, wiser version of you. You can also follow the Berklee Center for Student Advising and Success (CSAS) on Facebook for events, tips, and reminders.
6. Explore Your Major and Career Possibilities A great way to explore your major, or decide on one, is to attend the Majors and Minors Fair. Have you already declared your major? Visit the Career Center to explore potential career paths and join one or more Career Communities in your areas of interest. You can also attend the Internship Expo, held each fall, to learn about potential internships with employers who hire Berklee students and grads.
7. Make an Academic Plan You can use your major grid and degree audit to create your personalized academic plan. The major grid lists what classes you need to take every semester, and the degree audit will help you track your individual progress. Once you've got the basics down, you may be able to include off-campus options to complete requirements, such as transfer credit for liberal arts courses and/or Berklee Online. Your academic advisor can help you with this process.
8. Declare Your Major on Time Declaring your major in your second semester at Berklee allows you to start your major classes on time, during your third semester. Starting on time means you may finish in eight semesters, which matches your financial plan (see tip no. 1). If you need advice on choosing a major, consult your academic advisor or drop in and see us at the Academic Advising center.
Bonus Tip: Don't Go It Alone Remember, don't stress. Youve got this! And if you need help, our staff is here to support you. Don't be afraid to ask: everyone needs guidance along the way. Together, we'll get you across that stage at commencement!
Sandra Musella is director of academic advising in Berklees Center for Student Advising and Success, and Kevin Figueiredo is director of student aid services in the Office of Student Financial Services.
You can find additional resources for academic and financial support on the Resources for Student Success page and the Student Financial Services website.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
Brown Reports on Past Year's Progress, Announces Thrive Scholarship Berklee Today
Spring
2019
Volume
30
Number
3
How Living Learning Communities Transform the College Experience It turns out students thrive when academic and residential life overlap.
Get to Know Berklees New Center for Campus Life The new center at 150 Massachusetts Avenue offers community spaces, events and activities, and expanded services for students.
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
Listen to the Berklee Artists Who Made 2019s Best Music Whether it was pop, hip-hop, indie, bluegrass, or jazz, Berklee artists performed and produced some of this year's most critically acclaimed tracks.
Latest Blackstar Symphonic_860x600.jpg
Boston Conservatory Musicians Perform on Symphonic Recording of David Bowie's Blackstar The new album features more than 20 Conservatory students, alumni, and faculty.
8 Ways to Graduate on Time (and with Less Debt) Make a plan for each semester, only borrow what you need, and dont be afraid to ask for help.
Berklees Student Newspaper Finds a New Groove The relaunched Berklee Groove website highlights student music and provides industry wisdom, album reviews, wellness advice, and fashion tips.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Navigating the world of college can be overwhelming-especially when youre trying to graduate on time and pay for it all. But there are ways to put together a plan that works for you academically and financially. Here are a few tips from Berklees Center for Student Advising and Success and Office of Student Financial Services to help you graduate on time, with your finances in good shape. 
