According to advice given by Berkleemusic.com to students, "one of the best ways to get your foot in the door at a studio, club, or record company is to do an internship or take a summer job". Well, I worked very hard at trying to do just that, and succeeded....well almost. I was so happy the other day when one of the biggest companies in the music industry contacted me by phone to do an internship. However to my surprise, I find out that Berkleemusic does not offer credit to students that try for unpaid internships. The fact is that most, if not all, of these the major music companies require students to receive academic credit for an unpaid internship due to labor laws. And it turns out that one of the stipulations for my internship is that I receive credit for it. I spoke to everyone I could at Berkleemusic that would talk to me, but without success. So, I am trying to find a local college at this point to see if I can get credit...

To be clear, Berkleemusic refuses to extend any credits to students for unpaid internships. Most major music corporations require you to receive credit from your school in return for internship work. If you can not get credit from your school, you are disqualified. So, because of Berkleemusic's career services, or lack thereof, I was disqualified from getting a career changing internship with one of the biggest music companies around.

Hey Brian,

That's a really hard thing to swallow. I'm sorry to hear that you lost the intership. It does seem that you are stuck in a rough spot but I'm not that surprised that internet based college coarses are unable to grant you credit for the internship. I think your idea of finding a "brick and mortor" school that you can take some coarses with in order to be able to get credit for the internship is a good idea. I'm sure that if you made a good impression with the company you lost the internship with that you will be able to go back to them once you square up your credit issue. Best of luck!

RJ

I understand that berkleemusic is still developing, but something should be done to fix this kind of situation in the near future, it's ridiculous and counter-productive, best of luck to you!!