This article is reprinted with permission from "Yuma University", the author Xiaoxin classmate
This past period, a large number of new students have poured into the university campus.
When the new college students in the entertainment industry went to the school to report, and the relevant news was successively on the hot search, there was originally nothing about Duan Aojuan.
Until Duan Aojuan's studio was caught off guard by releasing a video revealing that Duan Aojuan had received an offer from the Berkeley Conservatory of Music in the United States.
The opportunity for celebrities to further their studies is something to be congratulated for, but when it comes to Duan Aojuan, there are many cynical voices uncharacteristically.
This is because, not long ago, Duan Aojuan was still struggling in the quagmire of "falling off the list in the middle of the drama and abandoning the examination in the middle". The former Rocket Girl 101 member is already an "older player" in the art exam world, and the 21-year-old gave up the college entrance examination for three consecutive years.
Some people pull out the past of Duan Aojuan's study in a vocational school, and make associations: What good school can a person who graduated from a vocational school and participated in the art examination in China and did not receive systematic music education?
Applying to be the Berkeley Conservatory of Music, no SAT score is required, the IELTS score requirements are low, the admission rate is high, and a series of signs seem to support the doubts of netizens.
On the school's official website, the lower threshold of application conditions and high tuition fees complement each other, and various associations follow.
The berkeley School of Music official website shows tuition levels
For a time, "spend money to go to school", "pheasant university", "American college" and other remarks around the Berklee College of Music were tit-for-tat.
Netizen controversy
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In recent years, the name Berkeley College of Music has often appeared at the same time as the artists we are familiar with.
Whether it is Wang Lihong, whose works once swept the streets and alleys, Yu Wenwen, who is deeply tied to the song "Decent", or Ouyang Nana, Wang Yuan, Liu Xianhua, Qian Zhenghao, Xilin Nayi Gao of the new generation... They all share a common identity: Berkeley College of Music alumni.
So many popular artists have rushed to the same place on the other side of the ocean to study, and if they return to China to hold a gathering of Chinese artists and alumni of the Berkeley Conservatory of Music, a mahjong table will not be able to sit down.
Zhang Jie, who already has a certain degree of popularity after his debut in the draft, in order to improve his singing level, once ran to the Berklee College of Music for further study at his own expense. The year after returning to China, Zhang Jie participated in the program "I Am a Singer" and ranked among the top five.
Zhang Jie. /"I Am a Singer"
Although it cannot be said that this training directly led to Zhang Jie's surprise performance in "I Am a Singer", passers-by at that time generally believed that Zhang Jie had a new breakthrough in the style and stage after returning from the United States.
However, in the online environment at that time, non-music professionals were still very unfamiliar with the Berkeley School of Music. This distant institution began to appear frequently in the field of vision of the melon-eating masses in China, and it was inseparable from the credit of Ouyang Nana and Wang Yuan.
Ouyang Nana once single-handedly brought fire to Vlog, a way of recording life in video. A few years ago, her Vlog was also centered around her daily life during her studies at the Berkeley School of Music.
In Ouyang Nana's Vlog, you can see the classroom reality of Berkeley College of Music, the campus scene, how the PPT of student work is, the communication process between professors and students, some subjects and preparation for the final exam...
Ouyang Nana's Vlog. /Screenshot of Weibo
As one of the members of TFBOYS, Wang Yuan's academic every move is even more eye-catching. His trip to the Berkeley Conservatory of Music, from attending an interview, being accepted, starting school to denying going through the back door, has invariably become a hot search term.
Each hot search made the onlookers familiar with the Berklee College of Music for a few more minutes. Immediately after that, the news that the internal entertainment students and flowers have been admitted to this school has become more and more frequent.
Duan Aojuan said that she got an offer from the Berklee College of Music at the beginning of this year, but considering other factors, she thought that studying at a university in China was a better choice, so she took this year's domestic art exam, but fate made her finally choose to go to berkeley Conservatory of Music to study.
Duan Aojuan claimed that she had not studied music systematically. /Weibo @ Duan Aojuan Studio
People who are upset about Duan Aojuan feel that Duan Aojuan is originally better at music, and her being brushed in the middle drama examination does not mean that she cannot be admitted to a good conservatory.
So, it's curious, what kind of school is Berkeley College of Music?
Which Berkeley are you?
Wait, doesn't Berkeley often appear with keywords like the Nobel Prize? How did it become a school full of entertainers?
Laughing to death, the two can not be the same day at all.
The mass-produced Nobel Laureate berkeley refers to the University of California, Berkeley, a public university known worldwide in academia, located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the West Coast of the United States, and the Berkeley Conservatory of Music is a private art college on the East Coast.
Stop asking UC Berkeley if they know Nana Ouyang. /Tiger Poker screenshot
Perhaps their English names are more distinguishable from each other, the academic berkeley is Berkeley, and the music hall Berkeley is Berklee.
Just how world-class UC Berkeley really is, you can see from the rankings. In 2021, it ranked U.S. News is ranked 4th in the World University Rankings and 5th in the Academic Rankings of Soft World Universities.
If you only look at the rankings of mainstream universities, the Berkeley School of Music simply does not dare to say a word.
In the 2021 QS World University Rankings by Performing Arts subjects, the top two are still the Immovable Juilliard School of Music in the United States and the Royal College of Music in the United Kingdom. Ouyang Nana was admitted to the Curtis Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship and later dropped out, ranking 26th.
However, until you finish the Top 50 list, you still can't find the Berkeley Conservatory of Music.
Berkeley Conservatory of Music.
On the one hand, the Berkeley School of Music has no such school at the top of the mainstream charts, and on the other hand, its alumni have repeatedly contracted well-known music awards.
According to 2019 media reports, Berkeley School of Music alumni have won 283 Grammy Awards, 89 Latin Grammy Awards, 5 Oscars, and 19 Emmy Awards. [1]
If you take 2019 as the deadline, in the 74 years since its birth, an average of at least 3 alumni have won the Grammy Honors every year.
In contrast, how many graduates of China Opera and North Film can win the "three gold" trophies every year?
The Reason why the Berkeley School of Music cannot make the most of the mainstream charts is that the evaluation indicators of such charts as U.S. News and QS are biased towards classical music, while the Berkeley School of Music mainly cultivates popular music talents.
In the chain of contempt in the music world, classical music stands at the top, followed by jazz, rock, and then pop.
Zang Hongfei talks about the chain of contempt in the music industry. /"Spit Conference"
Obviously, in the face of this set of evaluation rules, the Berkeley Conservatory of Music does not have an advantage. But in the field of pop music, it is a well-deserved top school.
Among the world's top music schools announced by The Hollywood Reporter in 2013, The Berkeley School of Music topped the list with its unique professional curriculum and dazzling achievements in the Grammys, Emmys and Academy Awards. [2]
This time, traditionally established conservatories such as the Juilliard School of Music have made way for it.
So, those who look down on idols and denigrate the Berkeley School of Music really don't have to be so rash.
Do elite schools produce high-quality artists?
I don't know when it began, those artists who debuted at a young age, the path to study became narrow and single, and it can even be said that there is no suspense.
Regardless of whether they really desire to precipitate and accumulate in their hearts, under the close attention and expectation of the outside world, it is natural to participate in the art examinations of those well-known art colleges at the right age, just like ordinary people of the right age are urged to go on blind dates.
However, those artists who run out of school at both ends of the three days to attend events, shoot advertising magazines, and piece together in the intensive itinerary to find time to study and take exams, how much time can be spent on polishing their profession in 4 years?
We certainly acknowledge the plausibility of "play hard, work hard" .
You see Ouyang Nana went to the Victoria's Secret show during college, took the train back to school at four or five o'clock in the morning, slept for two hours and got up to go to class, it is undeniable that she is really hard and hard enough, but how likely is it that she is in a better state in the classroom than in the Victoria's Secret show?
Ouyang Nana, who was ready to go to class after participating in the Victoria's Secret Show. /Screenshot of Weibo
Several other artists enrolled at the Berkeley School of Music maintained a certain frequency of exposure, although the number of works and commercial activities decreased during college.
For them, this is equivalent to coming out of their spare time to take a part-time job. To make these artists who have accumulated a certain amount of fame and resources completely return to campus, it is a difficult thing for them and the agency.
Don't say let them go back to campus, those art test takers who are still lonely and unknown in school, many of them can't wait to see the lively entertainment industry.
Liu Tianchi, a teacher in the Department of Chinese Opera Performance, sighed in an interview that now the students of the Acting Academy, in their freshman year, want to take time off to go out to shoot dramas in various ways, and their parents and agencies have helped to come up with ideas, and this kind of restlessness is particularly strong. [3]
Liu Tianchi. /"I'm an Actor"
Students admitted to Colleges and Universities such as Chinese Opera, North Film, and Berkeley have the best educational resources for performance, drama, music and other art types, but what can they represent?
There are still people who bear these glorious academic titles, poison the screen with embarrassing acting skills, and bad singing skills.
However, you don't have to be indignant about this, and the work ability of graduates of elite universities is not necessarily the best of all candidates.
This truth is well known in all walks of life.
Resources:
[1] The Berkeley School of Music proposes to establish the Future Music Center/Southern Daily in Qianhai
[2] Humanities As a Professional Course "Equal Partner": Research on the Humanities Curriculum of The Berkeley College of Music / Binyu Lu, Shengjian Guo
[3] In order to make the actor's species no longer fission, she finally came to the front of the curtain/Daily People
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