Forums weren't letting me reply for some reason
'Structured learning' doesnt have to cost you 80 grand though. The way I look at school (for audio) is just as another platform for learning. They can set a really good foundation for you but regardless of how expensive/prestigious the school is; the bottom line is that if you don't take what you learn there and expand and learn more on your own time you will be downright f*&%ed. Any 'reputable' school between 20-80k(although keep in mind even some over 20K are garbage) is going to lay enough of a foundation down for you to learn enough on your own time.
The best thing about Berklee(i think this is true) is that they teach you everything on hardware first before you learn anything on software. Which, after using both, I agree would make learning software way easier if you were to do hardware first. But this is what you are paying for. My school is 60
THOUSAND dollars less than Berklee and I love it. We only have 1 actual studio HARDWARE class a week, but classes are small and we can book as much extra studio time/sit on on sessions as we want so technically our studio access is still 24/7.
Another thing I need to point out is that you said "and I know going to school isn't going to make me the next Kanye or anything" this right here is a red flag for me. The fact you are even associating audio engineering school with what kanye does hints to me that you don't really know what you're getting yourself into. I see sooooooo many guys join
engineering school because they want to make music or be a rapper. Sure you learn aspects of producing, but you are going to be an
engineer. EXPECT to do a lot of editing, digital signal processing, etc- stuff that you haven't even thought of before or would have never even began or thought to start learning on your own because you would have never thought it to be relevant to what YOU want to do. Don't just realize that school won't turn you into next Kanye, UNDERSTAND that that's NOT what school is even for and if thats solely what you want you ARE taking the wrong and too expensive path. You will essentially be paying 80 grand to learn how to process your own songs which honestly isn't really gonna get you anywhere unless you already had some sort of prodigy rapping/producing ability.
With all that being said, as long as you KNOW why you are going (the reality of why, not the why YOU want to go) and you are going to commit to being an engineer, NOT a producer (at first anyway) then you won't regret it assuming money is no issue. But I have a feeling you don't really understand what you're gonna be going to school for.
And one more thing, I'm Pro School for engineering because although 80% of the studying is done on your own, like I've already mentioned here, school is great for teaching you WHAT to study on your own and setting a foundation. If I wasn't introduced to all this stuff by school I would have been completely lost and wouldnt have known what to study in the first place. Sure I could have lurked online and figured it all out through random discoveries over a couple years or so. Instead I was able to get a grasp on the basics (so far, only one semester in) in less than 3 months. We just finished our "mixing, Software, in the box" semester and now we are moving on to more hardware recording next semester.
Bottom line in my opinion is that school is only a foundation, they aren't gonna teach you everything there is to know because thats impossible in the time you're there. Most of the learning will and HAS TO BE done on your own. So, considering that I would NOT pay 80 grand to goto school for audio because a 20 thousand dollar school(a good 20k one!, research is up to you not me, I did my research on canadian schools not american) is going to set you on the same path as an 80 thousand dollar school. In the end how far you go is 100% up to you, but choosing Berklee just throws an addition 60 thousand bucks on something that essentially you are going to be doing all the work for.
The connections/discussions/foundation are WHY you goto school for audio. I personally believe the cost of your school doesnt matter as long as they know what they're talking about. How much you learn is up to you not how good your school is. I know the governments paying and everything but I'm
Canadian and have no idea what you're talking about with GI so I'm just treating it as money regardless of who's paying. Im sure its not just a 'free' 80k.
Ps-The dropout rate at berkley and ALL audio schools is high because people don't know what they're getting into. They join for the 'kanye' reason I mentioned above, then quit for the same reason I mentioned above. You don't go to become 'kanye'. You are going to become the dude who makes kanye sound like kanye, and nobody knows his name. Nobody cares what his name is. Honestly, most people don't even know he has a job
haha
Yah 99% of people who talk about this don't know wtf they're talking about.