Brevard College

Date: May 01 2006
Major: Music - Composition/Theory (This Major's Salary over time)
Brevard has definitely been a negative experience for me. Aside from the fact that I have made lifelong friends, my mental well-being has decreased significantly since attending this college. Starting out, DO NOT become a music major at Brevard. I did that my first semester, and it was the worst mistake I ever made. The expectations for the music program are highly unrealistic. Most of your classes will be 0-1 credits, and the reward you get is not worth your time. Unless you are a hardcore band advocate, the music major is a bad idea. I felt really left out a lot, since I have always hated band. In fact, a lot of the other music majors would react with hostility if I so much as complained about the workload. My private lessons were great, but by the end of the semester, I ended up hating my instrument and giving it up for good. Also, symphonic winds is possibly the most boring band to be in. The class meets twice a week for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and the instructor is relentless about playing to the last second of that time block. A lot of my creativity was ruined when I had to learn how to play the way my instructors wanted me to. Aside from the music major, there is also too much of a high-school atmosphere around here. If you grew up in a rural town and are sheltered, you might really like Brevard. However, for a city girl like me, it drives me nuts. I thought I would like the teacher attention, but it ended up really annoying me. Teachers will really try to pry into your private life. Plus, the faculty get so bored here that they like to stalk around and spy on students. It's very difficult to live a college life here, since RA's roam the halls 24/7 looking for drinkers and smokers. Almost everyone I know who drinks regularly has been caught. The cafeteria food is another issue. Expect to eat chicken sandwiches at least 3 times a week… and there will be chicken every single day… and the chefs DO NOT know how to cook meat. It's always overcooked and dry. Sometimes I think that they go out of their way to make sure the food is nasty. Once, they made this concoction called "Mexican Lasagna" that made a lot of my friends really sick. (thank god I didn't try it) The social life at Brevard is terrible, too. The city itself is really boring. There are hardly any restaurants to eat at, and the only places that stay open past 5 pm are Ingles and Huddle House. There are plenty of outdoorsy things to do, like hiking, but if you like clubbing or nightlife, you'll only find a couple of homosexual clubs in Asheville. There are a lot of cliques at Brevard, since it is like a college version of high school. You have the music dorks, the paranormal research society kids, the baseball kids, the druggies, the very few black people, the softball girls, the really fat people, etc. I had to switch groups several times out of the year to avoid monotony. The freshman dorms are another downside to Brevard. (Beam) There is no air conditioning, which really sucks when it starts getting hot in the spring. I woke up drenched in sweat several times. Plus, the floors are incredibly dirty and marked up. There is also a problem with the fire alarms. In the past few weeks, I've been awakened several times by middle-of-the-night fire alarms. They had one at 3 a.m. on a school night, all because one student took a shower in the community bathroom. Furthermore, some of the students here aren't very bright, so don't expect a very academic atmosphere. There's even an autistic kid on campus. Most of my friends regularly skip classes, which isn't good, since the faculty lower your grade every time you miss a class. All in all, you won't get a good grasp on the real world at Brevard. However, it really works out for some people. I'm trying out another year at Brevard as a business major to see if it gets any better. Good luck to you all.