Pulse College Dublin - Worth travelling for?

TomfromAus

Hi there,

My name is Tom. I'm a 21 year old from Australia currently in my second and final year studying sound engineering here in Melbourne.

I have been researching the BA Honors in Music Production at Pulse College in Dublin. From what I've seen online it seems a like a great place to study and seems to go more in depth with engineering and producing than what is on offer in my course.

I've learnt a lot in my current engineers course, but with one semester to go it feels like they've stopped teaching us anything new and now it's just a push through simple arbitrary assignments. I feel like there's still much more to learn in production, and Pulse looks like it offers a more intense and hands on course that will teach me more in the craft and help me find professional work.

Now I just want to find out if it would be worth moving all the way to Ireland to attend the BA for 3 years. Pulse have told me they do have quite a few international students studying at the moment.
From what I've read online in various old blogs, like with every university, people have had positive and negative experiences with Pulse.
There's only so much you can learn from a marketing campaign, so I was hoping to get in touch with anyone who is/has studied the Music Production course and to hear about their experiences at the College, positive and negative. What they learned, opportunities for work after graduating, if the hefty course fees were worth what you got out of the course etc.

At face value, Pulse looks like it would open the doors to more opportunities in the industry internationally level than what is on offer here in Australia. But some feedback would be great from anyone that has had proper experience in the course.

Thank you for your time.

alkaliy2s

Hi Tom,

I have just finished the BA in music production in Pulse College. It really was worth my time and money. Before starting the course I already had some knowledge in music and in production but the course really fine tuned my skills. Each year I learned something different, especially in the last two years.

The course is very hands on (excellent studios) but it also academic (it is a high level degree with thesis in year 3).

I think because you have already knowledge in sound engineering, you will breeze past the first year. In year two and there, you will start learning about music composition, psychology of music, studio design, professional practice, business of digital media, thesis. I would recommend checking out the course content for more. Some of my favourite subjects in the course were the ones I didn't think I would like!

For me, music is something I was very passionate about so doing this course was a no-brainer. In my opinion, there are definitely way more positives than negatives about the course.

I can take a lot of positives from my experiences there, meeting new friends and learning from one another, recording in the studio, the music environment in the college (doesn't feel like class, a lot of the days are spent learning about the consoles, outboard gear, master classes with industry professionals), the tutors are all very approachable as well as being top professionals, and of course learning new things each day.

I can definitely understand your position, moving to another country and paying the course fee seems daunting, but the way I see it is, if you're very passionate about music and you want to get something out of it, its most definitely worth it. Also, Dublin is an amazing city!

I am now working with a video game company as their in-house composer and have also worked on two feature films this year along with three other video games.

If you would like to PM me to ask me anything about the course and about my time there, please do.

Kind regards,

Scott