Berklee Lingo

As a Berklee family member, you are transitioning to the Berklee community just like your student. However, unlike your student, you don't have the experience of being on campus every day to become familiar with the Berklee lingo that your student is quickly learning and using. The New Student and Family Programs team seeks to make this transition easier by giving you a crash course in the Berklee lingo to help you navigate this transition. Like many institutions, Berklee uses a variety of acronyms and other shorthand for referring to its many buildings, programs, and entities. This list may prove helpful in navigating them. To see a list of other terms that are common in higher education, check out this page.

Buildings and Locations

As a Berklee family member, it can feel like another world when you hear your student talking about different locations and buildings around campus. At Berklee, we don't refer to any of our buildings or locations with street names; typically we refer to them by street number only. These are some of the common locations around campus that you will hear from your student and different offices for when we welcome you to campus for move-in, Family Orientation, Family Weekend, and so on. Many of the offices around campus are featured in the interactive map of campus. We encourage you to check out this resource when looking for different locations on campus in preparation for your visit.

Buildings and Locations

8TF: 8 Fenway, the Conservatory's main building

18: the classrooms at 18 St. Cecilia’s Street

24F, 26F, 32F, 40F, 54F: Fenway's brownstone residence halls

98: the residence hall at 98 Hemenway Street

150: the residence hall and classrooms at 150 Massachusetts Avenue

12: the residence hall at 12 Hemenway Street

160: the residence and dining halls at 160 Massachusetts Avenue

921: 921 Boylston Street, the Genko Uchida building

939: Cafe 939, the Berklee-owned and student-operated performance venue

1108: the classrooms at 1108 Boylston Street

1140: the administrative building and classrooms at 1140 Boylston Street

Allston: the Boston neighborhood that’s adjacent to Fenway and encompasses the Fordham Road practice facility and some of Harvard University’s classroom buildings, and where many students live

Back Bay: the Boston neighborhood in which Berklee’s Boston campus resides, encompassing Newbury Street, the Hynes Convention Center, the Boston Public Library, and the Fens

BPC: Berklee Performance Center

BSO: Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Caf: the dining facility in the 160 Massachusetts Avenue residence hall

Comm Ave: Commonwealth Avenue

The Docks: the docks along the Esplanade

DFRH: David Friend Recital Hall

The Esplanade: the stretch of public park along the Boston side of the Charles River

The Fens: a public park near Berklee’s Boston campus, past 1140 Boylston Street

Fenway: can refer to Fenway Stadium, where Boston’s baseball team, the Red Sox, plays, or the Boston neighborhood encompassing Fenway Stadium, the Fenway MBTA station, and the Museum of Fine Arts

Fordham: the Fordham Road practice facility owned and operated by Berklee for student use, located at 25 Fordham Road

Hynes: can refer to either the Hynes Convention Center MBTA station on Massachusetts Avenue or the Hynes Convention Center located on Boylston Street

Mass Ave: Massachusetts Avenue

MFA: the Museum of Fine Arts, located in the Fenway neighborhood

The Pru: the Prudential Center, a shopping mall on Boylston Street next to the Hynes Convention Center

The Red Room: the performance venue located in Cafe 939

Departments and Programs

At Berklee, there are a variety of departments, programs, and offices that are referred to with acronyms or shortened names. We've listed some of the most common departments and programs below. As a Berklee family member, you may interact with these offices in order to help support your student. We encourage you to check our department directory if you wish to learn more about specific offices and how to get into touch with them.

Departments and Programs

Berklee: comprises Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Berklee Online, and Berklee College of Music's campus in Valencia, Spain, and refers to the overarching organization of students, faculty, and staff from all of these individual schools

Caf Shows: late-night musical performances that take place in the Berklee Dining Hall on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights during each semester, and that staff or students select, market, and produce

Campus Life: refers to the Center for Campus Life, comprising the Office of Student Involvement and the Office of New Student and Family Programs (NSFP), which seeks to enhance the collegiate experience by offering an array of student resources and services, including discounts to local cultural attractions and opportunities to get involved in extracurricular activities

Five-Week: Berklee’s summer program for middle and high school students

BSI: refers to the Black Scholars Initiative, which is a campus organization for entering Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee students who identify as Black or African American; provides a pre-orientation program, mentoring and advising, and programs and events

CSCR: refers to the Office of Community Standards and Conflict Resolution, which seeks to promote a campus culture that supports a student’s academic and artistic goals while ensuring that the Berklee community is a safe community in which to live, learn, and thrive

H&W: refers to the office of Health and Wellness, which seeks to foster a lifelong ethic of care so that students may thrive during and after their time at Berklee; to affirm students’ personal and social identities and experiences; and to create safe, compassionate, healing, inclusive spaces that inspire learning, positive growth, and global citizenship; offers programs and services through two separate areas that support all aspects of students' wellbeing and growth: Counseling Services and Student Wellness Promotion and Services, and Survivor Advocacy Services

Miscellaneous

There are a variety of other acronyms that you'll hear from your student and various campus resources that do not fit into a neat category. These can be programs that your student takes part in, alerts that they get via phone and email, even the names of assessments they take prior to attending Berklee. Don't see an acronym on our page? Feel free to email us at families@berklee.edu, and we'll be happy to provide more context.

Miscellaneous

BENS: Berklee Emergency Notification System

Berklee Hub: a notifications system that alerts users about new announcements and events

ESPA: Entering Student Proficiency Assessment (mandatory)

MTECH: refers to the assessment for Introduction to Music Technology (mandatory)

I-20: the certificate of eligibility issued by Berklee to international students, which consists of three pages: the student information page, the endorsement page, and the instructions page

LENS: a first-year seminar course for incoming students

OL: orientation leader

CC: community connector

RA: resident assistant

SAFO: the student acknowledgement of financial and other obligations

SAM: student advising mentor

SGA: Student Government Association

T: Boston’s subway system, part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, known as the MBTA

TOEFL: test of English as a foreign language