How to make a career out of audio?

Well, with college your possible degrees are mechanic engineering or electrical engineering, depending on your goals.

If you want to work in acoustics specifically look at Penn or UT Austin as a MechE majo, although you can do undergrad work at a number of places. (PM me for a contact at UTA if that is your thing)

If your into signal processing there are a number of good schools, or frankly, self teach based on information on the web as your mostly writing software in that case.

If you want to design amplifiers, quite honestly, any capable EE program will due, there isn't a lot of advancement in that field and that which does exist will likely occur in the signal processing fields.

Depends on what you mean by "audio."

Work on the recording, mixing, production side? There are programs tailored for that. One that pops to mind is the middle Tennessee state program.

Design amps? Design speakers? Work on advanced surround and/or signal processing theory and implementation? Design acoustical spaces... residential or commercial? Do installation work? Consultant?

These cover such a broad range, including electrical and mechanical engineering, possibly computer engineering, programming, and then there are i think some more focused acoustical engineering programs, or at least there were... and acoustics benefits from more in depth knowledge of physics than is often taught in applied engineering curricula, and the above also spans human psychology, architecture, interior design, business...

And there are some dedicated vocational/certification type programs if you want to work more on the installation side, though some also cover residential design...

Audio is a big field. What exactly is it that interests you, or that you imagine yourself doing?

Those are positions in audio production and installation, which are generally not well-paid or stable.

There are thousands of people with every kind of resume you can imagine, some pretty brilliant who would like to know the same thing. ;-)


Taking an oath of poverty is a good start, but paying off your college bills will make a money-grubber out of just about anybody.

Plan on selling out.

Sounds like youth talking. Trust me, it may not matter now; but not too far in the future you will need money... lots of it and having decided now that you don't need to "make to much" of it is a huge mistake.

You all would be shocked at what the average engineer or architect leaving school makes these days. It will take 10 years to pay off loans and work up the ladder to a decent paying job. Yes I'm in the business.

Think long and hard. Follow your passion but don't for get to make a living.

You might want to check out CEDIA's web site. They have many short term classes, starting out with basic boot camp for Home Theater installs and basic electrical practices, to name a few. Other classes designed to support your audio - video business. Might be just enough training for you to decide if you really want to make it a career without making any major commitments.