It depends what you want to do, wich you dont know when your in HS. Im 30 and there are people im around who still dont know what they want to do.
Do you want to be an
FOH engineer? Do
system design?
Then get the electrical engineering degree, classes in
acoustics, music theory and learn how to
play an
instrument.
Dont waste your time on a
theatre degree, espescially in the audio world.
Do you want to be a designer in the theatrical sense? Your really going to do a lot of post production audio work. Basically studio work.
If that is the case look at schools with
theatre programs that do big musicals and big shows, I would do what i said before but sub the enginering degree for a
theatre degree and take the engineering classes and all the other stuff I me tioned, in my opinion go to school in California. That is where that industry is. After being done with school look at working post production on film, commercials, video games
etc. A friend of mine interviewed at
Cal Arts a few years ago and all their grads from the
theatre department go into those industries in california after graduation.
Begin to research how diverse "audio" is in the entertainment industry is. As well looking at all the different avenues you could go. Look into non traditional avenues for education like
Stage Craft Institue of Las Vegas or dare I say it the dreded Full Sail.
I would also recomend trying to contact people in the industry who are working in theatrs , studios , production houses
etc to talk to them about their background.
Keep in mind and audio designer needs to understand ectrical theory and
acoustics and all that stuff as well all the artsy stuff is important when making aesthetic decisions when doing their audio design for Hair Spray.
The
FOH engineer as well needs to know all that stuf if him/her is mixing Linkin
Park.