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2024 Best Jazz Studies Schools

48 Colleges in the United States
519 Jazz Degrees Awarded
A degree in jazz studies is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #544 out of 1506 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

College Factual looked at 48 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Jazz Studies Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 519 degrees in jazz studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

Choosing a Great Jazz Studies School

Best Jazz Studies Schools The jazz program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Jazz Studies rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for jazz studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Pick Your Jazz Studies Degree Level

Bachelor's Degrees in Jazz
Master's Degrees in Jazz
Doctor's Degrees in Jazz

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Jazz Studies Schools list to help you make the college decision. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.

Best Schools for Jazz Studies in the United States

The schools below may not offer all types of jazz degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.

10 Top Schools in Jazz

1
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
6th Most Popular In IL
50.0% Growth in Graduates

Northwestern University is a good decision for students pursuing a degree in jazz studies. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.

There were about 4 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from Northwestern University

2
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In CA

University of Southern California is a wonderful option for students interested in a degree in jazz studies. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.

There were approximately 13 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from University of Southern California

3
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
2nd Most Popular In TX

The University of Texas at Austin is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in jazz studies. Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #36 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UT Austin is a great university overall.

There were roughly 4 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from The University of Texas at Austin

4
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

Any student pursuing a degree in jazz studies needs to check out Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Nashville. A Best Colleges rank of #19 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Vanderbilt is a great university overall.More information about a degree in jazz studies from Vanderbilt University

5
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
3rd Most Popular In MI
50.0% Growth in Graduates

U-M is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.

There were roughly 2 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

6
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
2nd Most Popular In NY

Located in the city of New York, Juilliard is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly small student population.

There were about 10 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at Juilliard in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from The Juilliard School

7
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In MI

Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #74 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.

There were approximately 11 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from Michigan State University

8
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
4th Most Popular In CA
66.7% Growth in Graduates

Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #26 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCLA is a great university overall.

There were approximately 12 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from University of California - Los Angeles

9
Oberlin crest
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In OH
31.3% Growth in Graduates

Located in the town of Oberlin, Oberlin is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. This college ranks 8th out of 96 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.

There were approximately 16 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at Oberlin in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from Oberlin College

10
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
3rd Most Popular In IL

Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.

There were approximately 3 jazz studies students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in jazz studies from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jazz Studies by Region

View the Best Jazz Studies Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

One of 17 majors within the Music area of study, Jazz Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related MajorAnnual Graduates
General Music11,168
Music Performance7,281
Music Technology1,673
Music Theory & Composition1,194
Other Music1,127
Voice Performance668
Stringed Instruments553
Keyboard Instruments476
Music Pedagogy377
Music History197

View All Jazz Related Majors >

Notes and References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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