2025 Best Music Master's Degree Schools in Virginia

a master's degree in music is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #36 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Music Master's Degree Schools in Virginia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 101 master's degrees in music during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Music School for Your Master's Degree

The music master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality music program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to music students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of music students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt music students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized music related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for music students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The music school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Music Master's Degree Schools in Virginia.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Music in Virginia

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in music.

Top Virginia Schools for a Master's in Music

1

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

36 Annual Graduates

$39,909 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Liberty University if you want to pursue a master's degree in music. Located in the small city of Lynchburg, Liberty University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those music students who get their master's degree from Liberty University receive $2,420 more than the average music grad.

More information about a master’s in music from Liberty University

1

University of Virginia - Main Campus
Charlottesville, VA

4 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in music needs to look into University of Virginia - Main Campus. Located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in music from University of Virginia - Main Campus

2

Shenandoah University
Winchester, VA

13 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Shenandoah University if you want to pursue a master's degree in music. Shenandoah is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Winchester.More information about a master’s in music from Shenandoah University

3

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA

21 Annual Graduates

$35,070 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in music has to check out George Mason University. GMU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Fairfax.

Students who graduate with their master's from the music program report average early career wages of $35,070.

More information about a master’s in music from George Mason University

4

James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA

17 Annual Graduates

James Madison University is a good decision for students interested in a master's degree in music. JMU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Harrisonburg.More information about a master’s in music from James Madison University

6

Radford University
Radford, VA

4 Annual Graduates

Radford is a moderately-sized public university located in the town of Radford.More information about a master’s in music from Radford University

Best Music Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Music Colleges in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	194
Georgia	190	93
North Carolina	178	88
Tennessee	166	92
Alabama	151	26
Louisiana	147	87
Kentucky	147	49
South Carolina	146	28
Mississippi	145	54
Arkansas	121	44
West Virginia	112	16

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Music

Music is one of 10 different types of Visual & Performing Arts programs to choose from.

Music Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Music Pedagogy	33
General Music	30
Music Performance	30
Musicology & Ethnomusicology	6
Music Theory & Composition	2

Majors Similar to Music

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Design & Applied Arts	108
Drama & Theater Arts	96
Arts & Media Management	50
Fine & Studio Arts	41
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	40
Dance	9
General Visual & Performing Arts	9

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.