2025 Best Music Bachelor's Degree Schools
Music is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #34 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 356 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of music. Combined, these schools handed out 15,545 bachelor's degrees in music to qualified students.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
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Featured Music Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
MBA in Music Business
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Learn More
Choosing a Great Music School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The music bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on music students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of music students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How much debt music students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 schools for music students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Music Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Music Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Featured Music Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
MBA in Music Business
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Learn More
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Music in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in music. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
25 Top Schools for a Bachelor's in Music
Northwestern University is a good option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in music. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Music bachelor's degree recipients from Northwestern University earn a boost of about $6,733 above the typical earnings of music graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in music from Northwestern University
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in music has to check out University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the music program report average early career income of $22,272.
More information about a bachelor’s in music from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in music needs to look into Vanderbilt University. Located in the large city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in music from Vanderbilt University
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in music has to check out University of Southern California. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the music program state that they receive average early career earnings of $12,947.
More information about a bachelor’s in music from University of Southern California
NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the music program state that they receive average early career wages of $24,398.
More information about a bachelor’s in music from New York University
