
[Music Performance](/majors/visual-and-performing-arts/music/music-performance/) degree programs vary widely in price and payoff across the country. A high-value program keeps cost low while graduates go on to earn well.
To produce this 2026 ranking, College Factual evaluated 2 schools on the balance of cost and outcomes for music performance students.
What’s on this page:
If you want to know which schools deliver the best value for the music performance degrees they offer, see the list below.
University Of New Mexico Main Campus earned the #1 spot for value among music performance schools in New Mexico. University Of New Mexico Main Campus is a very large public school located in the city of Albuquerque. The average in-state cost of tuition and fees is $10,140, compared with $33,060 for out-of-state students. Typical student debt for music performance graduates is $19,738. Early-career music performance graduates make about $49,983. Set against $19,738 in median debt, that is a healthy payoff. The acceptance rate is 95%.
More Music Performance Rankings
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Notes and References
This ranking is produced by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. Schools are scored on the balance of cost (tuition and student debt) against student outcomes (post-graduation earnings) — a measure of return on investment, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Best Value · 2 schools evaluated.
*Averages shown above reflect the top 1 ranked schools only.
- 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 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.