Ranked #116 in popularity, music performance is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Music Performance Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 284 degrees in music performance annually.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Your choice of music performance school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for music performance 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Music Performance Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the music performance degrees they offer, see the list below.
It's difficult to beat Northwestern University if you want to pursue a degree in music performance. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were roughly 40 music performance students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a good decision for students interested in a degree in music performance. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 21 music performance students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
It's difficult to beat DePaul University if you wish to pursue a degree in music performance. Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #135 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.
There were approximately 65 music performance students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in music performance needs to check out Wheaton College Illinois. Wheaton College Illinois is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Wheaton. This college ranks 13th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 11 music performance students who graduated with this degree at Wheaton College Illinois in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Chicago, Roosevelt is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 24th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 6 music performance students who graduated with this degree at Roosevelt in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #210 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Illinois State is a great university overall.
There were about 20 music performance students who graduated with this degree at Illinois State in the most recent year we have data available.
Millikin is a small private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Decatur. This university ranks 40th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 12 music performance students who graduated with this degree at Millikin in the most recent year we have data available.
NIU is a large public university located in the suburb of Dekalb. This university ranks 20th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 72 music performance students who graduated with this degree at NIU in the most recent data year.
WIU is a moderately-sized public university located in the remote town of Macomb. This university ranks 37th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 19 music performance students who graduated with this degree at WIU in the most recent year we have data available.
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).
Your choice of music performance school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for music performance schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
