Music is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #36 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 10 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for music students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 375 master's degrees in music during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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
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 complete 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.
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 Illinois.
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Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in music. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.
After graduation, music master's recipients generally earn around $21,290 at the beginning of their careers.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a great decision for students interested in a master's degree in music. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the music program report average early career income of $23,379.
DePaul University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in music. Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduation, music master's recipients usually earn about $26,615 in the first five years of their career.
Roosevelt University is a good choice for students interested in a master's degree in music. Located in the city of Chicago, Roosevelt is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
After graduating, music master's recipients generally make an average of $29,974 at the beginning of their careers.
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.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
