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.
College Factual looked at 27 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Music Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,245 master's degrees in music to qualified students.
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 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.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Music Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.
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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 best 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 small city of Evanston.
After graduation, music master's recipients typically make an average of $21,290 in the first five years of their career.
It's hard to beat University of Michigan - Ann Arbor if you wish to pursue a master's degree in music. U-M is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor.
Master's students who receive their degree from the music program make about $16,971 in their early career salary.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in music has to take a look at Michigan State University. Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the music degree program at Michigan State University earn $12,878 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in music needs to take a look at Indiana University - Bloomington. IU Bloomington is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Bloomington.
After graduating, music master's recipients typically make an average of $22,513 at the beginning of their careers.
BGSU is a large public university located in the fringe town of Bowling Green.
Music master's degree recipients from Bowling Green State University - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $4,880 above the typical income of music graduates.
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:
