If you plan on getting your master's degree in music, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #36 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of music. Combined, these schools handed out 101 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Music Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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.
It is difficult to beat University of North Carolina at Greensboro if you want to pursue a master's degree in music. UNC Greensboro is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Greensboro.
Those music students who get their master's degree from University of North Carolina at Greensboro make $4,284 more than the typical music graduate.
It is difficult to beat University of North Carolina School of the Arts if you want to pursue a master's degree in music. UNCSA is a small public university located in the city of Winston Salem.
Master's students who receive their degree from the music program earn an average of $19,939 for their early career.
East Carolina University is a great option for students pursuing a master's degree in music. ECU is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Greenville.
Soon after graduating, music master's recipients usually make around $26,222 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.