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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Music Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 754 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 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.
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 the New England Region 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.
Boston University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in music. Boston U is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.More information about a master’s in music from Boston University
Berklee College of Music is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a master's degree in music. Located in the city of Boston, Berklee College of Music is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the music program make an average of $25,163 in their early career salary.
The New England Conservatory of Music is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in music. The New England Conservatory of Music is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Boston.
After graduating, music master's recipients usually make an average of $24,499 in their early careers.
It's hard to beat University of Hartford if you wish to pursue a master's degree in music. UHart is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of West Hartford.
Those music students who get their master's degree from University of Hartford earn $2,198 more than the typical music graduate.
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.