Bachelor's degree · Visual and performing arts · CIP 50.09
Music: earnings and debt by college
The College Scorecard lists 968 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Music, together awarding 15,174 of these degrees in the most recent year. At the median institution, graduates who received federal aid earn $34,212 one year after finishing and $45,646 five years after finishing (two separate graduating classes). The median institution's graduates leave with $24,158 in federal student loans.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Compare Music programs on one chart
Pick any two measures. Hover a dot to see the college; click it to open the college's page.
Each dot is one institution's program; branch campuses share their institution's figures and appear as one dot. Dashed lines mark the median for all colleges. Showing 188 of 952; programs missing either value are left out (the Scorecard withholds figures for small programs).
Colleges with a bachelor's in Music
| Berklee College of Music Boston · Private nonprofit | MA | 746 | $25,558 | $39,912 | $25,000 |
| Full Sail University Winter Park · Private for-profit | FL | 281 | $33,026 | $42,140 | $31,000 |
| Los Angeles Film School Hollywood · Private for-profit | CA | 237 | $31,013 | n/a | $48,500 |
| University of North Texas Denton · Public | TX | 198 | $43,561 | $56,884 | $23,259 |
| Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro · Public | TN | 172 | $37,737 | $49,080 | $19,500 |
| Oberlin College Oberlin · Private nonprofit | OH | 160 | $22,671 | $40,937 | $27,000 |
| University of Rochester Rochester · Private nonprofit | NY | 143 | $18,388 | $29,966 | $27,000 |
| Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington · Public | IN | 133 | $34,546 | $47,629 | $19,500 |
| Belmont University Nashville · Private nonprofit | TN | 111 | $27,430 | $44,251 | $22,273 |
| California State University-Long Beach Long Beach · Public | CA | 108 | $23,094 | n/a | $18,624 |
| California State University-Northridge Northridge · Public | CA | 102 | $28,903 | $39,626 | $14,500 |
| The New School New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 101 | n/a | $39,742 | $23,103 |
| New York University New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 100 | $39,043 | $60,683 | $21,000 |
| Northwestern University Evanston · Private nonprofit | IL | 99 | $47,390 | $54,501 | $19,500 |
| The Juilliard School New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 99 | n/a | $37,262 | $19,500 |
| Liberty University Lynchburg · Private nonprofit | VA | 98 | $37,764 | $40,841 | $25,796 |
| University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver · Public | CO | 97 | $32,325 | $44,167 | $18,250 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor · Public | MI | 95 | $34,723 | $55,548 | $20,500 |
| The New England Conservatory of Music Boston · Private nonprofit | MA | 94 | $22,827 | n/a | $25,750 |
| Florida State University Tallahassee · Public | FL | 92 | $34,778 | $49,646 | $16,750 |
| Manhattan School of Music New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 85 | $16,652 | $29,379 | $27,000 |
| Johns Hopkins University Baltimore · Private nonprofit | MD | 82 | $25,851 | $55,928 | $20,500 |
| University of Southern California Los Angeles · Private nonprofit | CA | 81 | $31,854 | $32,781 | $18,987 |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe · Public | AZ | 80 | $37,949 | $40,831 | $17,500 |
| Rowan University Glassboro · Public | NJ | 79 | $36,284 | $55,017 | $23,250 |
| University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles · Public | CA | 79 | $29,315 | $56,459 | $13,000 |
| West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Chester · Public | PA | 78 | $39,511 | n/a | $26,639 |
| James Madison University Harrisonburg · Public | VA | 76 | $51,664 | $52,377 | $19,700 |
| University of Miami Coral Gables · Private nonprofit | FL | 76 | $19,843 | $40,368 | $14,250 |
| The University of Texas at Austin Austin · Public | TX | 74 | $44,568 | $57,472 | $23,000 |
| Stephen F Austin State University Nacogdoches · Public | TX | 69 | $52,588 | $53,060 | $25,053 |
| University of Houston Houston · Public | TX | 68 | n/a | $57,743 | $22,501 |
| California State University-Fullerton Fullerton · Public | CA | 67 | $25,043 | $46,473 | $27,000 |
| Texas State University San Marcos · Public | TX | 66 | $51,924 | $50,408 | $24,158 |
| University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati · Public | OH | 66 | $21,514 | n/a | $20,143 |
| Montclair State University Montclair · Public | NJ | 65 | $35,299 | $41,564 | $23,250 |
| San Diego State University San Diego · Public | CA | 65 | $25,783 | n/a | $19,500 |
| University of Iowa Iowa City · Public | IA | 63 | $43,865 | $50,329 | $27,000 |
| Ithaca College Ithaca · Private nonprofit | NY | 62 | n/a | $53,685 | $25,000 |
| Brigham Young University Provo · Private nonprofit | UT | 59 | $27,458 | $42,360 | $13,750 |
| Michigan State University East Lansing · Public | MI | 58 | $44,788 | $50,625 | $24,026 |
| University of California-Berkeley Berkeley · Public | CA | 58 | $49,985 | n/a | $8,141 |
| University of Colorado Boulder Boulder · Public | CO | 58 | $30,084 | $53,386 | $13,079 |
| Cleveland Institute of Music Cleveland · Private nonprofit | OH | 56 | $13,093 | $33,383 | $19,500 |
| Columbia College Chicago Chicago · Private nonprofit | IL | 56 | $25,208 | $39,117 | $25,000 |
| Lawrence University Appleton · Private nonprofit | WI | 56 | $34,245 | $40,782 | $27,000 |
| Sam Houston State University Huntsville · Public | TX | 56 | $58,677 | $55,190 | $25,000 |
| San Francisco Conservatory of Music San Francisco · Private nonprofit | CA | 56 | n/a | $35,150 | $27,000 |
| Temple University Philadelphia · Public | PA | 56 | $31,470 | $41,739 | $27,000 |
| Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City · Private nonprofit | OK | 55 | $26,090 | $39,448 | $24,250 |
Quick facts: Music
- How many colleges offer a bachelor's degree in Music?
- The College Scorecard lists 968 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Music.
- How much do Music graduates earn?
- Across institutions, the median of graduates' median earnings is $34,212 one year after graduation (210 institutions reporting) and $45,646 five years after graduation (250 institutions reporting). These figures cover graduates who received federal aid and are working and not enrolled in school. Branch campuses share their institution's figures, so each institution counts once.
- Where do Music graduates earn the most five years after graduation?
- By reported median earnings five years after graduation: University of Silicon Valley ($73,218), University of Redlands ($67,876), Carnegie Mellon University ($66,283), Northeastern University ($63,513), and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ($63,012).
- How much student debt do Music graduates have?
- The median institution's Music graduates leave with $24,158 in federal student loans (233 institutions reporting). Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Which colleges award the most Music degrees?
- By bachelor's degrees awarded in the most recent year: Berklee College of Music (746), Full Sail University (281), Los Angeles Film School (237), University of North Texas (198), and Middle Tennessee State University (172).
Related majors in visual and performing arts
How these numbers work
Figures cover bachelor's degree programs in Music (CIP code 50.09), as reported in the College Scorecard. Earnings are medians for graduates who received federal aid, measured one and five years after they finished, among those working and not enrolled in school; the one-year and five-year figures describe different graduating classes. Debt is the median federal loan balance at graduation. The Scorecard withholds figures for programs with few graduates, so many smaller programs show n/a. Summary figures are medians across institutions: the Scorecard reports program earnings and debt for a whole institution, so branch campuses share one figure and count once. All figures are from the Scorecard's most recent field-of-study release. More on the data.