2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Music Theory & Composition in Illinois

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

In 2020-2021, 1,175 people earned their degree in music theory and composition, making the major the 390th most popular in the United States.

Across Illinois, there were 25 music theory and composition graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 4 music theory and composition graduates with average earnings and debt of $59,317 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in music theory and composition. That schools that top this list have a program in music theory and composition in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois”.

Top 3 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Music Theory & Composition in Illinois

1

Roosevelt University
Chicago, Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Roosevelt University. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this small private not-for-profit school awarded 2 degrees to qualified masters’s music composition students in 2020-2021.

Read more about Music Theory & Composition at Roosevelt

2

DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois

#7 overall quality in Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend DePaul University. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois. DePaul University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a large population, and it awarded 1 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 3.7% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full DePaul University Music Theory & Composition Report

3

Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois

#1 overall quality in Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northwestern University. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Music Composition Major in Illinois. Located in Evanston, Illinois, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 1 degrees to qualified masters’s music composition students in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 97%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Read full report on Music Theory & Composition at Northwestern

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Music Theory & Composition in the Great Lakes Region
• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Music Theory & Composition

Notes and References

References

• 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 our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.