a master's degree in music is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #36 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Iowa to determine which ones were the best for music students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 29 master's degrees in music during the 2020-2021 academic year.
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on music students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other music students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for music to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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 the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Music Master's Degree Schools in Iowa list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Featured Music Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
University of Iowa is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in music. Located in the city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the music program make around $25,587 in the first couple years of working.
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.