Music is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #43 most popular degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 54 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Music Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,842 degrees in music annually.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Your choice of music school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Music School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
The music school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Music Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the music degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It's hard to beat Northwestern University if you want to pursue a degree in music. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were approximately 170 music students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the music program make an average of $27,637 for their early career.
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in music. U-M is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor. A Best Colleges rank of #22 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were about 185 music students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the music program report average early career earnings of $20,262.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Every student who is interested in music has to look into Michigan State University. Located in the small city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #54 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 165 music students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent year we have data available. Music degree recipients from Michigan State University receive an earnings boost of about $11,351 over the typical income of music graduates.
Any student who is interested in music needs to check out Indiana University - Bloomington. IU Bloomington is a very large public university located in the city of Bloomington. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were about 389 music students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the music program report average early career earnings of $26,635.
Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Notre Dame is a great university overall.
There were roughly 8 music students who graduated with this degree at Notre Dame in the most recent year we have data available.
UC is a very large public university located in the city of Cincinnati. A Best Colleges rank of #137 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 219 music students who graduated with this degree at UC in the most recent data year. After graduation, music degree recipients generally make about $24,077 in their early careers.
Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 132 music students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the music program earn about $22,810 for their early career.
Located in the fringe town of Oberlin, Oberlin is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. This college ranks 17th out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 140 music students who graduated with this degree at Oberlin in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the music program state that they receive average early career income of $17,141.
Ohio State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Columbus. A Best Colleges rank of #70 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Ohio State is a great university overall.
There were about 70 music students who graduated with this degree at Ohio State in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the music program state that they receive average early career wages of $27,190.
Located in the city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #135 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.
There were roughly 85 music students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the music program report average early career earnings of $24,066.
Here are some additional great schools for Music students in the Great Lakes Region that almost earned our Best Music Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of music school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Music School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
