If you’re serious about a career in music, getting a good education and the right training is key.
Fortunately, there are many great music colleges to choose from. So many in fact, that it can be a challenge to figure out the right fit. In this post we will give you a rundown on the best-regarded schools and where to start in finding out which one might be right for you.
Where you should study music in college depends on your preferences, so be sure to first consider your priorities and write them down. Some things on which you might base your choice: reputation, location, size of the school, successful alumni, teaching faculty, cost, courses offered, amenities (e.g., athletics), and what other subjects you might be able to study at the same time (e.g., sciences, arts, humanities).
Applying to more than one school is recommended, since you may not be accepted to your first choice. If you aren’t sure yet where you’d prefer to study, that’s okay because you still need to research the schools carefully, and then go through the application process for each one.
Applications to music colleges can take up a lot of time so make sure to get started early and take care of business. Below is our list of the best music colleges with brief descriptions of what they offer.
Berklee is the largest independent music school in the world and the leader in contemporary music education. Graduates from their programs are world-renowned for their accomplishments and include hundreds of GRAMMY Award winners.
Besides (instrumental and vocal) Performance, popular majors include Music Business, Film Scoring, Music Production and Engineering, and Songwriting. They also offer Music Education, Music Therapy, Composition, Contemporary Writing and Production, Professional Music, and Electronic Production.
Students can combine the majors into a dual major that takes five years. Berklee is one of the few schools that will allow you to choose the computer as a musical instrument (i.e., Electronic Digital Instrument or EDI).
Berklee also has graduate programs in New York City and a satellite campus in Valencia, Spain. There’s probably no school in the world that offers more online and in-person options for studying music, including dozens of degree, diploma, and certificate programs.
When people think of a classical music conservatory, Julliard in New York City is perhaps the first name that comes to mind. There’s no question that Julliard is one of the top music schools in the world, and it boasts an impressive cadre of teachers and alumni. Students who attend Julliard can be assured that they are studying with the best of the best and can look forward to an illustrious career in music.
What US college has the best music program?
The consistently highest ranked music programs in the US include Berklee College of Music in Boston, The Julliard School in New York City, and Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
These schools receive top rankings based on their world-famous faculty members and alumni, plus their proven cutting-edge curriculum and facilities. For example, to date Berklee alumni have received well over 300 Grammy awards, one of the music industry’s highest honors.
Any of the top five or ten schools in our ranking might qualify as best in class and ultimately choosing the very top school is a personal choice based on a student’s preferences and career focus. Beyond the “best of the best” there are many wonderful music programs students can choose from. We are lucky to have so many great programs in the US.
In Boston, Massachusetts, NEC offers dual-degree programs with Harvard and Tufts University, so student-scholars can major in music, sciences, or humanities while also earning a music degree (after applying to and being admitted to both schools).
NEC is one of the best music schools in the world and enjoys a strong reputation for the high quality of its faculty and graduates. Many of the teachers perform in the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, or Boston Ballet, which are all located close by.
A part of the Berklee universe, Boston Conservatory at Berklee (BCB) is a small but illustrious school which offers cutting-edge training in music, acting, and dance. Based on solid pedagogical theory and with highly experienced faculty, BCB’s programs are unique and offer access to the wider array of courses at Berklee.
The focus is on individual instruction and guidance in preparing students for fulfilling careers as top performers and educators.
Curtis Institute, in Philadelphia, is often ranked with Julliard as being one of the top schools for classical music. Although much smaller than Julliard, students accepted at Curtis all receive full a scholarship plus a stipend for living costs, which makes Curtis an attractive choice. As with any top music school, admission to Curtis is highly competitive, but you should never let that stop you from applying.
Located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Manhattan School of Music has distinguished itself over many decades as one of the world’s premier conservatories for Classical music, Jazz, and musical theater.
Linked with the creative energy of New York City, students have opportunities to attend and perform in world-class concerts while rubbing elbows with some of the world’s greatest musicians and entertainers. MSM offers summer programs and pre-college along with a smorgasbord of diploma and degree options.
Located in Los Angeles, the Thornton School of Music is housed in the University of Southern California, close to the heart of the music and film industries. USC specializes in cross-genre and interdisciplinary studies in the arts, and students get to work with leading educators and practitioners while building a network of professional contacts for a future career.
Oberlin College in Ohio is a prestigious music school with a storied history, offering a liberal arts education on a beautiful campus in a rural setting. In 1835, Oberlin became one of the first colleges in the US to admit African Americans, and is also America’s oldest coeducational liberal arts college, admitting women since 1837.
Oberlin conservatory is small, with about 500 students, has a faculty-student ratio of 6:1, and offers many fields of private study, as well as double-degrees.
A part of the University of Miami, the Frost School of Music is famous for its programs in Performance, Studio Jazz, Composition, Music Industry, Music Engineering Technology, Music Therapy, and Music Education. Students can earn Bachelor of Music (B.M.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), or Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), plus certificates, or a 5-year dual degree. They also offer minor tracks in many music subject areas.
Offered only through Frost, the Henry Mancini Institute provides emerging artists with unique performance, composing and arranging opportunities. The school is consistently ranked as a top-10 music school in the US.
What is the most elite music school?
The Julliard School is considered the most elite music school in the US, and perhaps in the world. Its admissions process is highly selective, with acceptance ratios at around 7% for incoming undergraduate students. Because it is such a small school, it receives way more applications than it has spots available.
Many of Julliard’s graduates have become household names in music: Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, John Williams, Nina Simone, Barry Manilow, Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Chick Corea, Itzhak Perlman, Henry Mancini, Bobby McFerrin, Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, Phil Ramone, and more. It doesn’t hurt that Julliard is in New York City’s Lincoln Center, either.
NYU actually has two music schools, the other being the Tisch School of the Arts. Steinhardt’s wide-ranging college music programs include Performance, Composition, Music Technology, Arts Education and Therapy, Music Business and Arts Administration. NYU is a prestigious name in music education and connects to just about every facet of the global music industry with its international presence in New York City. NYU also has a campus in Shanghai, China.
A Classical music conservatory housed in the University of Rochester; Eastman is in the Western Tier of New York State. A small school offering intensive training from top-tier faculty, Eastman has also produced some of the world’s greatest Jazz artists.
The Cleveland Institute of Music focuses on Classical music. Students can prepare as teachers of the Suzuki Method or earn a double major combining Performance, Music Theory, Composition, or Eurhythmics. There is also a partnership with Case Western Reserve University for students who want to take non-music academic courses in sciences and humanities, and even a 5-year dual degree where graduates can earn degrees in music and another subject.
Located in Los Angeles County, CalArts houses The Herb Alpert School of Music (note that there is also a Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA). Opportunities for collaborations with musicians, filmmakers, animators, dancers, theater directors, actors, and writers abound at CalArts, where a cross-disciplinary approach is valued.
Students can study and perform in just about any genre or style of music. Specializations exist in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices, Experimental Pop, Instrumental Arts, Jazz, Music Technology, Performer-Composer, Voice Arts, and World Music Performance.
Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University is the only Ivy League school to be included in our top music schools list. Better known for its graduate programs and especially in Composition, Yale offers an undergraduate certificate in Performance plus a combined Bachelor of Arts/Master of Music program that requires simultaneous acceptance to the university undergraduate program and the music school.
Which Ivy League college is best for music?
While all the Ivies have respectable music programs, the winner in this category goes to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The program is dedicated to acoustic music and is renowned for its graduate level composition programs.
Harvard University has joint dual-degree programs with Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, both in Boston. Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York has the largest Hip-Hop collection of archives, which includes over 250,000 artifacts and original source materials. The collection is open to the public.
All eight Ivy League schools offer music degrees: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.
The UC College-Conservatory is a full-fledged conservatory program offering music, theater arts, acting, and dance. There are over 100 concentrate areas students can focus on, including Opera, Jazz, Instrumental Studies, Composition, Media Production, Music Education, Choral Studies, Ensembles, Commercial Music, Wind Studies, Arts Administration, Musicology, and more.
Located in Greenwich Village of Manhattan, Mannes provides an innovative cross-disciplinary approach to teaching music, focusing on whole-person citizen education in addition to gaining mastery of the technical aspects while training artists to engage with the world around them through their art.
Students at the New School benefit from partnerships with leading cultural organizations and institutions, such as the New York Choral Society, The Buffalo and Montclair Orchestras, the Alsop Family Foundation, The Frick Museum, Martha Graham Dance Company, and participate in concerts and events at NYC legendary venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The University of North Texas (UNT) College of Music has the reputation of being one of the finest comprehensive music schools in the country. Students can choose to earn a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) or a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in music. They have instrumental and vocal studies that can be combined with a concentrate in Performance, Composition, Jazz Studies, Music History, Musicology, or Music Education.
The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington offers rigorous academic training with numerous music areas to choose from, including Performance, Audio Engineering, Composition, Historical Performance, Collaborative Piano, Scoring for Visual Media, Orchestral Conducting, Music Education, Jazz Studies, Music Theory, Musicology, Choral Studies, and Wind Conducting. Instruments taught include harp, organ, brass, woodwinds, piano, percussion, strings, guitar, and voice.
The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins trains musical artists for future careers as industry leaders according to its educational philosophy and pioneering “Breakthrough Curriculum.”
Their Bachelor of Music offers students concentrates in Performance, Jazz Performance, Composition, Computer Music, Recording Arts and Sciences, Historical Performance, Music Education and Music for New Media.
They also have an undergraduate certificate (diploma), plus the option for a dual degree with music and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.). There are master’s degrees in Acoustics for Architectural Design, Theory Pedagogy, Recording Arts and Sciences, and minors in Liberal Arts and Music Business.
Carnegie-Mellon’s music school focus is on excellence in Ensemble Performance, with one-to-one interaction and teaching from world-class faculty in excellent facilities. The undergraduate programs also include Piano, Vocal Performance, Composition, Electronic Music, Music and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Studies. There are also music minors and a double major which allows students to add a second major partway through their program of study.
With these interdisciplinary degrees, students can combine with a second program in Science, Arts, or Humanities.
The SFCM offers a 2-year certificate and a 4-year Bachelor of Music program with unique programs that combine rigorous academics with individual study on an instrument and real-world performance opportunities to prepare students for professional artist careers.
Instruments offered include voice, guitar, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and keyboards, and there are tracks for Performance, Music Technology, Composition, and American Roots Music.
Located on the northern shore of Long Island, New York, Stony Brook offers an interdisciplinary approach to teaching music in a university setting. The Bachelor of Arts in Music program provides a creative, wide-ranging education in music History, Theory, Musicianship, Keyboard, and Performance.
Since 2017 they have housed the Emerson String Quartet Institute, and access to New York City via public transport means students can take advantage of the rich cultural offerings in the Big Apple.
The Musicians Institute (MI) College of Contemporary Music is a modern, for-profit college located in Hollywood. Their flexible programs for musicians have degree and non-degree options, including a Certificate, Associate, Bachelor, and Master of Music degree. The focus is on Performance, Music Production and Recording, and Music Industry. They also offer a slew of online courses, and many teachers work in the music industry in and around Los Angeles.
Ithaca College, located in the heart of the gorgeous Finger Lakes region of New York State (the small city of Ithaca is also home to Cornell University) was originally founded as a music conservatory in 1892.
The School of Music, Theater, and Dance at Ithaca offers a broad liberal arts education as well as conservatory-style training to college music students. Students receive personalized guidance on how to balance academic, artistic, and personal challenges as they define their career goals and learn how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
A self-proclaimed “Christian Identity” university close to Music City (Nashville, Tennessee), Belmont is home to the new Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Belmont has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with a major in General Music or with emphasis on Musical Theater, and students can also study Musical Theater for a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) or Bachelor of Music (B.M.).
Majors leading to a B.M. also include Performance, Commercial Music, Music Education, Music Technology, Composition, Music Therapy, Church Music, Piano Pedagogy, and Music Theory. They also have minors in music and music students can take an outside minor.
Start by studying the online information but try to visit the schools you are interested in to get a better idea of what it’s like to study there and what career options exist for alumni. Talk to the students, department heads, and faculty. Consider what is important to you and what you want to get out of your study experience.
Remember that the notion of “best” can be subjective, and that there are many excellent programs that might not be included here or in other rankings. The most important thing when selecting which music college or conservatory to attend is that it is the right fit for YOU.
