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Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Schools

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

90 Colleges
$24,369 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$38,302 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Music Doctor's Degree School for You

Music is the #43 most popular major in the country with 25,910 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for students. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. This report analyzed 90 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for music students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

2023 Best Value Music Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Colleges.

Top 15% Best Music Doctor's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named North Dakota State University - Main Campus the best value school in the United States for music students working on their doctor’s degree. North Dakota State University is a large public school located in the medium-sized city of Fargo.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at North Dakota State University are $12,028 a year.

As a testament to the quality of education it offers, North Dakota State University also is in the top 15% of our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking.

Read full report on Music at North Dakota State University - Main Campus

#2

Liberty University

Lynchburg, VA

Out of the 90 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Liberty University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Liberty University is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Lynchburg.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Liberty University are $8,360 per year.

Read full report on Music at Liberty University

A rank of #3 on this year’s list means The Graduate Center, CUNY is a great value for music students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of New York, The Graduate Center is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at The Graduate Center are $23,640 a year.

The Graduate Center excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 5% of all schools on our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list.

Full Music at The Graduate Center, CUNY Report

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Southern Mississippi helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value music schools in the United States. Southern Miss is a fairly large public school located in the city of Hattiesburg.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Southern Miss are $11,204 per year.

Read More…

#5

University of Houston

Houston, TX

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means University of Houston is a great value for music students working on their doctor’s degree. UH is a fairly large public school located in the city of Houston.

UH graduate students pay an average of $18,871 in tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Music at University of Houston

With a ranking of #6, The University of Texas at Austin did quite well on this year’s best value schools for music students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public school with a very large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UT Austin are $22,944 per year.

UT Austin also claimed a spot on our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools in this category.

Read More…

#7

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, TX

Texas Tech University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Music Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the large city of Lubbock, Texas Tech is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Texas Tech are $17,698 per year.

Read full report on Music at Texas Tech University

With a ranking of #8, University of Nebraska - Lincoln did quite well on this year’s best value schools for music students working on their doctor’s degree. UNL is a fairly large public school located in the city of Lincoln.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UNL are $19,541 a year.

Read full report on Music at University of Nebraska - Lincoln

University of Wisconsin - Madison ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public college with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UW - Madison are $25,501 a year.

UW - Madison also claimed a spot on our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 15% of all schools in this category.

Read More…

University of California - Berkeley came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Music Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Berkeley are $29,262 per year.

UC Berkeley also claimed a spot on our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 5% of all schools in this category.

Read full report on Music at University of California - Berkeley

#11

University of Memphis

Memphis, TN

University of Memphis ranked #11 on this year’s Best Value Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. UofM is a fairly large public school located in the city of Memphis.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UofM are $14,544 per year.

Read More…

Bowling Green State University - Main Campus landed the #12 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree music programs. BGSU is a large public school located in the fringe town of Bowling Green.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at BGSU are $15,823 a year.

Read More…

#13

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI

Michigan State University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for music students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #13 on the list. Michigan State is a fairly large public school located in the city of East Lansing.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Michigan State are $38,638 per year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Michigan State also did well on our Best Music Doctor’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read More…

Additional Noteworthy Schools

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
14 University of North Texas Denton, TX
15 University of California - Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
16 James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA
17 Florida State University Tallahassee, FL
18 University of Virginia - Main Campus Charlottesville, VA

Music by Region

View the Best Value Music Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Great Lakes

One of 10 majors within the area of study, music has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Music

Related Major Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts 37,413
Design & Applied Arts 36,301
Drama & Theater Arts 17,341
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 16,778
General Visual & Performing Arts 6,355

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • 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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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