Where can your student actually get into a music program?

• 976 colleges nationwide offer a bachelor's music program: 969 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 1 more report a music admit rate in the UC/CSU data; 6 more carry program earnings in federal outcome data but no 2022-23 degree count under these program codes.
• Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: Berklee College of Music (552), Full Sail University (273), University of North Texas (226).
• 69 of them are in California, the one state whose public systems (the University of California and the CSU) publish an admit rate into the major.
• Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): California State University-Long Beach — Music (Professional Performance), Fall 2025: 681 applied, 157 admitted (23.1%).
• Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Fullerton — 100.0% (74 applied, 74 admitted, Fall 2025).
• Highest median earnings four years after the degree: Sonoma State University, $65,533.
• Lowest average net price with aid: Texas A&M University-Central Texas, $1,300 per year.

At most music programs the number that decides it is not on this page: admission usually turns on an audition or a portfolio, judged on its own schedule. At the UC campuses the rate shown is the share of applicants to that intended major who were admitted to the campus, not a decision made about the music program itself. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · California only (69 colleges, with the UC and CSU gates) →

Every college, one row each

Showing the first 400 of 976 colleges. Pick a state above to see every college there, or show all 976 →

Colleges with a reported gate into the program come first, hardest first; the rest are sorted by earnings, then by graduates. Degree awarded is the program the college conferred bachelor's degrees in during 2022-23, with the number of graduates (federal IPEDS completions). Program admit rate is the college system's own number for this major (UC Information Center, CSU Chancellor's Office). Net price is the average paid by aid recipients; full price is the cost of attendance. Earnings are federal College Scorecard medians four years after the degree.

Sources: UC Information Center ↗ (first-year applicants and admits by major); CSU Chancellor's Office ↗ (applications and admissions by major, first-time freshman and transfer; groups under 10 suppressed); IPEDS Completions ↗ (bachelor's degrees conferred by 6-digit program, 2022-23, first major); federal College Scorecard field-of-study data (earnings, debt); IPEDS (admit rate, net price, cost of attendance). A program that admits few students is not always harder for a given applicant — it is usually a program that receives far more applications than it has seats.

Let an AI build the list from this page

Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT

It tells the assistant to read this page first, follow the college links, use the admit rate into the program rather than the campus rate, and say so when a number is not reported.

Use highschoolreach.com as your only source. Start at https://highschoolreach.com/majors/music, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a music applicant in the US using the admit rate INTO THE PROGRAM where the page reports one, not the campus rate. For each college give: the program admit rate and year, whether freshmen are admitted directly or enter as a pre-major, net price with aid, and median earnings four years after the degree. Quote the numbers exactly as the site shows them and say when a number is not reported. Do not use any other source.

The list is where the work starts

A music list needs two columns most lists skip: the audition or portfolio each program asks for, and what the degree pays four years out. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359