SUMMARY
A degree in Jazz is a valuable choice and ordinarily an essential first step for undergrads aspiring to pursue a career as a modal jazz musician, a band composer, or a jazz music executive. Interestingly, nationally, jazz is a very rare major coming in at the 316th most popular area of study. Last year, there were 316 jazz graduates. In-state tuition for jazz at private universities is, on average, 4.3 times more pricey than their public counterparts.
With only 61 colleges having programs for jazz you might have limited options as to the institutions you can choose from. If you are looking to surround yourself with other jazz undergrads, look at schools in New York which have more undergraduates admitted to jazz than any other state. More generally, the top region to pursue jazz is in the Mid East region with The New School, SUNY at Purchase College, and Temple University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the best conference to major in jazz is the Conference USA with University of North Texas representing the conference. From our extensive list of the best colleges, our belief is that the best college for jazz is University of Rochester.
The overall 'best' school does not mean it is the 'best' school for every student. There might be tons more factors to think about when choosing institution. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food might change one's decision on where to go to college. At authority.org, we have evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are interested in which jazz school is home to the top college campus, the answer is Michigan State University. If, for example, you are primarily interested in which university boasts the best campus, we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more so we can compare all U.S. majors in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the best student life and our selection for the university with the best student life for jazz is University of Miami. Curious why? Keep reading to learn more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our picks might surprise you.
If price is a major deciding factor in your decisions, you might be cautious about Oberlin College. Oberlin College appears to be our most expensive university for jazz, at least for out of state students. We do have an entire list of the most expensive schools that might put the expense of Oberlin College into perspective. For more context, you might care to know that jazz is the 92nd most expensive degree in the US, with an average expense of $40,200. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for jazz in the nation is Ohio with costs at the main school, Oberlin College, of $55,976. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region of the country for jazz is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.
Our cheapest region for jazz is the Southwest region which is represented by University of North Texas with a cost of $18,423. In better news, the most affordable school for jazz is Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Our entire list of the most affordable colleges can be explored here.
In-state learners can anticipate paying in the neighborhood of $11,400 for a degree in jazz. The price inflates by a lot to an average of $24,300 for an out-of-state public-school undergrad. As such, you might be interested in our choice for the university constituting the best value for jazz: University of Rochester. On this page you can find our comprehensive list on the schools we see as being the best value overall. Do know, this idea is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is considered, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).
Earnings for jazz majors vary a lot, but within two-years of finishing the degree graduates will typically earn in the neighborhood of $52,800. While there is a lot of variation in earnings; highest paid earners can rake in up to $104,800. Even straight out of college, the minimum earning jobs within the jazz field earn $26,900, which is an alright wage. The top earning grads from jazz graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.
The overall diversity of jazz sits solid, coming in the 63rd percentile of all majors. The university with the most composite diversity for jazz is The New School and here you can find our comprehensive list for the schools with the most diversity. The financial diversity of Jazz sits only in the 64th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, ranking in the 75th percentile. White collegians compose the largest proportion, 51%, of those studying jazz. Additionally, 86% of undergraduates seeking a jazz degree are men.
The median rating for jazz professors is 3.8 stars, which is 5% less than the average across every major; this is a subpar score. If you are interested in the most popular jazz professor in the country, look no further than Bill Scism at Berklee College of Music. This might be shocking, but the best rated jazz professors according to students are found at Berklee College of Music. As we including data beyond simply rankings it becomes clear that the school with the best professors for jazz is University of Miami. You will find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the best professors in the U.S.
Finally, the hardest university to get into for jazz is California Institute of the Arts. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we have an extensive page of the hardest colleges to get into. With that said, here at Authority we hope you believe that considering university with context primarily derived from superlatives could be said to be the root of many of higher education's fundamental problems. We at Authority hope you read our more nuanced pages on different topics and explore a couple of our helpful background pages on important details to look out for as you continue your university search.