First question: for those whose kids have graduated from college, what did they did with the degree?
Second question: do most music majors go on to graduate school?
Last question: Is there ever financial aid/scholarships for graduate school?
Not kids but… My wife and sister both have music degrees. Both have masters in education and teach. My wife has a performance degree and is a professional performing musician on nights and weekends.
Most musicians I know ( and there are a lot) get the masters in education to teach in public schools or the get a DME and teach at the college level. Only a handful actually pay all the bills singing or playing their instrument. Those that do generally married someone with a more lucrative career.
Graduate school should always be cheaper than a bachelor’s degree in music. Firstly, many graduate schools are totally free, like Yale. Also, there are always opportunities for stipends and assistantships.
My daughter did not need to pay for grad school, but some of her cohort did need to pay and are repaying loans now. Most of her peers who planned to go on to music careers went to grad school; some went straight into a career without the MM; some did a second MM at Rice or MSM in orchestral studies. Some went onto a DMA or AD after MM. Some left the music world going into fields as diverse as medicine, law, finance, music management, journalism, and even standup comedy.
So for a master’s degree, does the financial support come from scholarships that a school would give to a student based on talent alone? So we can assume someone who gets financial support for a master’s is an exceptional musician? Or are academics (GPA) also important?
I’ve just heard of people racking up massive debt to go to places like Julliard for grad school (or u/g for that matter), but debt makes zero sense for me if one is a music major, TBH.
What matters most is the audition. In my daughter’s experience, it was all that mattered (in terms of the programs where she applied.)
PhD, with an MA along the way, fully funded with stipend (almost living expenses) for being a TA, also free health insurance. Some in the program get MM and DMA with same funding. Once ABD (all but dissertation) they make more since they can then actually teach classes, not just TA. Funding is not related to talent: admissions is though!
Terminal master’s tend to have worse funding. You have to really research programs.
I know plenty of music majors working after undergrad, some in music ( perfomance- yes-also a talent management agency, a music-related non-profit, a festival etc.) and some outside of music (kids’ tv, Uber, you name it). As I once read, and someone else recently posted, music majors as a group have very high admit rates to med school, the highest of any major actually.
@compmom total coincidence, came across the following in a newsletter just now…
2011 Bachelor of Music harpist Kayla Torrez Chang is graduating from medical school and has been accepted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a surgical resident.
I am not a kid or a parent. I am currently in my second year of a joint MM (emphasis in Music History) and MLIS (library science) program and am a TA in the music history department.
So to reiterate, terminal master’s degrees are not funded (or rarely) and that’s where kids take on massive debt (if they come from families who don’t have money for that sort of thing), correct?
And scholarships for talent are not available for terminal master’s, correct?
Is financial aid, then, for terminal master’s, only need-based? I would imagine it’s not nearly as generous as u/g need-based aid, is that true?
Just trying to be realistic about what we’re getting ourselves into should our son actually proceed as he is hoping to do.
My wife got a small scholarship for her terminal masters degree in music education, mainly because it was a small program and she plays an instrument that nobody else did and it was needed for the orchestra. The debt was not massive but she did it in one year.
You really have to research each program. There is a lot of variation. Your son can always go to the UK where masters degrees are one year, or Germany where there is no tuition!
Also check on funding for summer programs and festivals.
I agree debt should be avoided, especially for artists of all disciplines- so they have the freedom to play or write or dance or paint, though often in addition to a day job.
The financial side of grad school is tough for any discipline, even when funded. The grad students are not spending their 20’s earning money and saving for retirement 
And parents often still have to help.
The happiness that is possible with this route is worth a lot though. Two to five years under the umbrella of safety and opportunity offered by grad school in a culture that does not offer much funding for the arts…
My S got a scholarship that was about 1/2 tuition for his MM program plus a work study job. He was accepted to another program that gave him a similar scholarship and the opportunity for an assistantship though the exact numbers were more difficult to suss out because tuition was charged by the credit hour rather than a flat price for full tuition. So we weren’t sure exactly how many hours he would be taking each semester. It seems the majority of his friends pursuing music went on to masters programs. I know of one friend who got an assistantship for her terminal masters that was full tuition and a stipend. Rice is supposedly very generous to grad students and my S said when he auditioned there all the grad students he talked to had gotten full tuition scholarships. And I know of another student who was chasing money who ended up at Cincinnati Conservatory so I assume she got some financial aid or scholarship money. So as compmom says above, it is not consistent from one program to another and your S will have to look into individual programs when he gets to that point.
My S just graduated from his masters program last spring so he is early in the process. He has 2 main part time jobs, an orchestral job and a teaching job at a combined college/suzuki program. He does lots of gigs and is working on some of his own freelance projects. He is thrilled to be supporting himself with all music jobs. He does a ridiculous amount of driving between his jobs so hopes to move on to either an orchestral job that is full time or a teaching job that is more full time or at least eventually combine his jobs in a smaller driving radius. He would love for his original project to morph into something that is more lucrative and sustainable, for the time being he’s learning a lot about funding and generating a sustainable audience base.
Most of his friends from music school seem to be doing some similar version to what he is doing, patching together various gigs, regional orchestras, etc. Some have a music related day job such as in arts administration, some are working other day jobs unrelated to music.
MM is considered a terminal degree. Many of them are funded. My daughter did not pay tuition for her MM. Funding is based on the audition, what you are calling “talent,” although at that stage it’s more than talent being considered.
In VP, a Master’s is typically as far as you go if you want to perform. You get a DMA if you want to teach. This isn’t a hard rule…but pretty typical. I don’t know about performance for instruments. Note that some performance professors will only have an MM as they then performed and then retired into teaching. I think it is more common for music theory teachers, for example, to have DMAs. Your studio professor may have a MM with lots of performance experience (and probably still performs some). So if your kid is looking to perform, he would be looking at an MM most likely. Then YES there is funding. Note that @compmom is talking about composition…which is a different type of music path. They are all music degrees but the pathways are different…in music performance, in academics, in composition…and classical is different form jazz is different from pop. So to go deep, you may want to be more specific on exactly which type of graduate degree and which goals (wanting to gig/teach will be a different path from wanting to be an orchestra member).
For a performance MM, many of my D’s friends got similar offers for VP as @cellomom2 mentions. Half tuition was a pretty good offer at a selective school…as many got none. This would be based on talent. Academics can matter however. I know at one school a kid did not get the standard grad scholarship (meaning almost everyone got it…maybe 5 to 10K…wasn’t much and I can’t remember it) due to having a GPA below a 3.0. My D got half offers at most selective schools and one big ZERO at the most expensive school…which means you’re “good enough” but not really needed for our productions so…feel free to come or not (at least that’s what I imagined). Sometimes in performance money can indicate need at the grad level.
My D did apply to one less selective school and got a nearly full tuition offer (meaning it did not cover fees … nor room and board). Once she entered, she found out they were desperate for a performance ready mezzo…giving my D lots of opportunities. At this program, she got a fellowship that did not require any work. Assistantships required work for the tuition reduction at this school. So I also saw smaller scholarships paired with these assistantships to get the tuition down but it was never down to free…maybe half. With the fellowship my D could work an outside job and make money to pay her fees and some of her living expenses. We paid her rent to get her out debt free. As for stipends, I know that some kids said they only paid their cell phone bills…however I’m sure there are better stipends too. I found the grad school money portion more confusing than UG (but there can be more money in grad school based on talent and need). In UG, it seemed like you got scholarships and work study. In grad schools all the schools used the names differently…fellowship, scholarship, stipends, assistantship, work study so it was hard to figure it all out as @cellomom2 says above.
I’m not familiar with FA. I would say however…that a bachelor’s is a bachelor’s is a bachelor’s…maybe cross that bridge first. If a music bachelor’s degree is what your kid wants, there are many entry-level jobs your kid can get with a bachelor’s degree. And you can become a performer with NO degree. You certainly do NOT need a master’s degree to be a respected performer (however an orchestra member will need a degree…but it’s a little early to know your chances). My D struggled with the MM idea. She wanted to perform…not do more school. In the end, she decided to try and if she could get a good deal (in a city) she would go. She was quite sure she would not go later if she got out and started performing. Many of the people that she performs with now, do NOT have MMs but some do. She does believe it makes her stand-out and helps her…but others have other experience that help them…so it’s never a simple “one golden ticket deal”…everyone’s experiences make “their own golden ticket”. So why not worry about a MM once he get a little closer…in the end he’ll have a bachelor’s degree that will help him no matter what path reveals itself over the next 4 years…
And btw when my D started her bachelors…I did not know a master’s was part of the path…ignorance can be bliss!
Thanks for all the responses. Yes, we’re a long way out for my son; longer than most given his personal story.
One last question: can a student apply directly to DMA without a master’s?
Yes dig deep and research each and every school. I was actually not describing the path of composers only, but also performers, computer music folks, sound artists, interdisciplinary degrees- a whole range of folks who for whatever reason ( including having funding to develop) did doctorates. I find that more of the dancers I know are also getting doctorates simply because it is so hard to get paid outside of academia. For musicians, it is nice to be free of marketplace pressures for a few more years as long as you are funded and can eat!
Prior to heading off to college, my violinist son came to realize that being a professional musician and making it a life-long career wasn’t for him. Whatever the direction, I appreciated that the decision was made with a definitive conviction. I also appreciated that he made this decision just right before we were due to go on several live auditions at various conservatories.
He still loves music, so he quickly joined the college orchestra and another ensemble group. When he came home recently for the winter break, he declared that he’s going to major in music while pursuing pre-med. Prior to college, that was something he was toying with, but he now sounded quite committed to follow through on. Knowing him, although just a freshman, I don’t think he’s going to veer off from this chosen path.
Again, it may depend on the goal/type of music grad degree. I have not heard of it for a performance MM. My D’s school talked with her about the DMA in her last year of an MM. There was no way to my knowledge of her auditioning for a DMA (prior to her MM). But someone can correct me if I’m wrong. I know some schools do not offer that (and I’m betting it’s the majority…you do your MM first and then decide on a DMA). @compmom may have a different answer for a different type of music grad degree.
And note that a Performance MM is a specific degree path. There may be other performance paths/degrees…but a performance MM grad degree is specific at many schools.
My son has stated his goal is to be a teacher, either in a private studio or (at my suggestion) in a school. He’s going for a BM degree, but the ultimate goal is not to be a cellist. He also said he wanted to get a master’s (yeah, totally one step at a time; can he even go back to school since he’s not in school this semester), but the idea of that is scary because of the cost. We would do anything to help our son, but we don’t have much money so debt is real. I don’t even know how we’re going to pay for his u/g degree.
It’s such a stark contrast to my eldest who got his u/g degree at MIT and we literally paid less than 10K total for 4 years due to a combo of need-based aid and an outside scholarship.
Nonetheless, I so appreciate the education on graduate school. Very helpful.