Music Education

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Music Education

Class of 2024

97%

Accepted to top-5 choice school

82%

Accepted to top-3 choice school

9+ years

Music College
Consulting

How We Help Music Education Students

At Music School Central, our services are designed to help musicians get into the best colleges for their future. These include the following:

Personalized List of Schools

We offer personalized guidance for music education students, assisting them in crafting a tailored list of schools based on their musical preferences, career aspirations, and academic background.

By considering factors such as job placement rate & prestige, we help music ed students find the perfect fit colleges for their musical journey.

Audition Evaluation

You will receive a tailored assessment of your musicianship, evaluated across various criteria to provide constructive feedback and guidance for not only artistic growth, but also your future college auditions.

Complete Application Support

We provide personalized guidance and support for music education students navigating the college application process.

This includes guidance with crafting compelling essays & resume that showcase your musical journey, achievements, and aspirations, ultimately maximizing your chances of admission to top music schools.

Interview Preparation

You will receive tailored coaching and mock interview sessions to help you prepare confidently for college admissions interviews.

With this consulting, you can ensure that you will be able to articulate your musical passions, experiences, and future teaching goals with poise and clarity.

1-on-1 Guidance

We offer individualized, 1-on-1 guidance and frequent meetings to navigate every aspect of the application process, from selecting schools to crafting compelling applications, ensuring each student’s unique musical journey is effectively communicated to admissions committees.

Choosing the Best College for Music Education

For a music education seeking to further their education and artistic development, we consider several key factors when we help you assemble your list of music schools:

1. Faculty expertise & reputation

We help you discover colleges with faculty members who are experienced teachers, choir/band/orchhestra directors, and musicians with a strong track record of success placing students into jobs.

Mentorship from seasoned professionals can provide you with valuable guidance and inspiration for developing skills when working with students in a K-12 setting.

2. Field Experience Opportunities

Seeking colleges offering opportunities for music education students to gain hands-on teaching experience in real classroom settings is essential for success.

Practical experience in diverse educational environments helps you develop teaching skills, classroom management techniques, and rapport with students of varying ages and abilities.

3. Curriculum

We work with you to evaluate the college’s music education curriculum, ensuring it covers a broad range of topics relevant to music teaching, including music theory, music history, music technology, conducting, ensemble directing, and special education strategies.

A well-rounded curriculum provides a solid foundation for teaching music effectively in diverse educational settings.

4. University Vs. Conservatory

Choosing between a college and a conservatory for music education depends on your career goals and educational preferences.

Conservatories offer intense training with a singular focus on music, while colleges provide a broader academic experience with opportunities to explore other disciplines alongside music.

Considering your priorities in music ed. training, academic balance, and overall environment, we help you determine whether conservatories, universities, or a mix of both is best for you.

5. Career preparation

In addition to experience in classrooms, we help you find colleges that offer professional development opportunities for music education students, including workshops, conferences, seminars, and networking events with music educators and industry professionals.

Continuing education and professional networking are essential for staying current with best practices in music education and advancing in the field.

Music Education Acceptances

Our students interested in music education have been accepted into the following schools, among many others:

  • University of Miami
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • Michigan State University
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Columbia University
  • University of Wisconsin
  • Ithaca College School of Music
  • Penn State University
  • University of Michigan
  • Indiana University
  • Lawrence University
  • Crane School of Music
  • University of Miami
  • Columbia University
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • University of Wisconsin
  • Indiana University
  • Michigan State University
  • Ithaca College School of Music
  • Lawrence University
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Penn State University
  • Crane School of Music

Let’s help you get into the college of your dreams!

Contact us for a free, zero-obligation consultation

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Frequently asked questions

We work with three kinds of students.

1. Musicians who wish to major in music.


2. Musicians who wish to major in music and an outside major.


3. Musicians who wish to major in an academic subject, but want to use their musical background & credentials to help them get accepted into a great college.



As long as you are a musician with at least a few years of experience, we can help you.

We surveyed every student & family we worked with in the class of 2024 after they received all of their offers, asking them whether they were accepted to a top-1, top-2, top-3, top-4, top-5, or not a top-5 choice school.

The survey was not mandatory for students who applied to only 1 school and were accepted, such as early decision students. They were automatically counted as a “top-1” choice.

Students who chose to opt for a gap year instead of finishing the application & audition process were excluded from the survey.

Anyone who did not respond to the survey was counted as “not accepted into a top-5 choice school,” unless they wrote to us about being accepted into a top choice school in a separate message.

Overall, we are very proud of the success of our students in the class of 2024, with over 95% of them getting accepted into a top-5 choice school!

We help students with every single part of the college application process.

On the music side, we guide students with auditions, interviews, portfolios, pre-screenings, and more. 


On the traditional application side, we guide students through essays, the resume, the common application, etc.

Yes – he studied music at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.

The great majority of our students are offered merit scholarships when they receive their admissions offers.

When schools are evaluating a candidate for scholarships, they look at the factors we provide guidance on – auditions, essays, portfolios, resume, etc.

Also, some schools are simply more generous than others when offering merit scholarship, and we can help you figure out which ones are most likely to award scholarship based on our experience.

Finally, we can provide guidance on negotiating for scholarships at the end of the admission process, once all of your acceptance letters and initial scholarship offers are released.

While we 100% cannot guarantee scholarships, we can report that the majority of our students in the classes of 2023 and 2024 were offered multiple 5-fgure per year merit scholarships.

At this time, we are only offering our full-service package, as we believe that results in the best admissions & scholarship outcomes for students.

We may, in the future, offer a la carte services.

Absolutely not.

We’ve had students apply to 1 school (usually early decision situations), and we had a student once apply to 32 schools. The right number, for most people, is 8-12 schools.

As long as the essays are specifically for colleges, we do not limit the number of essays we will review and provide guidance on.

Not many, and seats often go quickly, which is why we sometimes have a waitlist up. We work with only enough students to make sure everyone gets ongoing 1-on-1 advising with Bill and other members of his team. This number is typically 25 – 40 per year.

We do work with master’s degree-seeking musicians. While the majority of our clients are high schoolers and transfer students, we very much enjoy working with older students. We currently do not work with students applying to doctoral degrees.