Accelerated Master of Arts in Music

The School of Music at Western Michigan University offers an Accelerated Graduate Degree Program (AGDP) in the Master of Arts in Music.

This innovative program allows completion of both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in just five years. Qualified students in the Bachelor of Arts in Music (BA), Bachelor of Music (BM), Bachelor of Musical Arts (BMA), or Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Arts Technology (BS) programs take graduate-level coursework in music theory, ethnomusicology, and/or music history during their senior year as substitutes for undergraduate requirements or electives in theory, global music cultures, or history, and then complete the remaining coursework for the Master of Arts in Music (MA) degree in their fifth year after acceptance into the graduate program.

Undergraduate students can apply for admission to the accelerated master's degree program once they have completed thirty (30) credit hours in their bachelor’s degree program, typically in their third year. With senior standing (88 total credits) and provisional acceptance into the program, qualified undergraduate students can take up to twelve (12) credits of graduate level coursework and apply for the graduate program during their fourth year. Acceptance into the graduate program allows students to complete the remaining graduate coursework required for the MA in their fifth year. 

Recent graduates who completed the five year program have gone on to PhD programs at Princeton and the University of Florida. 

For admission into the AGDP:

- Minimum GPA of 3.0 and at least 30 undergraduate credit hours earned at WMU

- Minimum GPA of 3.25 in core music history, music theory and aural skills, with no grade less than a “C” at the 1000 level and no grade less than a “B” at 2000 level.

- Departmental application

- A personal statement outlining:

o   Area of interest

o   Reason for applying to the AGDP

o   Career goals and a plan for reaching these goals