Bachelor in Music Education

Why pursue a music education degree at North Central College?

You’ll combine your performing arts training with classroom teaching experience as early as your first year. And even with new licensure and teaching requirements, it is still possible to complete your music teacher education bachelor's degree within a four-year time frame (comparable programs require five).

As a music education major, you’ll also enjoy more face time teaching music in front of students—at least 180 field-experience hours—than typically required. Why? Because we know the additional teaching and conducting experience will hone your educator skills, boost your confidence and help lead to competitive full-time teaching positions. Graduates of North Central’s music education program have enjoyed a nearly 100 percent job placement rate in the past several years.

As prospective music teachers, you will graduate having developed and mastered the skill levels needed to enter the workforce. From building relationships with schools in the local Chicago area to maturing your music performance and style. Earning a music education degree can allow you to have various rewarding jobs! From working in special education programs employing the use of music therapy, to teaching young aspiring musicians in high school.

You can also:

• Perform in a variety of campus venues and ensembles—our more than 20 student groups range from small to large instrumental and choral ensembles.
• Be awarded vocal, instrumental, or jazz performance scholarships as well as a music education scholarship, renewable for four years.
• Student-teach in Naperville-area, high-performing school districts; you’ll use new technologies, learn from their great teachers, and make valuable connections with their administrators.
• Learn to teach in high-need areas through our partnerships with schools in Aurora and Chicago (scholarships and incentives are often available).
• Attend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or Lyric Opera every week, as some students have done—Chicago is just a short train ride away.
• Apply to graduate school, take your teaching education to a graduate level, and learn more about education leadership.

Since 1861, North Central has been a place where new ideas lead to unlimited possibilities. We’re an independent college dedicated to the power of the liberal arts and sciences to transform students into leaders both in their careers and communities. Our nearly 3,000 students study across more than 65 undergraduate and graduate programs, with their education, made richer by supportive faculty and staff, world-class facilities, and countless opportunities to learn beyond the classroom.

A College on the move

Building on the foundation of more than 150 years of excellence, North Central continues to grow with numerous new facilities, programs, and initiatives in the works.

The College opened with 40 students in a single two-story building in Plainfield, Illinois. Since then we’ve changed names twice (to North-Western, then North Central), moved once (from Plainfield to Naperville), and grown steadily (to about 3,000 students).

Over the years, thousands of dedicated students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends have helped us thrive through the toughest challenges – wars, economic crises, social upheavals, and more – and build a future brilliant with hope and promise.

We’ve met the changing needs of students from Civil War veterans to millennial entrepreneurs. And we’ve always stayed true to our heritage of moral courage and forward-thinking.

Today we’re a top-ranked private comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences. U.S. News & World Report counts us among “America’s Best Colleges,” one of the top six schools in the Midwest for a “strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.” Students choose from more than 55 undergraduate majors and five graduate program areas.

Although the College originally discouraged organized athletics as a distraction from weightier matters, our 26 intercollegiate sports in NCAA Division III make our athletic department the largest in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW). North Central is proud of its 32 team national championships and 123 individual national champions.

Though affiliated with the United Methodist Church, we welcome and encourage students and staff of all faiths. We are thoughtfully expanding our academic programs to respond to the needs of our ever-changing world, recently adding Middle Eastern and North African Studies, along with Arabic. And we’re transforming our facilities – most dramatically with a new interdisciplinary Science Center located at the corner of Brainard Street and Van Buren Avenue.

It’s been an amazing 150+ years. But it’s clear that the best is yet to come!