Graduate
General Requirements for Master's Degrees
Credit Hour Requirements
The minimum requirement for a master’s degree is 30 credit hours, excluding required credit hours in prerequisite or review courses, tool subjects, and major ensemble. Individual degrees may require more credit hours. Courses counted for credit toward the master’s degree are numbered 500 or above. Upon approval of the director of graduate studies and the department that offers equivalent courses in the Jacobs School of Music, master’s students may transfer course work taken for graduate credit at other institutions. M.M., M.M.E., and M.S. students may transfer up to 6 credit hours; M.A. students may transfer up to 8 credit hours. No course may be transferred unless the grade is B or higher. Applied lessons, chamber music, ensemble, and similar courses may not be transferred for degree credit nor may transfer courses satisfy entrance proficiencies in music history and literature and music theory.
