Career Atlas USA

Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary

Median salary
$78,620
Average salary
$94,700
Employment
93,560
Projected growth
1.7% growth
Annual openings
9,000
Typical entry education
Master's degree

What Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary Do

Teach courses in drama, music, and the arts including fine and applied art, such as painting and sculpture, or design and crafts. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

See full salary breakdown & percentiles →

Career Outlook

National employment outlook, 20242034.

Related work experience
None
On-the-job training
None
Self-employed
0.4%

Source: BLS Employment Projections — 2024-2034.

How Much Preparation Does This Take?

Job Zone 5 of 5

Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience.
Education
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Job training
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Source: O*NET Job Zones.

Key Knowledge Areas

Subject-matter areas this occupation draws on most, per O*NET.

  • Fine Artsimportance 4.9/5
  • Education and Trainingimportance 4.7/5
  • English Languageimportance 4.3/5
  • Communications and Mediaimportance 3.6/5
  • Psychologyimportance 3.4/5
  • History and Archeologyimportance 3.4/5
  • Philosophy and Theologyimportance 3.2/5
  • Computers and Electronicsimportance 3.2/5

Work Environment

What the day-to-day work setting is like, per O*NET.

  • E-Mail4.8/5
  • Contact With Others4.7/5
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled4.6/5
  • Freedom to Make Decisions4.5/5
  • Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams4.4/5
  • Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals4.4/5

Careers With Similar Skills

Occupations whose Transferable Skills profile most closely matches this one — a mathematical comparison, not observed data about people actually moving between these careers.

Transferable Skills

Cross-functional skills this occupation draws on most, per O*NET — the kind that carry over to other careers.

  • Instructingimportance 4.4/5
  • Social Perceptivenessimportance 3.6/5
  • Time Managementimportance 3.6/5
  • Complex Problem Solvingimportance 3.4/5
  • Judgment and Decision Makingimportance 3.3/5
  • Coordinationimportance 3.1/5
  • Systems Analysisimportance 3.0/5
  • Service Orientationimportance 2.9/5

Software & Technologies

Tools and software used in this occupation, per O*NET.

In-Demand Technologies

Other Software Used

Work Style

Personal work characteristics that matter most for this occupation, per O*NET.

  • Innovation
  • Social Orientation
  • Dependability
  • Intellectual Curiosity
  • Empathy
  • Cooperation
  • Achievement Orientation

Career Interests

This occupation’s RIASEC interest profile, per O*NET — how strongly it fits each of the six Holland interest types.

  • SocialHigh
  • ArtisticHigh
  • InvestigativeMedium
  • RealisticMedium
  • ConventionalLow
  • EnterprisingLow

This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

Where This Career Is Most Concentrated

Metro areas where art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary make up the largest share of local employment, relative to the national average (BLS location quotient).

  1. 1Ithaca, NY23.26× national avg
  2. 2Amherst Town-Northampton, MA11.93× national avg
  3. 3Bloomington, IN8.39× national avg
  4. 4Harrisonburg, VA5.47× national avg
  5. 5Walla Walla, WA4.63× national avg

Possible Career Moves

A computed starting point, not observed job-change data — see the full list for why each one might fit.

See the full career path from Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary

Related Education Programs

Schools that offer related fields of study, based on the NCES CIP-SOC crosswalk — not a guarantee that graduates enter this specific career.

Full salary data & percentiles →Best states for this career →Highest-paying states →