San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Private · Moderately Selective · CA

Photo: HaeB (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationCA · West

SettingUrban

Undergrads226

Student:faculty5:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate43.9%

6-yr grad rate73.7%

Drop-out rate7.3%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$56k

Out-of-state tuition$56k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity78.3%

Gender diversity41.6%

International29.6%

Identity—

Overview

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music trains classical performers, composers, and, increasingly, music technologists at its Civic Center campus near Davies Symphony Hall and the War Memorial Opera House. It is a conservatory in the full sense — nearly every student is preparing for a career as a working musician — and admission is by audition rather than conventional academic review.

Academics

Classical performance and composition remain the conservatory's core, taught through a studio-lesson and ensemble structure built around one-on-one work with a principal teacher rather than large lecture classes. In recent years the conservatory has added roots, jazz, and American music as a distinct degree path alongside its classical core, along with programs in music technology and production, broadening what had been an exclusively classical curriculum. A pre-college division serves younger students working toward conservatory-level audition standards.

Campus & student life

The downtown Civic Center location puts students within walking distance of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and Davies Symphony Hall, and students regularly attend or participate in performances at these institutions as part of conservatory life. Campus life centers on practice, rehearsal, and performance schedules rather than a traditional undergraduate social calendar, and student housing is compact given the urban setting.

Getting in

Admission runs on a live or recorded audition as the central criterion, with academic records playing a distinctly secondary role to demonstrated performance ability at the appropriate level for the intended instrument or voice type.

After graduation

Graduates move into orchestral positions, chamber ensembles, opera, teaching studios, and increasingly music-technology and production roles, and proximity to the San Francisco Symphony and Opera gives students real access to working professional musicians as faculty and mentors.

sfcm.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate54.9%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters2

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Regular decisionDec 1

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying