Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
The University of Iowa's Iowa Writers' Workshop has trained more published American novelists than any other graduate program in the country, which is not a credential most people associate with a Midwestern land-grant institution.
Iowa State's agriculture and engineering schools serve the practical demands of an economy built around farming and advanced manufacturing, and both campuses are legitimate research universities, not just regional options.
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See how Iowa's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Iowa that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Iowa's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Iowa by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La James College of Hairstyling and Cosmetology Mason City | $4,522 | $27,484 | 6.1× | Excellent |
| 2 | Marshalltown Community College Marshalltown | $8,059 | $41,010 | 5.1× | Excellent |
| 3 | Western Iowa Tech Community College Sioux City | $8,770 | $40,473 | 4.6× | Excellent |
| 4 | Iowa Central Community College Fort Dodge | $9,328 | $42,046 | 4.5× | Excellent |
| 5 | Hawkeye Community College Waterloo | $9,649 | $42,849 | 4.4× | Excellent |
| 6 | North Iowa Area Community College Mason City | $10,010 | $43,462 | 4.3× | Excellent |
| 7 | Kirkwood Community College Cedar Rapids | $9,705 | $41,016 | 4.2× | Excellent |
| 8 | Southwestern Community College Creston | $9,871 | $40,129 | 4.1× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Iowa, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Iowa's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Iowa. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Iowa with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Northeast college graduates earn about $12,700 more a decade out than Southern ones, but they also pay thousands more to get there. The regional split, by the numbers.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
