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2024 Best Public Administration Schools in Iowa

3 Colleges in Iowa
114 Public Admin Degrees Awarded
$48,440 Avg Early-Career Salary
A degree in public administration is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #60 out of 395 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Administration Schools in Iowa ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 114 degrees in public administration during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

Choosing a Great Public Administration School

Best Public Administration Schools in Iowa Your choice of public administration school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for public administration schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Pick Your Public Administration Degree Level

Bachelor's Degrees in Public Admin
Master's Degrees in Public Admin

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Public Administration Schools in Iowa ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.


 

Best Schools for Public Administration in Iowa

The schools below may not offer all types of public admin degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.

Top Iowa Schools in Public Admin

1
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
4th Most Popular In IA
$25,697 Median Student Debt

It is hard to beat University of Northern Iowa if you want to pursue a degree in public administration. Located in the small city of Cedar Falls, UNI is a public university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #199 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UNI is a great university overall.

There were roughly 11 public administration students who graduated with this degree at UNI in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in public administration from University of Northern Iowa

1
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
47 Public Admin Degrees Awarded
$52,261 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Upper Iowa University if you want to pursue a degree in public administration. Located in the remote area of Fayette, UIU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 17th out of 40 colleges for overall quality in the state of Iowa.

There were roughly 47 public administration students who graduated with this degree at UIU in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public administration program at Upper Iowa University get $3,821 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a degree in public administration from Upper Iowa University

2
Drake crest
Drake University
Des Moines, IA
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
33 Public Admin Degrees Awarded
$52,464 Median Starting Salary

It's difficult to beat Drake University if you want to pursue a degree in public administration. Located in the city of Des Moines, Drake is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 5th out of 40 colleges for overall quality in the state of Iowa.

There were about 33 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Drake in the most recent year we have data available. Those public administration students who get their degree from Drake University receive $4,024 more than the standard public admin graduate.

More information about a degree in public administration from Drake University

3
Iowa crest
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

University of Iowa is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in public administration. Iowa is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Iowa City. A Best Colleges rank of #84 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Iowa is a great university overall.More information about a degree in public administration from University of Iowa

Best Public Administration Colleges in the Plains States Region

Explore all the Best Public Administration Schools in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.

State Colleges Degrees Awarded
Minnesota 284 494
Missouri 283 349
Kansas 266 87
Nebraska 238 97
North Dakota 210 23
South Dakota 204 20

View All Rankings >

One of 4 majors within the Public Administration & Social Service area of study, Public Administration has other similar majors worth exploring.

Public Admin Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
Public Administration 114

View All Public Admin Concentrations >

Related Major Annual Graduates
Human Services 143
Community Organization & Advocacy 30
Public Policy 1

View All Public Admin Related Majors >

Notes and References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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