2025 Best Engineering Schools in Iowa

A degree in engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #7 out of 38 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 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Engineering Schools in Iowa ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,502 degrees in engineering to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Engineering Schools List

Pick Your Engineering Degree Level

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Engineering 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 Engineering in Iowa

Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the engineering degree levels they offer.

Top Iowa Schools in Engineering

1

Iowa State University
Ames, IA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

1,866 Engineering Degrees Awarded

$77,313 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in engineering has to check out Iowa State University. Iowa State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Ames.

Students who receive their degree from the engineering program earn an average of $77,313 for their early career.

More information about a degree in engineering from Iowa State University

2

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

506 Engineering Degrees Awarded

$69,315 Median Starting Salary

University of Iowa is a good decision for students interested in a degree in engineering. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their degree from the engineering program report average early career earnings of $69,315.

More information about a degree in engineering from University of Iowa

Best Engineering Colleges in the Plains States Region

Explore all the Best Engineering Colleges in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Kansas	38	1,559
Minnesota	38	2,318
South Dakota	38	546
Missouri	38	3,001
Nebraska	36	698
North Dakota	35	785

View All Rankings >

Engineering Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering	548
Computer Engineering	442
Civil Engineering	227
Industrial Engineering	210
Chemical Engineering	196
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	180
Biomedical Engineering	158
Electrical Engineering	141
Agricultural Engineering	99
Engineering Mechanics	79

View All Engineering Related Majors >

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Petty Officer 3rd Class Declan Barnes.

More about our data sources and methodologies.