2025 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Iowa

Social Work is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #3 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Iowa to determine which ones were the best for social work students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 249 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to social work students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other social work students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt social work students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social work related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for social work students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Iowa list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in Iowa

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.

Top Iowa Schools for a Master's in Social Work

1

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

138 Annual Graduates

$49,761 Median Starting Salary

University of Iowa is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in social work. Iowa is a very large public university located in the city of Iowa City.

Students who graduate with their master's from the social work program state that they receive average early career income of $49,761.

More information about a master’s in social work from University of Iowa

2

University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA

32 Annual Graduates

$52,302 Median Starting Salary

University of Northern Iowa is a wonderful option for students interested in a master's degree in social work. Located in the city of Cedar Falls, UNI is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.

Those social work students who get their master's degree from University of Northern Iowa receive $3,312 more than the average social work student.

More information about a master’s in social work from University of Northern Iowa

Best Social Work Colleges in the Plains States Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	193	521
Minnesota	174	1,354
Kansas	149	331
Nebraska	123	100
North Dakota	115	74
South Dakota	89	0

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Social Work Related Rankings by Major

Social Work is one of 0 different types of <nil> programs to choose from.

Social Work Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Social Work	248
Child Advocacy & Policy	1

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 Army Medicine. More about our data sources and methodologies.