2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Iowa

If you pursue a master's degree in nursing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #2 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Iowa ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 227 master's degrees in nursing to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of nursing for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

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

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to nursing students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other nursing students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt nursing 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 nursing related body.

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

More Ways to Rank Nursing Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Iowa list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in Iowa

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in nursing.

Top Iowa Schools for a Master's in Nursing

1

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

15 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of Iowa if you wish to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in nursing from University of Iowa

2

Allen College
Waterloo, IA

31 Annual Graduates

$103,370 Median Starting Salary

Allen College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in nursing. Allen College is a fairly small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Waterloo.

Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program make an average of $103,370 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Allen College

3

Graceland University - Lamoni
Lamoni, IA

120 Annual Graduates

$105,562 Median Starting Salary

Graceland University - Lamoni is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. Located in the rural area of Lamoni, Graceland Lamoni is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Master's recipients from the nursing program at Graceland University - Lamoni get $2,633 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Graceland University - Lamoni

4

Morningside College
Sioux City, IA

34 Annual Graduates

$99,854 Median Starting Salary

Morningside College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in nursing. Morningside is a small private not-for-profit college located in the small city of Sioux City.

Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program earn around $99,854 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Morningside College

Best Nursing Colleges in the Plains States Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	193	1,427
Minnesota	174	5,092
Kansas	149	134
Nebraska	123	214
North Dakota	115	60
South Dakota	89	44

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Nursing

One of 34 majors within the Health Professions area of study, Nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Nursing Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	164
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	21
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	17
Nursing Science	10
Clinical Nurse Leader	6
Nursing Administration	4
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	3
Critical Care Nursing	2

Most Popular Majors Related to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Allied Health Professions	183
Public Health	139
Communication Sciences	107
Mental & Social Health Services	88
Health & Medical Administrative Services	72
Alternative Medicine & Systems	59
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	54
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	26
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences	20
Medical Illustration & Informatics	19

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 Aleksahgabrielle. More about our data sources and methodologies.