2025 Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Doctor's Degree Schools in Iowa

If you pursue a doctor's degree in physical therapy/therapist, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #4 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 3 schools in Iowa to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of physical therapy/therapist. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 185 doctor's degrees in physical therapy/therapist during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Physical Therapy/Therapist School for Your Doctor's Degree

The physical therapy doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality physical therapy program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Other Factors We Consider

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

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on physical therapy/therapist students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other physical therapy/therapist students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor'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.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized physical therapy/therapist related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for physical therapy/therapist students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Doctor's Degree Schools in Iowa ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Physical Therapy/Therapist in Iowa

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in physical therapy/therapist.

Top Iowa Schools for a Doctorate in Physical Therapy

1

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

42 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of Iowa if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in physical therapy/therapist. Located in the city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in physical therapy/therapist from University of Iowa

2

Saint Ambrose University
Davenport, IA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

36 Annual Graduates

Saint Ambrose University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in physical therapy/therapist. St. Ambrose University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Davenport.More information about a doctorate in physical therapy/therapist from Saint Ambrose University

3

Clarke University
Dubuque, IA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

27 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Clarke University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in physical therapy/therapist. Clarke is a small private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Dubuque.More information about a doctorate in physical therapy/therapist from Clarke University

Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Colleges in the Plains States Region

Explore all the Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Colleges in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Minnesota	199	307
Missouri	175	576
Kansas	134	144
Nebraska	99	140
North Dakota	88	129
South Dakota	57	30

View All Rankings >

Physical Therapy/Therapist Related Rankings by Major

One of 16 majors within the Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions area of study, Physical Therapy/Therapist has other similar majors worth exploring.

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Occupational Therapy	74
Rehabilitation Science	3

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 Barbara E. Carver. More about our data sources and methodologies.