-50%
Maharishi International University · Private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer
10-year earnings at Maharishi International University are 50% below the private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer median ($28.0k vs $55.4k).
State hub · Iowa · vintage 2025-05
Iowa Colleges
Earnings, debt, completion, and default rates for every Title-IV institution in Iowa — and every program where federal data is published. Sourced from College Scorecard, IPEDS, and Treasury tax records.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags across Iowa
Top signals rolled up across Iowainstitutions — a mix of warnings and improvements, alternating so the page isn't skewed in either direction. Detectors: short-arc shift (recent 3-year window), earnings trend, peer outlier, completion drop, enrollment cliff, and debt-to-earnings warning. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section.
-27%
Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary · Private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer
10-year earnings at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary are 27% below the private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer median ($40.6k vs $55.4k).
-7%
Eastern Iowa Community College District · Public associate's-predominant peer
10-year earnings at Eastern Iowa Community College District are 7% below the public associate's-predominant peer median ($39.1k vs $42.0k).
-67%
Divine Word College · First-year retention
First-year retention at Divine Word College fell 67% between 2021 and 2024 (100.0% → 33.3%).
-62pp
PCI Academy-Ames · 150%-time completion
150%-time completion fell 62 pp at PCI Academy-Ames vs the 2003–2007 baseline (26.7% vs 88.8%).
-60%
Orion Technical College · Undergraduate enrollment
Undergraduate enrollment at Orion Technical College fell 60% between 2021 and 2024 (103 → 41).
SECTION 01 · STATE OVERVIEW
The numbers
Statewide aggregates across Iowa Title-IV institutions. Earnings are 10 years after entry, computed by Treasury tax records on federally aided students. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
73
Title-IV main campuses3,210
with published outcomes$42,849
across institutions58.4%
median across institutions134,019
latest historical vintage$20,270
median across institutionsSECTION 02 · LONG ARC
How Iowa has shifted
Federally available history. Sparkline coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Statewide undergraduate enrollment, all Title-IV institutions.
Median completion rate within 150% of expected time.
+12%
Statewide · completion · 150% rose
58.6% → 65.5%
+139%
Statewide · in-state tuition rose
$8,471 → $20,270
SECTION 03 · INSTITUTIONS
34 institutions with 1,000+ undergrads, ranked by 10-year earnings
Click any column header to sort. Click any row for the full institution page. Heat-shading runs against the displayed values; em-dash means the cell was suppressed by federal privacy rules. Institutions with fewer than 1,000undergrads are filtered out here — small specialty schools (cosmetology, barbering, single-credential institutes) arithmetically dominate the extremes on every metric and aren't comparable to larger schools.
Showing 34 of 73 Title-IV institutions · Public 19 · Private 34 · For-profit 20
SECTION 04 · TOP BY EARNINGS
Highest 10-year median earnings
Treasury earnings, 10 years after entry. Includes non-completers and out-of-state movers in the cohort.
SECTION 05 · TOP BY COMPLETION
Highest 150%-time completion
Share of first-time, full-time freshmen who complete within 150% of expected time (IPEDS GR). Filtered to institutions with more than 1,000undergrads — tiny cohorts skew toward 100% and aren't comparable to larger schools.
BY CITY
All 42 Iowa cities with colleges
Each city has its own hub with the colleges located there. Alphabetical.
- Ames
- Anamosa
- Ankeny
- Calmar
- Cedar Falls
- Cedar Rapids
- Council Bluffs
- Creston
- Davenport
- Decorah
- Des Moines
- Dubuque
- Epworth
- Estherville
- Fairfield
- Fayette
- Forest City
- Fort Dodge
- Grinnell
- Indianola
- Iowa City
- Iowa Falls
- Johnston
- Lamoni
- Marshalltown
- Mason City
- Mount Vernon
- Mt. Pleasant
- Orange City
- Oskaloosa
- Ottumwa
- Pella
- Sheldon
- Sioux Center
- Sioux City
- Spirit Lake
- Storm Lake
- Urbandale
- Waterloo
- Waverly
- West Burlington
- West Des Moines
METHODOLOGY
What these numbers are — and aren't
Earnings are median tax-record earnings for federally aided students, 4–10 years after first enrollment. They describe cohorts, not future outcomes — and they include non-completers and out-of-state movers. Selection bias is real: high-earning programs may attract higher-earning students. We surface descriptive numbers, not causal claims.