Public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States
How does this school stack up?
The University of Iowa was founded in late February of 1847, as one of the very first legislative acts of the new state of Iowa after it was admitted to the union at the end of December of the previous year.
Iowa City had been the old territorial capital city, and remained the capital for the first ten years of the new state’s existence. In 1857, the state capital was moved to Des Moines, but the Old Capitol Building remains one of the most prominent landmarks on the university’s main downtown campus.
In line with its original charter, the University of Iowa has no campuses elsewhere in the state (thus, it has no connection to the other two major Iowa public universities, Iowa State University, in Ames, and Northern Iowa University, in Cedar Falls).
The University of Iowa has always been a forward-looking and socially progressive institution. For example, its College of Law—established in 1865 as the first law school west of the Mississippi—was the first public institution to confer a law degree on a woman, Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson, in 1873. (This was only three years after the first woman obtained a law degree from a private school, the University of Chicago.)
Alexander G. Clark, Jr., who obtained his law degree from Iowa in 1879, is believed to be the first African American in the United States to receive that distinction (though others had passed the bar exam and practiced law earlier).
In 1870, Iowa also established the first medical school in the country that was open to both men and women.
In academics, the “Iowa School” of philosophical realism is especially noteworthy. It was founded by the Austrian-born philosopher, Gustav Bergmann, and continued by his German-born pupil, Reinhardt Grossmann (who later taught at Indiana University) and the American-born, Laird Addis.
The University of Iowa is also renowned for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, whose faculty and students have contributed a whole galaxy of distinguished names to American letters, including, among many others,:
Other notable Iowa-connected individuals include:
What does this school look for?
Annual Applications
26,706
Acceptance
83%
Graduation Rate
72%
Median SAT Score
1225
Median ACT Score
25
How much does it cost to attend?
Tuition (in-state)
$7,770
Fees (in-state)
$1,497
Averages for 10 years after enrolling
Avg Earnings
$62,000
Employed
94%
What's it like to attend this school?
Full time on-campus stats
Student Body
27K
Under-Grads
23K
Graduates
4K
Where will you be attending?
Location
101 Jessup Hall,
Iowa City IA
52242-1316
On Campus Crime Rates
Property Crime
7k per 100k
Violent Crime
0k per 100k
City Crime Rates
Property Crime
21k per 100k
Violent Crime
3k per 100k
Our answer to this is to show you the disciplines in which a school's faculty and alumni have had the highest historical influence. A school may be influential in a discipline even if they do not offer degrees in that area. We've organized two lists to show where they are influential and offer corresponding degrees, and where they are influential through scholarship although they don't offer degrees in the disciplines.
Who are University of Iowa's Most influential alumni?
University of Iowa's most influential alumni faculty include professors and professionals in the fields of Literature, Communications, and Nursing. University of Iowa’s most academically influential people include Tennessee Williams, Flannery O'Connor, and Tom Brokaw.