
Standard federal four-year and six-year undergraduate graduation rates do not describe Des Moines University's professional programs well. Those measures follow specified cohorts of first-time, full-time undergraduates, rather than students entering with prior college education to pursue medicine or another health profession.
A more useful comparison is program-level completion over the degree's expected time frame. Depending on the intended profession, applicants may also want outcomes such as licensure-exam performance, residency placement, or employment reports. These measures answer different questions: a residency placement rate, for example, is not a graduation rate. When reviewing a published figure, check its graduating class, denominator, and whether students who completed late are included.
There is no single institution-wide earnings figure that reliably represents Des Moines University graduates one year after completion. Physicians, podiatrists, physical therapists, physician assistants, and public health graduates enter different occupations and stages of training.
Timing matters especially for medical students: a graduate entering residency is paid as a resident, not as an established physician. Earnings comparisons should identify the occupation or program, the year after graduation being measured, and whether the figure is a median or an average. They also cannot capture every student's debt, training costs, location, work hours, or career choice. Applicants weighing the financial return of a particular degree should compare program-specific outcomes with that program's full cost and expected time in training.
MASTER’S Degree
Health Professions and Related Programs
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Data last updated on November 2, 2026
Data sources: IPEDS 2024-25, Peterson 2026, College Scorecard 10/2026, Clery 2024 (2023-24), OpenAlex 2026
Figures on this profile come from federal and third-party datasets in the editions listed above and are refreshed periodically, so they may differ from what the institution currently reports. Confirm costs, deadlines and requirements with the school before making decisions.