How to Apply to Public Health at the University of Iowa: Direct Admission to the College of Public Health with RAI 265 and a 3.33 High School GPA, Otherwise Enter Liberal Arts and Sciences as a Public Health Interest Student and Apply After 12 Semester Hours with a 2.75 GPA, for U.S., International (Including Chinese) and Transfer Students

The University of Iowa (Iowa) teaches public health at the undergraduate level in its College of Public Health. The catalog says the college awards two bachelor’s degrees, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in public health, plus an undergraduate certificate, and that the college’s programs are accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). There are two routes in: direct admission as a first-year student, or entering the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) as a public health interest student and applying to the college once you have the credits and GPA. This guide follows the pages for fall 2027 entry, split into U.S. applicants, international applicants, applicants from China and transfer students. One limit up front: the College of Public Health’s own website (www.public-health.uiowa.edu) returned 403 when checked, so it was not used and nothing here comes from it; everything below is from the General Catalog and the admissions office’s pages. The broader life-sciences picture is in our separate overview article.

1. Degrees and options

• BA and BS: both need at least 120 semester hours, a cumulative GPA of at least 2.00 in UI courses, and at least 30 semester hours of public health coursework at Iowa. The BA requires at least 45 s.h. in the major and the BS at least 57 s.h. The catalog frames them differently: the BA page says the BA gives knowledge of the community and behavioral aspects of public health for students interested in health education, health communication, public health program development or policy work, and prepares them for study in areas such as the social sciences, communication studies, social and community health, or health policy and management; the BS page says the BS gives knowledge of the natural sciences for students interested in research settings or advanced study in areas such as biostatistics, dentistry, environmental health, epidemiology, medicine, nursing, occupational health, pharmacy, public health or veterinary medicine.
• Five core knowledge areas: biostatistics, social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management, and occupational and environmental health sciences, with a capstone experience and exposure to public health professionals and agencies.
• The college’s five departments: Biostatistics, Community and Behavioral Health, Epidemiology, Health Management and Policy, and Occupational and Environmental Health. The pages read do not divide the undergraduate degree into concentrations or list an undergraduate minor; they show the BA, BS and one undergraduate certificate.
• Experiential learning (BA and BS): complete at least one course in research, internship, global learning or service learning; CPH:2050 (career planning) is recommended first. The catalog lists undergraduate research, internship, global learning and service learning courses at 0–3 s.h.
• Honors in the major: GPA of at least 3.33 in the major, college and UI coursework, plus an honors thesis in CPH:4990 (proposal, defense, research, thesis, oral or poster presentation); it also satisfies the experiential learning requirement. Public health interest students can join the UI Honors Program until admitted to the college, but membership is not required for applying or graduating with honors.
• Combined bachelor’s-graduate (BA and BS pages): students apply in their third year and begin graduate credit in the fourth year, up to 15 s.h., while completing 120 s.h. and meeting Graduate College admission requirements. Whether this is open to international students is not published on the pages read; details are on the college’s U2G page, which could not be read.
• Second degree: the BA page says BA students can pursue an additional CLAS degree, meeting the requirements of both colleges with an advisor in each.
• STEM designation: the pages read do not say; not published there.

2. How you get into the major

• Direct admission: for first-year students applying for fall only. Three conditions: meet the high school course requirements; a Regent Admission Index (RAI) of 265 or higher; and a cumulative high school GPA of 3.33 or higher (weighted or unweighted). Applicants who meet the course and GPA requirements are carefully considered, and students may be admitted without a test score. Directly admitted students can apply for first-year scholarships, which are competitive and based on high school records and short essays. Students denied direct admission may file an online petition.
• If not admitted directly: you may be admitted to CLAS as a public health interest major and apply to the College of Public Health after completing 12 semester hours at Iowa with a 2.75 GPA (standard admission).
• Standard admission dates: the catalog gives May 1 for fall and December 1 for spring, and says the 12 s.h. at Iowa and the 2.75 GPA in all Iowa and all college coursework must be met by the end of the semester in which you apply. The college’s transfer page gives May 3 (fall) and December 1 (spring) (section 7). The catalog and the admissions page differ on May 1 versus May 3, so both are listed.
• Seat cap: not stated on the pages read; not published there.
• If standard admission is denied: an appeal is possible with documented extenuating circumstances.
• Four-year plan checkpoints (BA page; apply to directly admitted students and students who meet prerequisites and apply before the third semester, including interest students): before semester 2, CPH:1050 for direct admits; before semester 3, CPH:1400, CPH:1600 and one-quarter of graduation hours; before semester 4, CPH:2050 and CPH:2600; before semester 6, CPH:3600; before semester 7, CPH:3700; before semester 8, all core courses except the capstone, plus the experiential requirement.
• Advising: directly admitted first-year students are advised by the college’s undergraduate program staff; CLAS public health interest students are advised at the university’s Academic Advising Center; students admitted to the college are advised there. Everyone must see an advisor before registering each semester.

3. Prerequisites and curriculum (from the catalog)

• Public Health Core (same for both degrees): 29 s.h. for standard or transfer admits and 30 s.h. for direct admits (who add the 1 s.h. CPH:1050 seminar): CPH:1400 Fundamentals of Public Health, CPH:1600 Public Health Science: Inquiry and Investigation, CPH:1800 Social and Psychological Determinants of Health, CPH:2050 Career Planning: Exploring Careers, CPH:2400 The U.S. Health System in a Global Context, CPH:2600 Introduction to Public Health Methods, CPH:3050 Career Planning: Preparing Post-Graduation Plans, CPH:3400 Health, Work, and the Environment, CPH:3600 Applied Public Health Methods, CPH:3700 Methods for Program Implementation and Evaluation, and the capstone CPH:4999.
• BA biology requirement: 4 s.h., one of BIOL:1140 Human Biology: Nonmajors, BIOL:1141 Human Biology: Health Professions or BIOL:1411 Foundations of Biology.
• BS science and math requirement (16 s.h.): BIOL:1411 Foundations of Biology, BIOL:1412 Diversity of Form and Function and CHEM:1110 Principles of Chemistry I, plus one of MATH:1440 Mathematics for the Biological Sciences, MATH:1460 Calculus for the Biological Sciences or MATH:1850 Calculus I (4 s.h. each).
• Public health electives: at least 12 s.h. of college courses in both degrees, for example climate change and health, infectious disease transmission and pandemic threats, health economics, workplace safety, nutrition in public health, global public health, emergency preparedness and response, policy and advocacy, global road safety, injury and violence prevention, and field experiences.
• General education: also required; the BA page lists RHET:1030, ENGL:1200, World Languages (0–10 s.h., three ways to qualify), Natural Sciences 7 s.h., Quantitative or Formal Reasoning 3 s.h. and more; every student completes CSI:1600 “Success at Iowa” in the fall.
• Statistics and math: the BA lists no separate calculus requirement; the BS requires one of the three math courses above; biostatistical content is taught inside the core courses such as CPH:2600 and CPH:3600, so read the catalog for detail.
• AP/IB credit: the catalog says students can earn up to 30 s.h. by CLEP, AP, GCE or IB examinations, applied first to General Education requirements and possibly to a major, minor, certificate or electives. The college keeps its own table of scores and course duplicates, which was not read; check the website.
• Practice hours: the catalog does not give a number of hours; experiential courses are 0–3 s.h., so ask the college’s undergraduate program office for specific requirements.
• Pre-health and graduate school: the catalog notes the college partners with the Carver College of Medicine and the colleges of Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy; undergraduate pre-health advice is not stated on the pages read. The college also offers MPH, MHA, MS and PhD degrees.

4. Rounds, deadlines and materials (first-year, fall 2027)

• Early action November 2 (documents by November 9); regular deadline February 1 (documents by February 8). Applicants after February 1 are not eligible for merit scholarships and are admitted only case by case on a space-available basis; May 3 is the summer or fall acceptance deadline. Decisions are made on a rolling basis beginning in August.
• Platform: the University of Iowa application, or the Common Application (fall session only).
• Application fee: $55, nonrefundable, fee waiver available; $80 for international applicants, with no waivers unless graduating from a U.S. high school and financially qualifying.
• Testing: test-optional for general admission under a “No Harm” policy (scores are used only if they help); the page adds that scores at or above 26 ACT / 1230 SAT typically open larger merit scholarship opportunities. Codes: ACT 1356, SAT 6681. The optional ACT science section is not required; for ACT tests taken after September 2025 the composite is calculated from the English, Math and Reading sections; and superscores are not used for admission or scholarship consideration.
• Essay and recommendations: the first-year pages read do not mention either; not published there, so check the application checklist.
• Dates: the pages do not clearly print a year beside every date (the requirements page is headed for students applying for Fall 2027), so confirm they apply to fall 2027 entry.

RAI and high school courses (Public Health uses the same column as Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business and Education): RAI = 3 × ACT composite (or SAT equivalent) + 30 × cumulative high school GPA + 5 × years of core courses completed. Applicants need at least 15 full-year college-prep courses, including 4 years of English, 3 of mathematics (including Algebra I, Algebra II and geometry), 3 of social studies, 2 of the same world language, and 3 of science (physical science, biology, chemistry, environmental science or physics). Even with an admissible RAI, missing core courses lead to an individual review that could end in denial.

5. The three readers

U.S. applicants

• Apply with the Iowa application or the Common App; direct-admission conditions are in section 2.
• 2026–27 costs (living on campus; tuition estimates are set each summer by the Iowa Board of Regents): tuition and fees $11,971 for Iowa residents and $34,247 for non-residents; housing and food $14,022; total billed expenses $25,993 (residents) and $48,269 (non-residents); other estimates include books $950, personal $3,648 and transportation $1,254. The page lists the majors with different tuition (business, computer science and informatics, engineering, medicine radiation sciences and nuclear medicine technology, nursing) and public health is not among them; whether public health carries a program fee is not stated on the pages read.
• Residency: classification is decided by the Registrar’s Office, which publishes residency guidelines.
• Any in-state preference in admission is not published on the pages read.

International applicants

• Applying: international means non-U.S. citizens and permanent residents; use the Iowa application or the Common App (fall only); decisions are rolling from mid-September; the fee is $80; upload transcripts from every school in your MyUI admissions profile.
• Minimum conditions (high school outside the U.S.): a 3.0 GPA on academic courses (U.S. “B”); three years of completed secondary coursework; completion of secondary school (generally 12–13 years of education); a transcript showing a graduation date or a separate diploma; the minimum high school course requirements; and English proficiency.
• Public health deadlines for international applicants: the international deadlines page lists Public Health at May 3 for fall or summer and November 16 for spring. The same group of pages (the international application page and the College of Public Health first-year page) also list November 2 early action, February 1 regular and a May 3 acceptance deadline, and say applicants after February 1 are not eligible for merit scholarships. Both sets of dates appear and the pages do not say which applies to international applicants, so confirm with the admissions office.
• Testing: SAT/ACT are not required of applicants who completed secondary school outside the U.S., but the page says they are required to be considered for academic scholarships, Tippie direct admission or the Honors Program. The College of Public Health page says international admission decisions are based on high school courses, GPA and English proficiency, and that ACT/SAT are optional but encouraged for additional merit scholarship consideration.
• English requirement (admissibility): TOEFL iBT taken before January 2026, 80 with all subscores 17 or higher; TOEFL iBT taken after January 2026 (new 1–6 scale), 4.0 with all subscores 3.5 or higher; IELTS 6.5 with all subscores 6.0 or higher; ACT English 21; SAT Reading + Writing 540; AP English 4 or higher; IB HL English A 5 or higher; Cambridge exams at grade C or higher. Lower subscores lead to required ESL courses (for example TOEFL subscores below 5.0 on the new scale or IELTS subscores below 7.5); some routes require all four ESL courses; on arrival students may test out through the English Language Placement Exam (EPE), and a TOEFL iBT of 100 waives all EPE courses; students subject to the exam pay a $120 fee. Citizens of listed English-speaking countries and students who attend a U.S. high school for at least three years can be exempt.
• Financial documentation: the pages read do not give a proof-of-funds amount or document list; not published there, so check the international admissions office.
• 2026–27 international estimate: the table covers Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering and Nursing; Liberal Arts and Sciences shows tuition and fees $35,442, living expenses $14,022, health insurance $2,628, books $950, total $53,042. Public health is not in the table, and the page says international tuition varies by area of study, so public health international tuition is not stated on the pages read. The fee list also includes a $250 international student fee and a $120 international orientation fee.
• Aid and work: international students do not qualify for need-based scholarships, grants or loans administered by Student Financial Aid; international scholarships are competitive and many renew for up to four years. F-1/J-1 students may work on campus up to 20 hours a week (40 during breaks) but not in Work-Study jobs; after one year F-1 students are eligible for off-campus internships related to their program, and other off-campus employment is rarely allowed.

Applicants from China (separate section)

• Whether the Gaokao is considered: the pages read do not say; not published there. Ask Iowa’s admissions office.
• Country entry in the academic requirements list: final diploma named “Upper Middle School Graduation Certificate or High School Graduate Diploma”; minimum average on core academic subjects (mathematics, science, language, social science), comparable to a U.S. B or 3.0 GPA: 80/100% when D is awarded, 75/100% when D is not awarded (the page does not explain “D”); English proficiency requirement: Yes.
• Transcripts and exit-exam materials: the page tells applicants to upload transcripts from every school attended in MyUI and to use the country list; whether the senior-high exit exam results are required separately is not published on the pages read.
• Whether Iowa has a public health–specific note for Chinese applicants is not published on the pages read; check the country list and the international admissions pages.

6. Costs and scholarships, a note

Cost estimates are in section 5. The page for the college says directly admitted first-year students can apply for the college’s first-year scholarships; the university’s scholarship page lets you filter awards by college and says some scholarship applications are due well before admission deadlines, so apply early.

7. Transfer

• Requirement: at least 12 s.h. completed and a GPA of at least 2.75 in all college-level coursework attempted, by the end of the semester you apply.
• Deadlines: May 3 for fall; December 1 for spring (November 16 for international applicants). Transfer applicants’ official transcripts and documents must arrive before August 1.
• Fee: $55 for U.S. applicants and $80 for international applicants.
• If denied: an appeal is possible with documented extenuating circumstances.
• Credit: Admissions evaluates General Education credit; your major department decides how the rest applies; a Transfer Equivalency Guide is available.
• International transfer: for colleges outside the U.S., a cumulative GPA of 2.50 on at least 24 semester hours of academic coursework after high school; fewer than 24 s.h. are considered with high school records; English requirements as above; international transfer students apply with the Iowa application.
• The college’s transfer page lists no prerequisite course list beyond the GPA and credit-hour requirement; check section 3 and ask the college’s undergraduate program office.

Checklist

U.S. applicants:

• Direct admission: high school course requirements, RAI 265 or higher and a 3.33 high school GPA (fall only); others enter CLAS as interest students and apply after 12 s.h. with a 2.75 GPA
• Early action November 2, regular February 1, $55 fee; testing optional; the BS adds biology, chemistry and a calculus-level course, the BA a 4 s.h. biology course

International applicants (including China):

• $80 fee; a 3.0 (B) equivalent in high school; English proficiency (for example TOEFL iBT 80 or IELTS 6.5); the international deadline for Public Health is May 3 for fall
• China entry: high school graduation certificate; core-subject average of 80/100% (D awarded) or 75/100% (D not awarded); how the Gaokao is used is not published
• Check public health international tuition with the admissions office; the cost table does not list it

Transfer students:

• At least 12 s.h. and a 2.75 GPA; fall May 3; international transfers need 24 s.h. with a 2.50 GPA

Sources: University of Iowa, General Catalog: College of Public Health; Catalog: Public Health, BA; Catalog: Public Health, BS; First-Year Admissions; College of Public Health First-Year Admissions; First-Year Requirements and RAI; International Admissions; International First-Year Requirements; International Application Deadlines; English Proficiency Requirements; Academic Requirements by Country; Tuition and Estimated Costs; Estimated Costs for International Students; Transfer Admissions; College of Public Health Transfer Admissions; International Transfer Requirements. Information is for fall 2027 entry (costs are 2026-27 figures); some pages print dates without a year, so confirm they apply to fall 2027 entry. The college’s own website could not be read for this guide, so check it directly for college-level details; check Iowa’s website for the latest.