Wartburg College is a four-year liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Waverly, Iowa.As of 2012, the most popular programs of study at Wartburg were (in order): business, biology, elementary education, and speech communication/rhetoric. Wartburg’s social work program is the oldest undergraduate program of its kind in Iowa. Wartburg is the only private college in Iowa offering a music therapy major. The college has a 74% acceptance rate.  It maintains an 89 percent medical school placement rate and a 100 percent placement rate in other fields of medicine.

In 2007 U.S. News & World Report rated Wartburg College 6th for academic excellence among Midwestern comprehensive colleges which primarily award bachelor’s degrees, and 2nd in terms of “bang for the buck” (i.e. best value when tuition costs, scholarship aid, and academics are compared).