Just wondering how Iowa State’s automatic scholarships work. I can’t use their calculator because my son’s school does not rank. Is there a list anywhere of qualifications?
Also, their NPC dates back to 2013-14. I emailed asking when that might be updated and the reply was to use the expense estimator on their website instead. Its not really the same thing though…
Just thought of another question…for admissions, does the RAI score apply to OOS students?
@uwalummom They seem to have different qualifications for different states. I would call or email the admissions office and ask for information for your state.
As an example, here are links to scholarship qualifications for Nebraska and Indiana residents, and the requirements are nearly the same as those for my state (Wisconsin). These pdfs might not be up to date, but will give you a good idea of what to expect. ($22,000-32,000 seems to be the current range for awards in many states.)
http://www.sacs.k12.in.us/cms/lib07/IN01907860/Centricity/Domain/849/Iowa%20State.pdf
Regarding RAI, yes, the requirements are the same for OOS students.
Thank you @Mtriplee That is very helpful! We are also in Wisconsin 
Are you a student (or parent) enrolled at Iowa State, or just looking?
Have you tried the Net Price Calculator? Just wondering if the potential automatic scholarship would come off of the Net Price shown on the NPC?
Is your kid an ISU legacy? That is one of the requirements listed in the linked docs, no? Maybe I read it wrong or missed something. It’s kind of unclear, to me anyway.
@2muchquan No, he is not a legacy…I’m not reading it that way though. I could be wrong, but I think there are some “or” in there for how to qualify.
Oh @Mtriplee I see you are a parent of a son looking at Iowa State - I didn’t notice before that you wrote the January trip report. Thanks for that, too!
You’re welcome, @uwalummom! Is your son a senior? What other schools is he considering? Mine has applied at eight, has only ruled out one that he’s been accepted into, and is still working on one last application. I’m getting the feeling this decision is going to be very, very difficult as May 1 draws closer!
I didn’t run the NPC, but did use the estimator to get a really accurate picture of ISU’s costs.
@Mtriplee My son is a junior. He is interested in UW Madison and UMN, but those will (sadly) be reaches for him. ISU seems like a good match - big school, school spirit, etc that he is looking for, and still a lot more affordable than any of the Big 10 schools (besides the UW and UMN).
Where else has your son applied? Have you done other visits? I would like my son to visit some of the other UW branches like LaCrosse, Eau Claire, Whitewater…
I wish the NPC was more updated…since it has you choose an income range, I would like to think its representing what he might get for need based aid. It would be amazing to take the auto-scholarship off of that then.
ETA: one more thing about ISU. They really, really emphasize applying for housing ASAP to get a priority date, but I don’t think you can apply for housing until you accept admission. That makes it much harder…
@uwalummom My son is a senior from Arizona and his high school also doesn’t rank. We just put in 25 out of 100 or something like that in the calculator and it estimated that he would receive the $8000 annual Award for Competitive Excellence. The inputted class ranking didn’t seem to affect the estimated award. He applied in mid July and was accepted on July 21. ISU is really fast!
On September 9, he was formally awarded the $8000 annual ACE award. We visited in early October and were pleased when on October 27, ISU also offered a two-year, $3500/year scholarship from the College of Engineering.
When he applied, my son had a 3.52/4.0 UW GPA from one of the top US high schools and a 33 from his one sitting for the ACT. He also passed 15 AP exams. His extracurriculars were good, but not great.
BTW, ISU is one of my son’s two top choices right now, along with Michigan State, which also offered some great scholarships, so the two colleges would cost almost the same. Next on his list is Alabama, which would be significantly cheaper. Finally, the two in-state colleges, ASU and Arizona also offered scholarships, which would bring their net costs just below ISU, but still more than Alabama.
@Beaudreau Thanks! Congrats to your son on those great scholarships!
When I ran the NPC for Michigan State it was not at all affordable to us, so I scratched that one off the list. Not sure my son would qualify for any scholarship with them. His GPA is good, but his ACT will be much lower than your son’s.
Did you happen to run the NPC for ISU? Just wondering if the scholarship will come off that net price total or not…
@uwalummom We have visited quite a few colleges (too many to name!), including some to which my son did not end up applying. It helped to get an early start on the visits, beginning in the fall of his junior year.
Some of the other schools he has applied to are Minnesota, Purdue, UIUC, and Marquette. He is now (at the VERY last minute) working on his UW-Madison application. He was never interested in being too close to home, but it’s so highly ranked in his intended major (and so inexpensive) that in the end it seemed foolish not to apply.
Don’t be so sure that UW-Madison and UMN are out of reach! I believe that the selectivity of these schools is overestimated. Madison accepts ~50% of applicants, and I think UMN is similar. Many kids at my son’s high school think they don’t have a chance at UW if they’re not in the top 10-15% of their class, but this really is not the case. At Minnesota, I think it really depends on which college one is applying to, as some are more selective than others. There are some very good schools in the UW system, though. I get the impression that LaCrosse is on the rise!
You’re right that ISU pushes applying for housing early. (They are growing quickly and housing is in demand.) However, they stressed that even if you do accept your offer and apply for housing, you will get all but $35 back if you withdraw your acceptance before May 1. It probably isn’t wise, but my son still hasn’t done this, because he is kicking too many schools around and is still waiting for a few decisions.
D16 has been accepted with a ACE award and award from design college (1 year). I just did the NPC as I’m curious about it all again; and that price did not include the ACE award ($8k/yr). We have friends whose kids who go there, and really really like it. Any military benefits in your family, btw? they have some great options for that for OOS kids . . .
@Mtriplee Your son has a great list of colleges he’s applied to! We are in the Madison area, and the UW would be my first choice for him. He will definitely apply to UW and UMN…as you said you never know.
The main issue with these two schools is that the business schools are both ultra-competitive for admissions. I would hate to see him admitted to the school but not to the major he wanted. Who knows, he could end up changing his major anyway though. I was reading that CFANS (ag college) in Minn has applied econ and that would be a good alternative with easier admission.
So much to think about! Thanks for sharing your experiences!
@bgbg4us Thank you for sharing the info about the NPC! That really makes ISU an even better value. You must be very happy with the extra awards your daughter earned! No military benefits in our family, but thanks for checking…
@uwalummom - We did not run the ISU net price calculator. I already knew, based on two others in college, that we would not qualify for need-based aid. So I started with $20,856 for OOS tuition, $8,070, for room and board, and then subtracted off the scholarships. The first run, I used the ACE award calculated from scholarship calculator, which will work for you if you put in an estimated class standing. I add $1300 for books and supplies and $3000 for other expenses. (I use these estimates for all our comparisons. There are relatively affordable non-stop flights from Phoenix, so I added $800 for two round trips a year. I came up with $34,026 per year total cost. I subtracted our $11,500 total scholarships to get a net cost of $22,526.
@Beaudreau Thanks for the follow-up! That makes sense.
I don’t think the expense estimator will help us, because we are eligible for some need-based aid.
@uwalummom - Have you looked at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio? My middle son is an Honors freshman there, studying Mechanical Engineering. He really likes Miami a lot! It’s a public school that feels more like a private one. They basically are an undergraduate institution (a few Masters degrees are offered.), and US News’ fifth-ranked college for undergraduate teaching Both of my son’s roommates are OOS business majors, one from California, and the other from Northern Virginia, and both had many other options. The Farmer School of Business is highly rated. http://miamioh.edu/fsb/about/index.html The campus is gorgeous, and Oxford, Ohio, is a top-rated college town.
Miami starts focusing on careers right away. They helped him build his LinkedIn page the fourth week he was there.
Football is not as big a deal as at the top Big Ten schools, but they are crazy for hockey! The Red Hawks have played in the NCAA tournament eight of the last nine years.
And the best for last. Miami offers generous merit-based scholarships (http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/) and good overall financial aid.
@Beaudreau Thank you for the suggestion! One of our friends has a daughter who is a freshman at Miami Ohio and she loves it. The Net Price Calculator doesn’t come out very good for us though. The net price is a full $15k more per year than ISU. Thank you though…
@uwalummom - Well, ISU is an awesome school. Maybe both our kids will be there.
@uwalummom - Well, ISU is a great option. Both our kids may end up there.