<p>I am an illinois resident. Im planning on attending a community college and transferring to either of those colleges. At this point the best thing to do is try my best at a 4.0 and applying with some extra curriculars. UIC has many classes that i can use to transfer from my college. I checked with iowa state and they seem to have the right classes only at Black Hawk College and some core engineering classes are missing at Rock valley. Rock valley would cost less because it is my local cc. Black Hawk is cheap as well but i would need an apartment and a job and currently i have no work experience so I'm a bit iffy on if i can find a job or not as a college freshman. I am also going with a friend to split the apartment costs if i attend Black Hawk. Which route should i take? Does Iowa state offer good scholarships/financial aid for illinois residents? Would you recommend any other colleges with similar cost and rank near iowa's? I picked iowa because it had the cheapest out of state and its engineering program is in the 30's range for computer engineering. Not sure for software engineering but i do know that their computer science is 63. UIC seems to have a better ranking in that category but not much and iowa does offer Masters dual degree with computer engineering and software engineering. Keep in mind i don't have a true experience in programming or circuits and I'm only trying these majors out because I'm good at calculus and physics. </p>
<p>Use the net price calculators at each school to estimate cost and financial aid. Normally, out-of-state public schools tend to be expensive without good financial aid, but Iowa State is relatively low cost for out-of-state students, while Illinois publics tend to expensive with poor financial aid even for in-state students.</p>