Anyone else in? S applied in early August and was accepted shortly thereafter. I think it is a top contender at this point, although we haven’t been to campus yet (going in October).
My son just applied and was accepted . Talk about super fast turnaround- just 3 days after hitting “send” ! Trying to decide when we will visit ( we are OOS) the campus.
We’re hitting up UNL and ISU late next month. Already got the expected OOS scholarships from both, and a college specific one from UNL. Still may get a little more from his major when that app is available. UNL is competitive pricewise with out in state flagship, and has the benefit of colder weather, which was a must-have on S’s otherwise very short list of what he wants in a college.
My daughter applied in mid August after visiting the campus. She was accepted within a week or so.
My son applied on Monday night at 9pm and by 1:30pm the next day was accepted! Super Fast:)
We did the campus tour last week and UNL meets nearly all of our criteria, an affordable Big 10 university in the middle of a surprisingly interesting capital city of 250,000. If you happen to reside in a state that is part of the Midwest Student Exchange Program, your tuition will be only 11K, or thereabouts.
This may sound crazy, but the short-lived reality series “Tommy Lee Goes To College” gives you a fairly decent snapshot of the place and casts the school in a very good light. Its on YouTube.
We’re leaving tonight for ISU tomorrow and UNL on Friday, can’t wait!
Please share your findings if possible! It’s likely I’ll have my decisions boil down to those exact two and will eventually have to make the same trip.
You really can’t go wrong with either college. Iowa State has a gorgeous campus with a good mix of architecture both old and new. It boasts a 200 acre quad/great lawn and has a very close-knit feel to it, despite the 36,000 student enrollment. Ames is small and is a short bus ride away from campus, but it all depends upon how important the community is to you. It seems as though there’s much more happening on campus than the town has to offer.
UNL, on the other hand, is very much integrated into the fabric of the city of Lincoln. Although the campus doesn’t have the “wow” factor of ISU, it more than makes up for it in the convenience its location, the center of a vibrant small city. Comparing the two colleges are like apples and oranges. There’s certainly no shortage of school spirit in either college.
A third college we toured was the University of Kansas in Lawrence. This school also boasted a drop-dead gorgeous campus; hilly and leafy, a very Ivy League feel to it. Lawrence is a nice college town, more Ames than Lincoln, but Kansas City is only 40 minutes away.
Of the three, we preferred Kansas, but because of the student is required to maintain a 3.25 gpa to remain eligible for the MSEP discount (whereas at Nebraska, the requirement is 2.0). Iowa State isn’t a part of the MSEP, but its out of state tuition is reasonable.
If we had to make the decision today, Nebraska would win out. Alas, we’re only the parents. Ultimately, its our daughter’s decision!
Hope this helps.
I was leaning towards UNL, partially because of the price, but my previously disinterested son really liked ISU. I liked the UNL campus just fine, but S wasn’t crazy about having to go to East and Innovation Center (as a food science major, he’d be frequently going to both). I would have been happy with it, because I liked everything I saw at UNL, but we told him he could choose, and he actually did, so we’re happy.
@twoparents Thanks for the review. My son is looking at UNL and has been accepted to UK also. We plan to visit in February need for him to see how cold it is.
We go and visit UNL this next week. S18 is ready to make his mind up. He says he will know on the plane ride back home. I am ready for this process to be over with.
@texas1820 please share you and your son’s thoughts after the visit. My OOS son and I are thinking about visiting on March 15th. He got a great package and total cost would actually be less than our in-state flagship (URI). Even with travel costs taken into consideration it would be very close. He is still waiting to hear from a couple of other schools but he is interested enough to want to make the visit.
Now we’re curious. What was his decision?
I’m really curious about your thoughts. We have two boys at Arkansas and I see your Razorback! Our third one, daughter, is looking at UNL and Iowa. Any insight you have about what you thought of Lincoln as a college town would be very much appreciated!