<p>What are good colleges in/near Iowa? I really need some because I need to be close to home. I need some good schools near there. Thanks for your time, in advance!!</p>
<p>The University of Iowa and Iowa State are both decent state universities. The latter is better for engineering, the former for most other things.</p>
<p>Grinnell is a very good private liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Agreed with post #2. There are some great schools in Iowa.</p>
<p>Grinnell, Drake, Luther, Crieghton (just over the border into Omaha)
Not that much farther away in Minnesota are Carleton, St Olaf, and Macalester</p>
<p>The private colleges and universities in Iowa have a joint website with links to all of their websites. <a href=“https://www.thinkindependently.com/index.aspx[/url]”>https://www.thinkindependently.com/index.aspx</a> You might like to take advantage of the Iowa Private College Week tours. If you plan your days carefully, you probably can visit one each morning and another each afternoon.</p>
<p>The three public universities are Iowa State University, University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa. There are 15 community colleges in the state, here is a link that will help you find all of them [About</a> Community Colleges - Iowa Department of Education](<a href=“http://www.iowa.gov/educate/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=241&catid=183&Itemid=1433]About”>http://www.iowa.gov/educate/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=241&catid=183&Itemid=1433) Kirkwood Community College is nationally recognized for the quality of its programs.</p>
<p>Also in northern Missouri, look at Truman State University.</p>
<p>What do you want to do? Engineering/ag - ISU. Medical/Writing/Business/Law- UI. Liberal Arts- Grinnell. Law/Publishing- Drake. One caution about public schools is that you better know what you want and you better be motivated. I went to UI and had a friend drop out with a drug problem and another friend get a ride to an Ivy. One caution about private schools in Iowa is that, although education may be better, name recognition is poor. You end up getting rewarded less for more work.</p>
<p>Iowa State is indeed highly regarded for its engineering programs. Many of the more mathematically inclined students in my graduating class have selected to attend there.</p>
<p>Grinnell is usually regarded as Iowa’s most highly respected academic institution and the unique pastoral geography will particularly suit many individuals.</p>
<p>University of Iowa is excellent…truly one of the most underrated and unperappreciated universities in the nation. Grinnell is also excellent. ISU is pretty strong in Engineering.</p>
<p>Iowa and Iowa State are very good schools. I am a mechanical engineer at ISU and I have never regretted my decision to go there. ISU has a gorgeous campus that for as large as it is, the buildings are centrally located on “campus” with the town surrounding. You will not find that at the Univ. of Iowa in Iowa City. I have friends that attend the U of Iowa and I feel like that school is very dirty (granted comes with the top 25 party school) ISU is the best for engineering and Iowa is best for business and medical majors.</p>
<p>Iowa and Iowa State</p>
<p>Coe and Cornell Colleges are both decent LAC’s and Grinnell is a very good liberal arts college</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by “good”, but two that we really liked were Drake and Simpson.</p>
<p>
I agree with Alexandre statement who ofcourse has a lot of knowledge about universities in general. University of Iowa and Iowa State University are both large public universities, easily of the two I would say The University of Iowa. If your looking for a small student body look at Grinnell, and by this I mean total student body ranging from 1500-2000.</p>
<p>
I like Cornell College a lot. For some reason, it doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention on here.</p>
<p>It’s relatively unique in pioneering the block plan schedule, in which a student takes one course at a time. The only other major college to have such a schedule is a LAC that shares its initials (Colorado College).</p>
<p>[Cornell</a> College Block Plan | Block Schedule | One Course At A Time - Academics - Cornell College](<a href=“http://www.cornellcollege.edu/academics/ocaat/index.shtml]Cornell”>http://www.cornellcollege.edu/academics/ocaat/index.shtml)</p>
<p>As a bonus, it’s fairly generous with merit aid. ~26% of students receive scholarships averaging $12,000. The cost of attendance is ~$35,000, so that’s a pretty hefty package.</p>
<p>University of Iowa is where to go. Many people from outside the Midwest don’t really understand the prestige that the State schools have in the Midwest. University of Iowa, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin-Madison, or University of Illinois-UC would all be great for networking and job-hunting if you want to stay close to home after college as well.</p>
<p>My daughter is supposed to start at Coe in August. But when we visited, I heard that the president is going to “retire.” Should we be worried?</p>
<p>I’d say the three best public schools in Iowa are (descending order):</p>
<ol>
<li> Iowa State University-Ames</li>
<li> The University of Northern Iowa-Cedar Falls/Waterloo</li>
<li> The University of Iowa-Iowa City</li>
</ol>
<p>I am only very familiar with The University of Iowa where my D will attend this fall. I am very impressed so far – strong academic reputation, current administration seems well-organized and proactive and responsive, beautiful campus, very friendly and humble people. </p>
<p>Agree with other comments at least in terms of reputation that Iowa State is likewise strong and a nice environment, especially for engineering. Iowa known more for liberal arts, social sciences, writing, medicine. Not sure about business.</p>
<p>I know less about Northern Iowa – I hear it is nice, but general reputation and admissions standards are not as high. May be a wonderful place. </p>
<p>I am not familiar with any of the liberal arts schools in Iowa other than what I read.</p>
<p>rkofnovi – interested in the reasoning behind your ranking Northern Iowa higher than Iowa?</p>
<p>In this case, Northern Iowa is a win win situation vs the University of Iowa ;)</p>