<p>Mom2collegekids. State aid in Iowa is pretty poor for university bound students (there are some new programs that help with 2years of cc for the poorest students). Darn little is available at the two big state schools. The third, UNI, does have some automatic merit. In-state direct costs, including room and board, run right around 20k. Not bad, but the project on student debt reports “average” debt for an ISU student at over 30k. I believe that organization also rates Iowa 4th highest in the nation for student debt.</p>