I have been running lots of net price calculators. Iowa State comes out to be significantly less expensive the Univ of Iowa for us. Has anyone else found this to be the case?
I mentioned Iowa State to two different guidance counselors, and their immediate response was, “Oh, what about Iowa?” Their tone implied Univ of Iowa would be a better school/choice. My questions is, how much better?
When I told them Univ of Iowa was not affordable for us, they seemed surprised. Has anyone else found a huge difference in net prices for these two schools?
Thank you!
Yes, D16 would’ve gotten signifcant merit aid at Iowa State, and not much from U of Iowa.
Each school has its academic strengths and concentrations. To my thinking, which school is better depends on intended area of study, and affordability.
If the GCs didn’t ask you more intelligent questions, I’d be wary of the value of their advice.
Do you have a budget for four years? Anticipated major?
Thanks for your reply!
DS is interested in business (at least at this point). We are WI residents. Top choices would be UW Madison and U of MN, but I’m not sure he will get in, and the business schools there are very competitive. We started looking at Iowa State as a safety that would still give him that big school feel.
I’m seeing a huge difference in need based aid. The NPC for Iowa State does not include merit aid, and from what I understand merit aid would then be deducted after that. I think the NPC for Univ of Iowa includes both merit and need. Our budget would be around $20k per year, I guess. Its pretty hard to say that out loud 
Yes, it’s hard to say $20K per year, and even harder to say $80K for four years!
It was helpful for us to refer to schools in terms of the four year net COA. $20K doesn’t sound so bad. $80K is a different matter.
A budget, and knowing where the money is going to come from, for each year of school, is so important!
What are your son’s test scores? Can we find him some automatic merit aid?
Editing to add, re: costs. Are there other college bound kids in your family?
Have you calculated a projected EFC?
Maybe consider UW-Whitewater as a (business school) safety.
Thank you both! No other kids. EFC based on 2015 taxes is $7455.
We will be looking at UW-Whitewater, Lacrosse and Eau Claire this summer. We already visited UWM over spring break. I think he can get into all of those, but not sure they will have the big school feel like UW-Madison has. Although Whitewater is pretty big into sports 
When I run the NPC for Iowa State it comes out to $18111, and then he would qualify for the second tier ACE award at $6500/yr. I like that Iowa State makes their admissions and merit awards very clear cut. Is it possible I’m doing something wrong in the calculations? That seems like a pretty good deal…even if the NPC is a bit outdated.
I wanted to add, that the NPC for Univ of Iowa came out to be $31019, including merit aid.
Most OOS publics expect OOS students to pay the high cost regardless of EFC. They charge high rates because the parents don’t pay taxes there. Those states’ taxpayers aren’t going to be giving money to OOS students. However, some publics have merit scholarships for high-stats OOS students and those funds don’t come from taxes.
If you’re trying to get costs down, then look at schools that will give large merit for his stats.
@mom2collegekids I’m not sure you understood my question…why is Iowa State so much less expensive than Univ of Iowa? Wondering if I did something wrong in calculations, or if it is a much worse school?
According to what I’ve figured, Iowa State would come out to be less expensive that several of our in state schools.
I only posted my EFC because I was asked…
COA for an OOS student at U Iowa is ~$42K. COA at Iowa State is $33K so almost $10K less to start with.
And the average need based package is ~ $12K http://www.ir.iastate.edu/PDFfiles/CDS%2015-16.pdf Seems like it may be accurate based on the data that’s published.
I understood the question, but I probably should have said more. As @“Erin’s Dad” has mentioned, Iowa is more expensive to begin with. Also, each school may have a different situation in regards to institutional aid or merit that it can afford to give.
Can you copy/paste each schools’ result?
My honest suspicion - that U of Iowa is closer to Chicago, and therefore more popular with Chicago-area students - so they charge more for OOS tuition than for Iowa State.
Really, I’ve wondered, too, about this disparity in cost between the two schools. It doesn’t seem to make any sense - except for the above reason, honestly. Both schools are very popular with Chicago-area students - but there is a huge percentage, especially, at Iowa.
Iowa is a larger university, but I really don’t see how Iowa is that much “better” than Iowa State.
Thank you for your replies! I honestly didn’t look at the starting amount, so it didn’t really occur to me they were so differently priced to start with. I have been completely focused on looking at net prices.
All of the UW schools come out to be within a couple thousand dollars of each other, so I was very surprised when two Iowa Schools had such different prices.
I would have felt better if the guidance counselors had responded more enthusiastically to Iowa State, but Univ of Iowa is just not in our budget.
Have you looked into U Nebraska, and U Missouri? Those are all cheaper than U of Iowa, i believe.
Does he have a 3.0? If so, he could pay in-state tuition, I believe at Southern Illinois U-Carbondale; and Illinois State. IL State reportedly has a decent Business school, and it’s over 20k students.
We toured UW-Eau Claire with my D - she loved the campus and town, and the only reason she didn’t apply there was because they did not have her major.
If WI is in the Midwest Student Exchange Program, look at schools on that list, too. My D ended up loving (and will attend) a school on the MSEP list, that I’d put on her list as a last-minute safety. That school ended up being her top choice.
My stepdaughter attended U of Iowa. It is my own humble opinion that it is not worth the OOS tuition price, especially if paying full price with little to no grants or merit awards.
Back when my stepdaughter attended, OOS tuition was only 18k a year. I understand it’s 29k now.
We considered Iowa State for my own D (no way we were paying 29k for tuition alone at Iowa) and Iowa State would have been MUCH cheaper because OOS tuition is only 20k, AND they also give more generous merit awards.
D eventually decided she wanted a school with less than 20k students and Iowa State was too big for her.
There are kids around here who attend Iowa State. Again, the perception is that U of Iowa is somehow better, but I sincerely believe that’s just perception, because people know it better. One big difference - Iowa State has Engineering and Agriculture. U Iowa does not.
Iowa doesn’t really have a flagship, and aside from sports loyalties, you’d be hard pressed to find an Iowan claiming one is superior to the other. UI has the med and law school and majors in nursing and other health sciences. The hospital is considered part of the university and the whole staff are university employees. This may be why costs are so much higher for OOS at UI. The school simply has a higher cost per student (think about all those medical salaries) and it is passed along. In state, costs are pretty comparable.
ISU is a land grant university. It houses the Ag and vet medicine schools, and is well known for engineering. Undergraduate students can major in family and consumer sciences there. I know someone who went into food sciences and specifically works now with “flavors.”
Either would provide a good education in business.
It’s not unusual at all to have the ‘state’ schools different in price from the ‘university of’ schools. U of Colorado is different and charges different tuition than Colorado State. CSU is part of the WICHE/WUE group and CU is not. In California, there is a big difference in price for OOS student at the CSU v. UC schools.
I’m an Iowa resident and I do think many Iowans perceive differences between the two. I think you’re worried that Iowa State’s lower cost indicates the education your child would receive is somehow less than it would be at Iowa. That isn’t true. Many would argue the opposite. I personally would prefer Iowa State for either of my children’s academics. (DD14 had it as her first choice until she visited her current school and it’s on DS17’s list but the engineering program is a bit big for his preference.)
The schools do have academic differences, mainly in the areas others have pointed out–engineering and ag vs medical and law, although you could do engineering at Iowa and premed at ISU–but the main difference is atmosphere. Iowa’s campus is more spread out in the community and it has a reputation as a party school. Iowa State has more of a traditional campus feel and is growing in-state enrollment like crazy. Your child would have the opportunity for a good to great experience at either.
I think the lower OOS cost may be because outside of Iowa there might be a stigma to being the “Ag school”, but instate I’ve heard quite often that Iowa State > Iowa.
Have you considered University of Northern Iowa? It may be a bit smaller than your son wants, but if you’re looking for a business degree, UNI offers a very good program. I’m not sure how the OOS finances come out for UNI, but it may be worth a few minutes running the numbers