I’m heavily interested in the two big Iowa schools (with Iowa state being significantly more affordable for my family) and was wondering how the reputation and how good each program is for the schools in computer science. I did get into Iowa state and I will be applying to Iowa soon. Thank you all !
How do you know that Iowa State is much more affordable to your family? Did you run the NPC at both schools? Did you get a merit scholarship at Iowa State.
US News ranks the graduate programs in CS at Iowa and Iowa state equal at 63. They are both members of the AAU, a group of prestigious research universities. If you leave the state of Iowa, there will be absolutely no difference in reputation between the schools. Very few in the valley have heard of either of them. They are in the same tier, good but not prestigious flagships. Microsoft recruits at both schools: https://careers.microsoft.com/recruiters.
When you compare them here (http://colleges.startclass.com/compare/1463-1466/Iowa-State-University-vs-University-of-Iowa), the differences are trivial, favoring Iowa very slightly. The differences in entering stats are very slightly different, probably because the College of Agriculture at Iowa State has lower entering stats and Iowa doesn’t have a corresponding program.
I know the affordability because my parents and I discussed what my budget is for college even though we used the NPC. As of now no merit from Iowa state was mentioned in my acceptance.