College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

Iowa State University Data & Information Overview

444 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
91% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Iowa State University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is Iowa State University Ranked?

#75 Best Colleges in Nation
#1 Best Colleges in IA
Graphic Design Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

Iowa State University was awarded 444 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is graphic design.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

Iowa State landed the #75 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Iowa State held the #89 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 40 colleges in Iowa, Iowa State is ranked at #1.

See all of the rankings for Iowa State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Iowa State?

91% Acceptance Rate
49% Of Accepted Are Women
13% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 91%, Iowa State University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.

Average Test Scores

About 13% of students accepted to Iowa State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 540 and 650. Math scores were between 543 and 680.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Iowa State University  ( 540 to 650 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Iowa State University  ( 543 to 680 )
200
800
Iowa State received ACT scores from 63% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 21 and 28.

ACT Composite Scores for Iowa State University  ( 21 to 28 )
1
36

Learn more about Iowa State University admissions.

Iowa State University Faculty

18 to 1 Student to Faculty
85% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Iowa State University, this ratio is 18 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Iowa State University is 85%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  85 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Iowa State University

88% Freshmen Retention
47% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Iowa State University has a freshmen retention rate of 88%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  88 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Iowa State for first-time, full-time students is 47%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  47 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Iowa State University.

Iowa State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

25,271 Full-Time Undergraduates
16.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
43.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 26,843 undergraduates at Iowa State with 25,271 being full-time and 1,572 being part-time.

How Much Does Iowa State University Cost?

$16,002 Net Price
48% Take Out Loans
$30,736 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Iowa State is $16,002. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Iowa State

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,766 $11,427 $14,641 $17,806 $19,491

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Iowa State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Iowa State, approximately 48% of students took out student loans averaging $7,684 a year. That adds up to $30,736 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Iowa State is 2.4%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Iowa State University.

How Much Money Do Iowa State Graduates Make?

$57,351 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Iowa State make around $57,351 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Iowa State graduates since it is 35% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at Iowa State University make the most money.

Location of Iowa State University

Iowa State
25,271 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Iowa State University is a public institution located in Ames, Iowa. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of Iowa State University.

undefined

Contact details for Iowa State are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2103
Phone: 515-294-4111
Website: www.iastate.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IowaStateU
Twitter: http://twitter.com/IowaStateU

Iowa State University Majors

119 Majors With Completions
7,005 Undergraduate Degrees
1,242 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 119 majors graduated from Iowa State University. Of these students, 7,005 received undergraduate degrees and 1,242 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 451 $64,842
Business Administration & Management 350 $50,665
Computer Engineering 328 $72,598
Marketing 270 $44,875
Finance & Financial Management 258 $51,055
Health & Physical Education 242 $32,074
Design & Applied Arts 239 $37,065
Agricultural Economics & Business 236 $46,032
Teacher Education Grade Specific 219 $39,738
Animal Science 210 $35,828

Learn more about the majors offered at Iowa State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Iowa State

52% Take At Least One Class Online
4% Take All Classes Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2020-2021, 16,019 students took at least one online class at Iowa State University. This is a decrease from the 28,334 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 16,019 1,108
2019-2020 28,334 4,289
2018-2019 7,802 1,298
2017-2018 7,589 1,374
2016-2017 6,733 1,406

Learn more about online learning at Iowa State University.

If you’re considering Iowa State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Iowa State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options