College Costs in Iowa

How much does it cost to attend college in Iowa?   The average annual in-state college tuition in Iowa was $19,703 for the 2020-2021 academic year. This is $4,782 higher than the U.S. average and ranks Iowa amongst the costliest as the 8th most expensive and 45th most affordable state or district to attend college. This is a change of ($341) from the 2019-2020 average of $20,044 and represents a -1.7% annual decline. The list of Iowa colleges below provides school specific cost and value rating.

Our guide surveyed tuition data from the 62 colleges and universities in Iowa, the most popular being Iowa State University with 28,302 full time students and an in-state tuition list price of $8,042. Grinnell College is the most expensive in Iowa with an in-state tuition of $56,188.

Click on any school for current tuition, future cost estimates, school specific savings plans and estimated student loan payments. Iowa colleges can also be filtered by public, private, community colleges and four year schools. Additionally, cost based sorting is available for the lowest and highest tuition options. Jump directly to our ranking of best values in Iowa or cheap Iowa colleges guide.

<Academic Rating is a CollegeCalc proprietary national percentile ranking of a college's overall difficulty and educational effectiveness. An average score is 50. Dollar value is a measure of a school's academic rating compared with the average net price paid. Colleges which are ranked "n/a" didn't report sufficient data to formulate a score. Learn more about our ratings.

All price data are reprinted from the U.S. Department of Education's 2020-2021 IPEDS Survey and reflect reported costs for the 2020-2021 academic year.

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