Iowa State University acceptance rate and admissions profile

Iowa State University, a public university in Iowa, reports a 89% acceptance rate and sits in the accessible band. In practice that means it admits most qualified applicants, so a strong application is judged against an applicant pool that is already self-selected.

Use this page to see what Iowa State University weighs, where it ranks among Iowa schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1310, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

The factors that carry the most weight at Iowa State University are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and standardized test scores. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Iowa State University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

Among the 21 Iowa schools we track, Iowa State University ranks #17 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Grinnell College (15%) and William Penn University (52%) sit nearby, which makes Iowa a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list. As a public university, residency matters: in-state applicants generally see meaningfully better odds than the headline rate suggests.

Applicants targeting Iowa State University often weigh Colorado State University, East Carolina University, and New Mexico State University, which sit at a similar level. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate and admitted test ranges reflect publicly reported data (U.S. Department of Education / NCES IPEDS / Common Data Sets). Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.