Iowa State University's core offering is undergraduate and graduate degree education delivered on its Ames campus, with more than 100 majors, minors, and certificates across six undergraduate colleges plus graduate and professional programs. The university also operates Iowa State Online, a separately branded arm offering online bachelor's completion, graduate degrees, and certificates for working professionals.
Enrollment-focused buyer surfaces address first-year, transfer, international, graduate, nondegree, and military students. Fall 2025 enrollment was 31,105 students, with 48% from out of state or international and 61% in STEM majors. Learning communities engage most first-year students, and undergraduate research and entrepreneurship programs round out the student experience.
Iowa State is Iowa's only land-grant university, combining a large-university research profile with a small-campus community feel. It ranks third nationally in research expenditures among universities without a human medical school, has reached the top 10 nationally in undergraduate entrepreneurship education, and reaches more than one million Iowans annually through extension and outreach in all 99 counties.
The university enrolls more than 30,000 students and covers agriculture, engineering, business, design, liberal arts and sciences, health and human sciences, and veterinary medicine. Its research ecosystem is supported by facilities such as the Student Innovation Center and the ISU Research Park, and it maintains extensive industry and federal partnerships, including NASA-funded aerospace research and NSF-supported materials discovery programs.
Iowa State prices education through tuition and fees that vary by residency, with a published cost of attendance for Iowa residents, nonresidents, and international students. More than 85% of students receive some form of financial aid, and the university administers scholarships and grants alongside federal and state aid programs.
As a public land-grant institution, the university is also funded by state appropriations, sponsored research, and philanthropy, so tuition is not its sole revenue source. Its tuition-and-fee structure follows the public-university model of differentiated resident and nonresident rates set through the state governing board.
