Iowa State University's admit rate has held within a 4.1-point band over 8 reported cycles.
The headline numbers, drawn from CDS sections A–H.
Per-cycle Common Data Set values. Enrolled is first-year matriculants (CDS B1), not total undergraduate population. Blank cells mean the field was not published in that year's source CDS.
| Year | Admit rate | Enrolled | 6-yr grad | Retention | SAT (50th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | 87.9% | 6,160 | 76.7% | 89.1% | 1,260 |
| 2024-2025 | 88.7% | 5,906 | 75.3% | 87.6% | 1,250 |
| 2023-2024 | 89.1% | 5,859 | 75.0% | 88.0% | — |
| 2022-2023 | 90.2% | 5,728 | 74.0% | 85.8% | 1,220 |
| 2021-2022 | 91.1% | 5,387 | 76.0% | 88.0% | — |
Cross-admits and statistical look-alikes, surfaced from the CollegeNumbers peer model.
Comparative observations derived from this school's reported CDS values and from IPEDS / College Scorecard reference data. Every claim is grounded in a number — no editorial overlay.
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 20 percentage points.
Iowa State University's 76.7% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 20.4 pp.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools Iowa State University applicants most commonly also apply to range from 42.4% admit to 82.0% admit — a 39.6 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
Broadly accessible — admit rate near the national norm.
Iowa State University's 87.9% admit rate is in line with the national 4-year-institution median of 76.6% (per IPEDS, n=1437 institutions). Most U.S. four-year colleges admit between 61.2% and 88.3% of applicants.
Sources: each school's officially-published Common Data Set; IPEDS / College Scorecard for federal comparisons. Methodology →
Compare every CDS field — admissions, aid, outcomes — side by side.
Open in CollegeNumbers compareThe Common Data Set is a standardized reporting form U.S. colleges file annually — sections A through J covering admissions selectivity, enrollment, aid, faculty resources, and outcomes. CollegeNumbers extracts every value directly from each school's officially published CDS PDF, xlsx, docx, or HTML, then normalizes into a unified schema.
Federal data layers — College Scorecard, EADA athletics, Clery campus safety, FSA financial responsibility — are joined on top. Every value traces back to its primary source. All covered schools →