AMES, Iowa — If you want to attend one of Iowa’s public universities, prepare to pay up. The Iowa Board of Regents is gearing up to raise tuition by 3.5 percent in the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Board of Regents gathered Thursday to discuss the possible increase. If approved by the board, the yearly cost of in-state undergraduate tuition at its three universities would be as follows:

  • University of Iowa: $10,964 (increase of $611 from 2022-2023)
  • Iowa State University: $10,497 (increase of $364 from 2022-2023)
  • University of Northern Iowa: $9,728 (increase of $317 from 2022-2023)

Iowa State’s current in-state undergraduate tuition of $10,133 per year is a staggering increase from ten years ago, when the same tuition was only $6,648 per year.

Some Cyclone students and parents are enraged at the possibility of another increase.

“It’s not great,” said Autumn Tiedens, a freshman at Iowa State studying kinesiology. “I’m on my own to pay tuition, so as much help as I can get to lower the cost, I would like.”

“Coming out of college with the debt they have, it takes forever to pay it back,” said Amy Halstead, whose son is a freshman studying aerospace engineering at Iowa State.

According to the university, 87 percent of Iowa State students receive some type of financial aid, which adds up to more than $344 million of aid. More than half of financial aid recipients receive some form of need-based aid.

Both Tiedens and Halstead worry the rising costs will leave the next generation of professionals at a massive disadvantage after graduation.

“It feels really tough to start off on not the best footing financially when you’re in debt and trying to start a life,” Tiedens said. “I would love to have a house and hope I have a stable career, but I’m always going to have to pay back my debt.”

“Help these kids out,” said Halstead, a teacher in Ankeny who graduated from the University of Northern Iowa. “They want to do well and succeed, but to have these costs go up when they’re already high…I just don’t understand why it’s as expensive as it is.”