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Community-college Pell-grant share in Iowa

Community colleges in Iowa ranked by Pell-grant share — the percentage of undergraduates who received a federal Pell Grant in the most recent reporting year. Pell share is a useful proxy for the share of the student body from lower-income households and for the institution's experience serving students who depend heavily on need-based federal aid.

  1. St Luke's CollegeSioux City, IA50%
  2. Iowa Central Community CollegeFort Dodge, IA35%
  3. Ellsworth Community CollegeIowa Falls, IA35%
  4. Indian Hills Community CollegeOttumwa, IA24%
  5. Eastern Iowa Community College DistrictDavenport, IA24%
  6. Southwestern Community CollegeCreston, IA24%
  7. Kirkwood Community CollegeCedar Rapids, IA24%
  8. North Iowa Area Community CollegeMason City, IA24%
  9. Northeast Iowa Community CollegeCalmar, IA23%
  10. Hawkeye Community CollegeWaterloo, IA22%
  11. Iowa Lakes Community CollegeEstherville, IA19%

How to interpret Pell share

The federal Pell Grant is the largest need-based grant program in U.S. higher education. Eligibility is determined by the FAFSA and is based primarily on family income and assets relative to the cost of attendance. A community college with a high Pell-grant share is, by construction, an institution whose student body skews toward lower-income households. That is not a quality signal in either direction on its own — many of the strongest community-college transfer pipelines in Iowa run through institutions with high Pell shares — but it does indicate where institutional services such as emergency aid, child-care subsidies, food pantries, and need-based scholarships are most likely to be developed and well-resourced.

If you are eligible for the Pell Grant, the practical implication is that several of the community colleges on this list will be tuition-free for you after the grant is applied, with state aid and institutional aid often covering most of the remaining cost of attendance. File the FAFSA as early as possible in the academic year — it determines eligibility for all major federal need-based programs, and many state aid programs in Iowa use the FAFSA as their qualifying application as well.