First Cyclones Scholarship

The First Cyclones Scholarship Program aims to enhance the ISU undergraduate experience for first-generation and income-restricted students by providing students and families campus navigational, financial and personal support Resources; student leadership and personal development; and student career readiness opportunities — comprehensively advancing the student’s academic success and their ability to become future global leaders.

The associated scholarship award grants up to one hundred (100) scholarships in the amount of full tuition to incoming first-year students, who are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents and have a demonstrated financial need and/or are first generation college students. Students will also need to demonstrate advanced commitment to their academic success and improving the human condition via well-written scholarship application essays.

The scholarship is renewable for a maximum of eight semesters, provided the student complies with all scholarship program components listed below.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
• Be a new, direct out-of-high school student for entry term Summer 2025 or Fall 2025. Prospective students who have been out of high school for over one year and have not gone to college are not eligible. Transfer are not eligible
• Be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident. Students who identify as undocumented or as Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not eligible for the scholarship
• Be admissible to Iowa State University
• Be a First-Generation college student (meaning that your parents did not complete a 4-year college or university degree, regardless of other family member’s level of education) and/or low-income eligible. The term “low-income eligible” means an individual whose family’s taxable income for the preceding year did not exceed 150 percent of the poverty level amount
• A FAFSA must be submitted by the priority deadline: February 1, 2025

Up to 100 hundred full-tuition scholarships are awarded to incoming undergraduate US first-year students directly out of high school as part of the First Cyclones Scholarship program. This award opportunity is available to students enrolling at Iowa State for Summer or Fall 2025. The scholarship is worth full undergraduate tuition for in-state students at a value of $8,678/year or out-of-state students at a value of $25,162/year based on current tuition rates.

Students will be notified by April 2025 if they are selected to receive the First Cyclones Full-Tuition Scholarship. The scholarship is renewable for an additional three years (for a total of four years or eight semesters of undergraduate study), provided the student maintains a cumulative 2.00 Iowa State grade point average, and each academic year completes 24 new credit hours at the university. Students must also remain continuously enrolled and enroll in and successfully complete the UST 102A and UST 205 courses. Because demonstrated financial need is a considered in the criteria, we ask all students who want to be considered for the award to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Because the First Cyclones Scholarship is valued at full tuition, recipients are NOT eligible to receive the following awards: Academic Recognition Award, Award for Competitive Excellence, Cardinal Leadership Scholar Award, Nonresident Initiative to Commend Excellence, Return to Iowa—Generations Scholarship, Science Bound Tuition Scholarship, and the ISU Grant. Recipients may use other scholarships awarded by Iowa State as well as outside scholarships and grants (including the Federal Pell Grant) to pay for room and board, fees, books and personal expenses. Please note that fees are separate from tuition.