[SeanLuke]

If his acceptance to Iowa State as a complete disaster, why would he apply there?

Iowa State is quite a good school. BTW, it's the home of one of the first computers in history, the ABC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_comput...) Surely he'll do well there.

[lightup]

It's a good school but hard to stomach outstate tuition value prop. The "disaster" is having all your choices arbitrarily removed in spite of everything you did to succeed. Let's agree that's some BS.

[naniwaduni]

GP catastrophizing (they've had two days!) aside, finaid leverage can matter a lot, in both directions.