U of Iowa is first with $9,170.

Incidentally, both are in a small city.

surpassed Northwestern College ($7,770), Dordt College ($7,230), and Waldorf College ($6,688).

44 out of the other 48 colleges were ruled out due to missing, unknown, or not-applicable values for cost of typical room and board, e.g., Grinnell College.

1. The costs of room and board are from the Institutional Characteristics Data File 2012-2013 (Provisional Release) as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds).
   
2. College geographic information is from the IPEDS Directory, 2012-13 (Provisional release) by the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds).
   

Mount Mercy Univ is in Cedar Rapids, IA, is private and nonprofit, is Roman Catholic, degree-granting, has a nursing major, has its top major in nursing, offers on-campus housing, requires test scores for undergrad admissions, is on a four-one-four calendar, its top Masters major is business administration, management and operations, other, and enrolls from 1,000 to 4,999 students.

• PayScale mid-career median salary ranking (992nd place)
• average full-time teaching salary ($54,304)
• in-state undergrad tuition & fees ($25,400)
• out-of-state undergrad tuition & fees ($25,400)
• endowment per full-time student ($15,684)
• average grant aid to undergrads ($14,614)
• cost of typical room and board ($7,840)
• average undergrad student loan ($6,831)
• research spending ($0.0K)
• research spending per student ($0.0)
• undergrads who get financial aid (93%)
• in-state freshmen (86.7%)
• undergrads who receive student loans (85%)
• full-time retention rate (75%)
• ratio of female full-time freshmen (74.1%)
• undergrads who get Pell grants (34%)
• tuition & fees increase over three years (14.9%)
• minorities (7.5%)
• Blacks or African Americans (3.2%)
• average teaching salary differential (men vs. women, 3%)
• Hispanics (2.5%)
• foreign students (2%)
• Asians (1.6%)
• American Indians or Alaska Natives (0.2%)
• non-resident tuition & fees surcharge (0%)
• average teaching salary differential (women vs. men, -2.9%)
• alumni who played in the National Football League (0)
• average January temperature (21.9 degrees)
• dorm capacity (480)
• first-year applicants (532)
• foreign students (44)
• members of the National Academy of Sciences (0)
• men's basketball Final Four appearances (0)
• Rhodes Scholar alumni (0)
• yearly for-credit students (2,160)
• on-campus yearly property crimes per thousand students (0)
• students per faculty member (13)
• annual rainfall (37.6 inches)
• diversity and inclusion ratio (0.07)
• elevation (244 meters)

Sources