IOWA CITY, Iowa ( IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH ) - Business professor Kristina Gavin Bigsby says it’s harder now to be a student at the University of Iowa than when she was completing her own degree programs — four of them — at the university.

Costs are rising and students have more worries than ever, she said, and it’s not uncommon for Bigsby, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor in the Tippie College of Business, to get harried emails from students struggling to add coursework to what they’re already juggling.

Despite these issues, more and more students are turning to a UI education, with the university welcoming its second-largest incoming class ever of 5,561 undergraduate students this fall. Applications to the UI were also record-breaking, totaling more than 31,

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