1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
Those are the years that I know for fact your statement is NOT true.
Please allow me to rephrase my statement. Since ISU has been in existance, there has never been a year when Iowa has enrolled more Iowa high school seniors than ISU.
Iowa will enroll their largest freshman class ever this fall (a class that might even end up being as large as ISU's freshman class), but the majority of their entering freshmen will be nonresidents. And the vast majority of these nonresidents will be from Illinois. This is why people sometimes jokingly refer to Iowa as the University of Western Illinois.
ISU has a larger undergraduate enrollment, and a larger full-time enrollment. Iowa has more graduate and part-time students. ISU's residence hall system, Greek system, intramural system, number of student clubs and organizations are all significantly larger than Iowa's.
But Iowa took the state's nickname back in the 1800's and claimed it as their own, and now they claim the state is named after them.