Orientation

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Iowa
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<p>Beastman,</p>

<p>Great summary…you actually had quite a few very useful tidbits to add, all very accurate and useful to those who will follow! Great to hear that your S is feeling better…our daughter also felt more confident in several dimensions following the well-run orientation. </p>

<p>On the PC question, great to know that Microsoft office is available for $9…I assume this means that other SW/HW is also available at a discount. Was wondering about this. We were going to send our D with her 2 year old Windows laptop, but battery life is not great, and it is a little noisy (AMD system with fan that runs non stop). So we have started to think about Mac vs Windows, and starting to think about a 15" Mac or a newer Windows laptop. How emphatic were they on this point, and what is your thinking? She has had limited Mac exposure, and I am not thrilled about being the remote help desk for a Mac system I do not know well, even if it is a lower maintenance system. </p>

<p>On the dorm wireless thing, I thought they told us that the dorms were wireless with 99% coverage (stairways are an issue)…not a big deal wither way, just curious about this point. </p>

<p>Thanks for the great write-up!</p>

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<p>funyet, the computer question is a hopeless quagmire, if you ask me! Want a splitting headache? Pop over to the Computer forum on CC to see the endless debates. Want a consensus? hahahahahahah!</p>

<p>A couple points of clarification. First the dorms may well be technically wireless but given the volume of users our guy suggested a hardwired connection as faster. There are two jacks next to the door of every room. He suggested that kids set up the room, figure out where the desks go and buy a length of cable to match.</p>

<p>As for purchasing software, your daughter can buy it online now that she’s registered and they’ll send her the disc. Looky here:
[University</a> Book Store - The University of Iowa - Student Media](<a href=“efollett”>efollett)</p>

<p>Pricing and available software is here:
[University</a> Book Store - The University of Iowa - Software](<a href=“efollett”>efollett)</p>

<p>As for the University’s stance on Mac/PC, this is really the scoop. First, they do not want to create any expectation that a student even have a laptop, hence the number of labs on campus. Second, any software they use or endorse must run on both systems and the IT guys support both - no favoritism. What I construed as “favoring” Macs was really his comment that from an IT standpoint the Macs are simpler. The security of the system is easier to maintain and the individual machines are more resistant to viruses and malware. And it sounded like the Mac plays nicely with the University’s systems, so presumably things like email and document sharing are easier?? But he made it clear that individuals can buy what they please. They, however, were selling the $1000 Macbook Pro like hotcakes. This computer represented the lion’s share of their sales and Macs in general far outsold Windows computers. They were selling computers at a student discount but they said they are not always the cheapest. Nor do they sell everything. </p>

<p>It’s important to remember that these kids are basically using these to run Office applications and not much more, apart from stupid gaming stuff. I went to Orientation fully expecting to buy my son the new HP Envy 14 ($1000) which is very cool. He’s going into engineering, and the assumption is generally that those kids should have PCs (even though my son has an older Macbook that he loves). But a couple things became clear: the big engineering software exists on the University’s machines and students use them for advanced needs. An engineer’s laptop needs then are no different from an art history major’s. So talk about bizarre, I wound up buying a rather expensive Macbook Pro with a monster I7 processor. It can run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously. We got an iPod Touch and an HP printer in the bargain (free) and the Mac was $200 off (student discount). And my son coughed up every dime he’d been given for graduation to get us pretty much to $1000, the cost of the HP.</p>

<p>As for support for your daughter, I know that these guys are swarming over the dorms for the first week as kids set up. Beyond that, I don’t know how accessible they are. I share your concern about familiarity, which is part of the reason I went Mac as that’s my son’s comfort zone. When you boil it down, you could buy her a $700 Windows machine and she’d be good as gold.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the review.</p>

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<p>BeastMan, </p>

<p>Thank you for the very clear and detailed description. Wow – i7 – you really went all the way! All your thoughts in your note make sense, and are closely aligned to what I had been thinking.</p>

<p>Interestingly, my brother and I were discussing this today (we are both computer geeks…he has a 17" Apple notebook - or larger) and we were also briefly discussing a dual- (or tri-) boot environment – tempting, but I think the perils of anything that introduces complexity at this point is more risk than I want to sign up her up for. I do plan on setting up her laptop so I can troubleshoot remotely, as house calls from CA can be costly. </p>

<p>I am increasingly comfortable that a basic environment my daughter would need can easily be configured with Windows or Mac, and with a 13"-15" system, it should be easy to find a long battery life solution. (I am leaning 14" or 15" for her…I have a 13" for mobility, but the screen is a little small for everyday use). So it really it boils down to Mac --cool, less virus/update maintenance headaches but more cost and a less familiar environment, or Windows 7 - an environment fraught with myriad maintenance issues, but a known quantity, and lower cost. I agree nobody will give us the “right” answer. Since she needs an iPod anyway (I started a separate thread on the CC computer forum on this a few days ago), that minimizes some of the cost issues given the Apple iPod promotion, so we may go that direction – I just need to investigate cost a little more. </p>

<p>By the way, I am thinking an iTouch is a nice upgrade path for her aged Nano, given all the added features…sounds like you concluded the same thing. Why did you go iTouch instead of iPhone? And what printer did you go with? I am shopping for a good HP MFP. Which one did you opt for?</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the really helpful info!</p>

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<p>Yes, I went all the way. It was the position of the noncommissioned salesman (I feel compelled to point that out to make myself look less like a chump) that Apple’s best buys are the bottom and the top end of their lines. That in going from the 13" Macbook pro to the middle one (whatever it is, it was $1600) you get relatively little but when you go to the $2000 one (hooray! that’s us!) you get a big leap. A leap in what, I’m not sure. In my son’s saving a 2 page Word document? In some nebulous aspect of performance, for sure. But it was a gift (mostly) and it doesn’t have to be entirely rational.</p>

<p>I don’t know which HP printer they gave us. They just picked it up off the floor and said “here.” I’m skeptical of its value on campus but as a copier at least, it should be good, and it was free.</p>

<p>The Touch is cool but unfortunately we have a pile of them at our house. It is an awesome device, however and far more useful than the Nano, which is really just a music player. Its chief limitation is that you need wi-fi to get online. Once online, you can use great apps like Yelp and google maps, online banking etc. Now that can be a nuisance, but if the entire campus is now wi-fi, your daughter could get some real use out of it. The promotion gives you your choice of Nano or Touch and so we chose the Touch.</p>

<p>I have an iPhone and I broke down and got my son one too (you see a pattern of irrational buying behavior here?) complete with data plan. For $90/mo. I think it’s a huge productivity tool. I use mine when I travel and I have 90% of the functionality of a laptop. I think he will use the daylights out of it in synching with his computer calendar, emailing papers, banking, etc. Much as I do!</p>

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<p>Beast,</p>

<p>Thanks for all the helpful clarifications. Just before reading your “see a pattern here?” comment, I thought to myself “I see a pattern here” :slight_smile: Just kidding, as a geek, I can really relate…my wife is ready to throw me and my gadgets out to sleep in the back yard (or worse!). </p>

<p>I now see myself spending days and weeks endlessly (and hopelessly) researching for an answer to the Mac/Windows question. But I will know more than I ever needed or wanted to know about Apple in the process. </p>

<p>One question about iTouch vs iPhone – do you see the iTouch of much value if you have an iPhone? Only seems useful if my D already has another cell phone she is using?</p>

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<p>Beastman and RWE: Thanks to you both for your great insights on orientation. Your comments are greatly appreciated. We’re taking our D to orientation on Monday and Tuesday, 6/28 & 6/29. I’m going to have her read each of your summaries. I hope our family’s expereince is as positive as yours. Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Big10Padre, thanks for enduring our off-topic discourse on computers! I think we’ve wrapped that up once I answer a couple things for rwehavingfunyet below. One thing I want to suggest to you, and has been mentioned above somewhere, is Courses in Common. These are 3-course clusters that students in a given major are likely to take as freshmen, like chemistry, calculus and engineering problem solving for me son for example. You register for a given cluster along with up to 19 other kids and thus have those “courses in common.” It’s a way of connecting your student with the other 19 making the big school smaller. My son did it; not sure how it works in execution but it certainly can’t hurt.</p>

<p>funyet, I see the printer I received for free is a HP F4480. As for the Touch, you’re right, it becomes useless once you have an iPhone which is why I groaned a little when I got one for free (and technically you buy it and get a rebate). The Touch is basically a poor man’s iPhone as it does all the same stuff except work as a phone and access the internet in all places (through 3G phone network). And with no ongoing subscription fee! So existing cell phone + Touch = good combination!</p>

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<p>BeastMan – A big thank you for the PC/Apple/tech advice, and good reminder to consider Courses in Common. I’d add 1st year seminars, the College Transition course, and Online at Iowa (a course to help navigate the Iowa computer systems, ISIS, etc.) as courses to consider.</p>

<p>Big10Padre – looking forward to hearing how it goes – good luck!</p>

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<p>Beastman and RWE: Actually, the PC vs. Mac discussion was great. We’ll check out the campus tech center when we’re down there. We’re leaning a little towards PC so that I too can function as the remote help desk. Our D’s computer troubleshooting skills are a very limited and she works mostly with Facebook, itunes, Word and Excel. Thinking about getting the full warranty on the PC as our older S’s top-of-the-line Dell XPS (2008) has been nothing but a piece of crap. Full warranty there saved us some $1,000 in repairs. I have read / heard some excellent reviews on the Sony Vaio and the Toshiba Satellites PC’s.</p>

<p>Thanks to both for the good reminder on the Courses in Common. We too looked into those sequences. Many options there - particulary for 1st year generals (rhetoric, chem, soc, etc). D will likely go that route. As you already know, the online course catalog shows each class, its profs, the pre-reqs and the number of open spaces remaining in each class. Works slick for putting together a provisional class schedule. D’s also going to do the College Transitions class and the First Year Seminar.</p>

<p>Based upon older S’s recommendations, we also checked out the “Rate My Professor” website for professor reviews. S says the website was reasonably accurate for him at UW-Madison when it came to the prof reviews for the big freshmen intro classes. Bottom line - everyone learns differently so who knows if its accurate or not. However, for the some of the U of I intro classes - bio, soc, pysch. etc - there were actually some pretty good comments.</p>

<p>Beastman - glad your son feels good about his collegiate choice. Our high school here in MN sends a couple of kids each year to the U of I and, accross the board, they all have loved it. I’m sure yours will too.</p>

<p>I’ll post a short review of our orientation when we’re done. Thanks again and take care all.</p>

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<p>Great point about “rate my professor”, Big10Padre…just as you mention, it was helpful for my D to decide on the soc course she eventually signed up for. I was wondering if that was the best site (I had not found any better), and this one seems pretty good, especially where the sample size is sufficient and fairly recent. So good to get your endorsement. </p>

<p>I find it helpful to read the reviews in order of posting, as you can see some of them noticeably improving over time as professors gain experience teaching.</p>

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<p>Interesting. I’d heard of ratemyprofessor but assumed that my son’s schedule would be pretty locked in as it is without the additional variable to choosing professors. So honestly we never checked it out. Good food for thought for next time, however.</p>

<p>Big10Padre, I too live in MN and although MN residents are number 3 at UI, only about 5 kids from my son’s school (out of 320) are going there. It’s largely off the radar for these guys, which is too bad because they clamor for U of M and Wisconsin which really may not be the best place for them. Of course the lack of reciprocity between MN and IA is a problem. But many of these kids are going to privates, and with a scholarship or two UI is much cheaper than most of those options (at least for us).</p>

<p>You mention that current students like the school. This is what I have heard also, even if not from my son’s schoolmates. In the 1 1/2 years or so that we’ve been looking at Iowa, I’ve talked to dozens of people who have some first- or second-hand association: their son/daughter/friend/niece etc when there or goes there and I can tell you honestly that not ONE person didn’t love it. And no qualified endorsements like, “well it’s great if you like <em>__” or “it’s a little on the </em> side.” It seems to have almost universal appeal.</p>

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<p>I definately will check out ratemyprofessor.
When selecting schedules are bringing papers welcomed?</p>

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<p>Coolbrezze,</p>

<p>I am not sure if they encourage/discourage bringing lots of notes, but personally, I think t would be best if you are already familiar with ISIS, the GenEd requirements, and what classes you’d like to start with. To me, coming in with some ideas about your schedule, both high-level, and possibly even specific class times, is not bad idea, especially since you will be registering fairly late in the cycle. I think they are used to working with a wide range of students – those who walk into registration with their schedule all mapped out, and those who have no idea what they may want to take. I believe my D was somewhere in the middle.</p>

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<p>Well I mean like having just one sheet of paper or something.</p>

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<p>I’m sure that is fine, and in fact a good idea to have some ideas mapped out. Have you already been familiarizing yourself with ISIS and the course schedules, GenEd requirements, classes you plan to (or would like to) take, etc?</p>

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<p>Not yet since my orientation is Aug 20th.</p>

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<p>Family just returned from orientation yesterday. Solid program - beautiful weather.</p>

<p>Not much to add to previous posts but here were our highlights:</p>

<ul>
<li>Big highlight was that our D received her dorm / roommate assignment in the mail at home while we were at orientation. Got her first choice in dorms. She’s pleased.</li>
<li>Overall, wife and I found the U of I program to be more comprehensive than SOAR at UW.</li>
<li>Lots and lots of information. Like other posters, felt a little burned out after Day 2. </li>
<li>D thought student class registration session went pretty well. However, she said that they were a bit drawn out with plenty of extra/unused time. Again, as with other posters, we really liked the provisional schedule on Day 1 and the option to talk with our D about her schedule before it was finalized on Day 2.</li>
<li>D would have like to spent a little more time with her adviser. She said her interaction there was a little short and a little rushed. However, she will be able to meet with her adviser 3 times during the first semester. Her parents felt really good about that.</li>
<li>D did sign up for a “Courses in Common” series with rhetoric and chem along with a non-CIC math class, the College Transitions class and the First Year Seminar. 16 credits in all - 13 graded and 3 pass/fail. Seemed like a good first semester for her to get her feet wet </li>
<li>Mostly average-to-good quality group presentations.</li>
<li>Favorites were Dr. Barron’s kickoff presentation and the Day 2 optional parents session - “Career Success” put on by the Pomerantz Career Center (We highly recommend this session).</li>
<li>Obligatory Day 2 Information Fair, Campus Safety and Campus Health Services were also informative.</li>
<li>The “Money Matters” and “Computing at Iowa” parent sessions were a bit dry with little new information.<br></li>
<li>Social hour on Day 1 was under attended. Family did the Hawkeye Dinner at Burge.</li>
<li>Took the West Side residence hall tour to check out the dorms there.</li>
<li>After much thought, ended up buying the MacBook Pro 13" computer with free HP printer and I-touch. They were sold out of the MS office software packages for the MAC.</li>
<li>Had lunch off-campus yesterday at the Brown Bottle restaurant downtown. Excellent food with attentive wait staff.</li>
<li>Stayed at the Iowa House in the IMU. Decent, reasonable accomodations for $75. On the plus side - super convenient to orientation activities.</li>
<li>Recommend coming in to Iowa City the day before orientation and stay near or on campus and then enjoy a leisurely stroll around (eather permitting). Great vibe in the summer.</li>
<li>Made the mandatory stop at the Hawk Shop. Loaded up on black and gold gear.</li>
<li>Overall - D left campus yesterday feeling supremely confident with her choice of the U of I. Wife and I felt very comfortable with the campus support resources.</li>
</ul>

<p>If anyone has questions, just let me know.</p>

<p>On Iowa - Go Hawks!</p>

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<p>Beast. Thanks for your thoughts above. I absolutely agree with you regarding the U of I and believe that it is a very, very underrated school.</p>

<p>We always have a couple of kids each year from our HS (average class size of 250 or so) admitted to the Northwestern/Michigan/WUSTL/Carleton group and the lower tier of ivies. However, I find it very interesting that many of the very top students here strongly prefer Madison over the U of MN. In fact, over the past three years, these kids have chosen Madison over MN by a nearly 3:1 ratio. The bulk of the rest of our kids go the SCSU, MSU, WSU and MIAC school route. I’m sure that reciprocity plays a part as well as getting away from home. However, there seems to be more than that drawing kids to Madison. Please don’t misunderstand me, the UW is an outstanding school in all respects and our older S certainly loves it there. It just seems that the U of I ends up getting short shrift compared to the other OOS flagship universities. Our youngest S, a rising HS junior, is already gunning to be a Badger. While he has better stats than his older brother, I hope he gets in. But, you just never know.</p>

<p>I digress. Sorry for the Badger detour. Our D checked out a number of schools. She didn’t care for the urban feel of the U of MN and felt that the UW was, in her words, “ginormous”. Candidly, she would have been a stretch to be admitted to Madison. She had solid coursework, grades, test scores and EC’s, just not at the elite levels Madison seems to require lately of OOS students, particularly kids from MN. However, at Iowa, her RAI was strong and she was admitted last September. She also applied and was admitted to Iowa State and St. Thomas and looked at the UW’s Eau Claire and La Crosse. While UWEC and UWL are fine schools, they just didn’t punch her ticket. Ultimately Iowa won out over ISU due to its “Big 10” appeal and won out over St. Thomas due to it not being in MN! Indeed, no reciprocity with Iowa is a downer but we’re fortunate that the U of I fits (just barely!) within our budget, particularly as compared to St. Thomas and the other MIAC schools. </p>

<p>Beastman, RWE and Izzie – I’m very interested in what other schools your kids considered. I’m relatively new to CC and have not read all of your previous posts but would like to know what other schools your kids liked and why they liked them. My wife and I are trying to provide a broader perspective for our youngest S regarding his collegiate choices and your thoughts / insights here would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Finally, our thanks to all of the posters on this thread. Your summaries of your orientation experiences really helped to improve ours. Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Big10Padre,</p>

<p>Great to hear that you and your D had a similarly positive experience.Thanks for all the added thoughts. I laughed when I read your Brown Bottle comment – I had not mentioned this earlier, but my D and I also enjoyed a dinner there (and at a noodle place whose name I do not recall). We also like browsing through Prairie Lights Bookstore. On the subject of finds, there is a great grocery store on the Ped Mall, the Capitol Mall (next to the Pentacrest) had a surprising number of places hidden inside. </p>

<p>Regarding your comment about arriving a day early (or staying an extra night as we did), I agree – it was nice to be able to check out the class locations and the walk over to Kinnick the next morning. I agree the Pomerantz Career Ctr talk was good, and good to know that Iowa House worked out (sounds like a good deal). </p>

<p>Regarding your question about where else my D considered, she was also accepted at Kansas, Indiana, UConn, DePaul, and a satellite Pitt campus. She mostly applied in the midwest and a couple of east cast schools. After visiting DePaul, KU, and Indiana, she was able to easily select Iowa. She did not like the way the KU campus was organized. Indiana felt ginormous and she did not like the old graveyard on campus (go figure…I knew we were in trouble when the tour guide made sure to point that out), and she liked DePaul and the location, but not the lack of school spirit and the quasi-commuter reputation.
KU botched its tour by using buses for the campus tour due to blustery weather, but they would have been much better off just ducking into buildings a lot. The bus tour was not well-executed and as a result my D felt the campus was not laid out well. The tour guides were also not very good at KU, but the bus thing made it hard. She did not visit UConn as we concluded there was no advantage UConn had over Iowa. </p>

<p>But here is the bottom line – rather than disliking any of the campuses she visited (I think she would have been happy with any of them, and we would have been happy with any of them), it was more that she really liked Iowa. </p>

<p>Half way through the tour, we were standing by the Pentacrest, having come from the river and IMU, and she turned to me and said that she really wanted to like her previous front-runner, but that Iowa was so much nicer. People told me that sometimes there are those magic moments when the student knows, and to me, that was it. It was not just one thing – it was the campus, the people, the vibe, the price, the size, the spirit, etc. She just knew.</p>

<p>It is interesting to see on the admitted students Facebook page, in one of the discussions, where students list what schools the turned down to attend Iowa – there is a lot of mention of other highly ranked schools. Iowa was not a safety or reach for these students – it is where they want to be. </p>

<p>As I mentioned elsewhere, I attended and loved UIUC, but I’m really excited about the Iowa experience that is awaiting my D – to me it feels like it blends the best of two worlds – a Big 10 U experience, and a larger liberal arts-type school experience. It helps that it is close to Chicago, so it feels like home to me, and I think my D will like being one of the few California kids there (until, winter, that is!).</p>