My S is about to accept and select a Res Hall at ISU for next fall. Any suggestions for a Mechanical Engineering student? He wants someplace with a/c and will also apply to the Honors program. I understand there are Honors Floor experiences (Barton, Lyon, Martin) and Honors Clusters (Geoffroy). Thoughts on Honors Program would be appreciated. He liked Eaton and Martin but did not like Friley. He does not mind walking/biking to class and wants to be near a dining center as he is a distance runner (eats frequently).
If he puts in his deposit this week is he likely to get his first choice in Res Halls?
Thanks!
Congrats on your son’s acceptance and welcome to ISU!
He will need to rank at least ten choices for dorms, so it is helpful if he can start to decide what is most important to him…
Based on what you have listed here, Barton and Lyon will not have a/c, and Geoffroy is not near a dining center (not horribly far, but not near either).
Would your son prefer traditional style with the bathroom in the hallway, or suite style where two rooms share a bathroom?
If he wants to be nearest to his classes, he would want dorms on the west side of campus: Martin, Eaton, Friley, Helser.
I think that choosing a residential learning community or honors floor may increase his changes of getting his top choice.
My son lived in Martin for two years - Materials Engineering major. He lived on the honors floor first year and a non-honors floor second year. He liked Martin a lot. He is now living off-campus with his Martin roommate and two other friends.
Thanks for the input! Sounds like Martin and Eaton could meet all of his criteria. We may need to revisit the A/C option to open up more Halls for consideration.
@funding - Is your son in-state or OOS? I don’t know if it was intentional, but all four students in my son’s freshman Martin suite were OOS. That worked out very well.
OOS
Do they do some sort of matching process?
We were told that there isn’t a matching process in the sense of requests. My son put down 2 different Residences
Halls on his application. Friley and Eaton were his choices because they had A/C and Learning Communities. He ended up with Friley. He is in the Niles- Foster wing with other Electrical and Computer Engineers. Oh and he has A/C ! He loves his floor and dorm mates !
Forgot to add that Friley Residence Hall has one of the newest Dining Halls called “Friley Windows”. The food is very good here and very popular with both students and faculty.
My son really liked the food at the West Side Marketplace, near Martin. There is also a convenience store nearby. https://dining.iastate.edu/location/union-drive-marketplace-2-2/
Martin and Eaton are side by side and are essentially the same. They are next to Friley and all are on the engineering side of campus.
My daughter had a corner suite in Martin on the honors floor (her first choice) and it was HUGE! (you can look online and see floorplans and videos of the various halls) Martin is a very nice and modern and clean building. No dining hall in the building though so she often went to Friley to eat. Because of her major she was automatically placed in the Women in Science and Engineering learning community. The honors program at ISU and the learning communities are really a great way to get to know people and they give the university a much smaller personalized feel with all the big school amenities. Also, Martin is right across the parking lot from the rec center—I hear the smoothies there are good.?
When you get a little further into the process your student will fill out a questionnaire about habits and living preferences like what time they go to sleep, drinking, smoking, studying in silence or with background noise, room temperature preferences, etc. The university will then match him with someone who is supposed to be compatible. For my daughter, the match could not have been better and they are rooming together again the second year.
It’s early in the process so I would be hopeful he would get his first choice. Someone in the honors office told me honors housing and especially suite-style is more limited for the guys…so it’s good to do it early. Good luck! ISU has exceeded our expectations on many levels. ?
Congrats to your son. I don’t think he would need AC. The weather might be hot for a month or so, then it will get more comfortable and then cold… very cold. I believe this week temp will drop to -22. Classes have already been canceled at 5pm Tue 1/29 to noon on Thurs 1/31. Friley is the biggest dorm. Eaton does have suite with private bath. Both of them are on Union Drive nearest to the engineering quad and gym.
@funding I don’t believe the school has a matching roommate process. I believe all was asked is whether you want a smoker or a non-smoker.