University of Iowa, or University of Minnesota?

<p>My original plan was to attend Iowa, but after seeing that Iowa is ranked top ten for "TA teaches too many upper-level classes, lots of beer parties, party schools parties, lots of hard liquor parties," (PR rankings)I don't really know if I want to attend there. On the other hand, Iowa is ranked higher than Minnesota. If I am planning to go for Med school, which college should I attend? (I don't mind the campus locations, weather, etc) Any comments are welcomed. Thank you!</p>

<p>U of M is pretty high up on lists for partying too, so if that makes the biggest difference for you, don't make your choice just on that....all upper midwest state universities are big on parties</p>

<p>Could you give me some resources that I can get some ideas about college atmosphere?</p>

<p>MInny has better state funding in a state with lots more $$$ so I'd go with Minny. It also has a great Med school.</p>

<p>I'd go to Minnesota and apply for the Honors program.</p>

<p>Iowa also has an honor's college that is supposed to be decent, I believe, but you should know at this point whether you were accepted - you can apply to get in later, though too. I attend Wesleyan, but grew up around the U of Iowa and took a course there my senior year, so I can't attest to much besides the city and that the TA for the one course that I took (it was a intro course taught at night so it was taught by a TA rather than a full professor) was wonderful - knew exactly what she was talking about and was really helpful. Also, professors do teach a bunch of the intro courses as well with TAs helping (my mom is a professor at Iowa and teaches some basic econ classes along with higher level things). You may just want to get online and look at the course list for next year and see what it is like in your major for professors v. TAs.</p>

<p>As for med school, Iowa has a pretty decent one, I think - the local paper just reported that a couple of specialties (incl. rural medicine, primary care, and family care) rank in the top 10 among public universities, with research coming in 13th. I don't know much about undergrad opportunities, though.</p>

<p>Anyway, Iowa and Minnesota, city-wise, are pretty different - Iowa City has a population (not incl. students) around 65,000 while the Twin Cities is around 2.7 million, I believe. That's a big difference in terms of social life - Iowa is a tad more isolated than Minnesota.</p>

<p>If you have any questions about Iowa City, I can try to answer them.</p>

<p>Thanks for your insight bromeliad24. To be honest, I have no idea what kind of place Iowa is (other than that it's a middle of no where...as everybody's been telling me), so what kind of setting, atmosphere, etc does U of Iowa have? I understand that drinking is a common thing among many students, and that the school is in a far-away place, but that's pretty much it.<br>
Any comments on their honors program is also welcomed.</p>

<p>I went to undergrad at Iowa, grad at Minn, and now am a professor at Iowa. Of course I'm a little biased, but I think the undergrads at Iowa get a lot more attention than the undergrads at Minnesota. We have fewer undergrads -- 20,000 students, so that helps. I think undergrads rank pretty low at Minnesota relative to the professional students (law, md, business) and research. The number of TAs you will see is about the same at either school; partying is also about the same. Minn has a fair number of commuter students, and there isn't much of a commitment to the campus. It never had a 'campus feel' to me when I was there. If I walk outside today at Iowa, I'll see students playing ultimate frisbee in front of the union, basketball on the court near the dorms, and lounging on the Pentacrest. Or perhaps marching for immigrant rights. </p>

<p>If you can, you should visit both and see where you feel most comfortable.</p>

<p>BTW: We aren't really in the middle of nowhere. We have great theater, music, restaurants (all the basics, plus Ethiopian, African and Eritrean and one of the best Sushi places I've been to). You can get to Chicago in three hours, Minneapolis in 4.5 and St. Louis in 5. You have your pick of three great cities for weekend entertainment. Next year, Rent and the Producers will be in town.</p>

<p>sigh, the one thing i think i'll regret about going to Minnesota will be the lack of a "campus" or commitment to one. I always pictured myself in a sort of college town. Lying on the grass with friends or playing football with other students. Oh well.</p>

<p>As to the honors program at Iowa, the admissions website talks about it a little bit (<a href="http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/undergrad/honors-opps/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/undergrad/honors-opps/index.html&lt;/a&gt;) and it has a webpage of its own as well (<a href="http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Ehonors/index.html)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.uiowa.edu/~honors/index.html)&lt;/a>. If you scored high enough, you may have been selected to enter honors, otherwise get a 3.33 GPA, I believe, and you can get in. Pretty much, it gives you access to the Belin Blank Center with its computer labs, library, and whatever else it has (I don't know, I'm afraid) as well as honors classes which are small classes for honors students designed to provide "challenges" and "creative" assignments or something.</p>

<p>I cannot attest to the drinking or partying at Iowa as I attend college in another state and certainly did not party with college students when I was in high school.</p>

<p>Iowa City is a nice small city - we have good restaurants (variety of cuisines as EconProf mentioned - Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Ethopian, Indian, etc.; and they're all pretty good). We have a bunch of theaters (although they're all owned by the same company so we have a lot of repeated movies and few independent films - the campus theater has some of those, though). The mall is pretty nice and rather large and you have all of the basic stores like Target and Walmart (which, in Connecticut, I'm starting to realize is important).</p>

<p>As EconProf mentioned, big cities aren't that bad of a drive from Iowa City, if you and friends want to go for the weekend. And, she's right - our Theater is wonderful. Hancher tries to bring in a variety of wonderful things every year, and they often do quite well. Lots of good music, some dance (especially the Joffrey Ballet), and usually a broadway musical or two. This next year, it's Rent, The Producers, and Hairspray, previously it's been stuff like Mamma Mia, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Cabaret, etc. I think there are student discounts, but I don't know for sure.</p>

<p>I'm better with specific questions, so if there is anything else you want to know, I can try.</p>

<p>Thank yall for all kinds of valuable replies! I've decided to go to Iowa, and I'll be living in the dorms. The brochure have "hinted" that substance abuse might be a major problem in the dorms, but I really have no clue. What are the dorms really like?</p>