My son was accepted to ISU, along with a few other schools, but ISU might be our most affordable choice—plus it’s a good engineering school! When my son toured the school it was a dreary April day. We saw the campus but not any of the college town. We also had a tour guide whose first language was not English and was difficult to understand. I think for these reasons he put it on the bottom of his list of schools—but he might end up going there. What are some things he would love about going there? Need some fun things to tell him!
@63659699 - My son is an OOS engineering freshman form Arizona. He absolutely loves it at ISU. He selected ISU over Arizona State, Michigan State, and Alabama.
I have been to Ames three times now with him. I went to Michigan State, which, IMHO, has one of the nicest campuses in the country. Iowa State compares very well and is more compact and easier to get around. Ames is a great college town (and we visited 21 schools between our three sons). Unlike East Lansing, which somehow views MSU as a burden to bear, the town and the university seem to get along very well. The common bus system is great for getting around campus and around town.
The engineering college has impressed me very much. I have another son studying engineering at Texas A&M and another studying engineering at Miami (Ohio). A&M is a great engineering school, but my son’s experiences have not all been positive (although he is still doing very well.) Miami is not as well known and smaller, but they are very student focused. ISU seems to have the best of both worlds. Large enough to be well known and have all the facilities, but still very student focused. They seem very organized and clear with their expectations.
I would encourage another visit. Check through Expedia to see if they have rooms available in the Student Union. (That’s the only way to book rooms there.) The rooms are nothing special, but the location is great for a visit and parking in the Union garage is included in the price. If you fly into Des Moines (we have direct flights from Phoenix there on American), check the town out. The State Capitol is incredible and the nearby Iowa History museum is a lot of fun. Des Moines is only about 40 minutes from Ames and is a lovely mid-sized city. We had never been before and were quite impressed.
I spoke with my son last night and was reminded of another thing he really likes at ISU. He has really enjoyed his Freshman Honors Program generally. The biggest thing he likes is that he is doing research with an assigned professor. My son is majoring in materials engineering. The university provided $500 to fund the purchase of various metals samples. My son is working with the professor and a senior to perform non-destructive testing on these samples. To get to that point, my son has already been using machine tools to prepare his samples. Today, he will be back and forth to the lab to use an oven to heat-treat the samples. He is liking the research so much that he is staying on campus during spring break next week to continue to work on his research. This is really valuable hands-on experience.
My son also likes Martin Hall where he lives very much. It is very close to all the engineering buildings and dining. It is also near off-campus stores and restaurants. He is on the honors floor and has one roommate and two suitemates, all engineering students. Next year he will move one floor up in Martin Hall with his current roommate.
Thank you! We actually talked at dinner tonight about making another visit to ISU. Good to know your son is loving it! It’s been a mild winter so he didn’t get to experience all that the midwest has to offer in that regard. lol! Especially coming from Arizona!
Until I checked on the map, I did not know that Ames was actually a bit farther north than Chicago. My son did have some cold (below zero) in December and January, but overall it hasn’t been too bad. He did break his ankle on a trip home to his roommate’s house in Chicago over Thanksgiving, which required surgery. There’s been enough ice and snow to make it harder to get around. He used one of those knee carts for a while, and has been in a boot for the last six weeks. 10 more days and he’s done with that!
Now 2014-15 was one of the worst winters in years, so he and my sophomore son in Ohio dodged that one! I grew up in Michigan and went to MSU, so I still remember freezing my butt off. Even worse were days and days without sun. I was in Ann Arbor in early January with my oldest son, so I got a reminder. It was zero the day we arrived, then it warmed up to snow six inches, which gave him the chance to use the ice scraper on the rental car. Then it warmed up even more for heavy rain and wind. I am happy in Arizona.
@Beaudreau Sorry about your son’s ankle…I’m sure that made it a lot tougher this winter. Glad he is making a good recovery!
Hi, my son is also a freshman at ISU and is OOS. He is a science major and is in the honors program. He is very happy with his choice to go to ISU (over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pitt). The honors program has been great. He is living on an honors floor and will stay there again next year. He is in a learning community for his major also. Through this he knows upper classman in his major and some of the faculty and administrators. He is doing the first years honors research which has been a great experience. He has made many friends through all of these things and the club that he is also very involved in. We just visited him and as we were walking around he was seeing people he knew all over. One fun thing the kids do on nice days is put up hammocks. The campus is beautiful and has so many trees. He has enjoyed the football games (huge tailgating!) and basketball games (go Cyclones!). Hilton Colluseum has been recognized as one of the best places to see basketball because of the amazing spirit. He took an older bike to campus and biked almost all of first semester. There was just the annual 24 hour trivia contest in which fairly large teams do a crazy contest with questions, videos, pictures, scavenger hunts…
I would recommend visiting again if you can. And if you do try to get to talk to a professor in the department your son is interested in and tour the facilities of the specific college/department if possible. Good luck!
Thank you @uwalummom!
My daughter is a senior, and the following is sort of a blending of her opinion and mine:
- Definitely go back for another visit if the dreary day impacted decisions. The campus is beautiful. Each part has sort of it's own personality. Their landscape architecture program is one of the best and the campus was designed by the same guy that designed NY Central Park.
- ISU is a great size. All the benefits of a major U but can have a bit of a smaller feel
- If you're into it, the sport scene is fantastic. Despite the lack of football victories Jack Trice Stadium sells out every Saturday in the fall and, well, as for basketball, two words: Hilton Magic!!
- During one of the parent sessions we attended one of the speakers was a dean who had worked at several other Big 12 U's. She said she had never seen a major university that was so concerned about the students. That has absolutely been our experience. The parents sitting in front of us lived down the street from UIUC and pointed out the fact that their son would be pursuing engineering at ISU instead. They said so many schools talked about how many nobel prize winners they had, etc. but all ISU did was talk about what they were going to do for their child.
- From a parent's standpoint: the financial aid has been fantastic. My income went down her junior year and they came in with an additional grant for senior year that basically doubled the already generous scholarship. Disclaimer: we're from Illinois so the mere concept of financial aid is rather foreign to us ....
- Iowa State is (last I saw the data) one of only two U's in the country that is moving away from adjuncts and actually hiring more full-time faculty
I honestly can’t say enough about ISU and I’m proud that my daughter will be walking out with her degree this spring.
Is the college town walking distance from campus? We did visit several years ago but I can’t seem to recall a ‘town’ of any sort right by the campus. My son prefers an ‘urban’ environment but he was quite taken with West Lafayette (Purdue) so I think it’s more proximity of stuff to do vs actually needing to be in a city environment.
@singermom4 Hopefully others will chime in, but there is a small campustown area connected to the campus with restaurants, a CVS and a few shops. Ames has everything they would need - mall, movie theater, tons of restaurants, target, walmart, sams club and best buy. Ames would be a longer walk (1.3 mi to Hy-vee from Friley residence hall and further for other things). However ISU has an extensive bus system called Cy-Ride and it would be a super quick and easy ride into Ames.
@singermom4 - as @uwalummom says, the area south of campus has a nice assortment of little shops and restaurants. It is particularly convenient for engineering students, most of whom live in the dorms west of the student union. I have visited West Lafayette/Purdue several times. I also like the Purdue campus and it’s a super engineering school. I would rate Ames over Lafayette overall including the Cy-Ride bus system.