My younger D is in her college search and this is on our list to look at along with Kansas State. Her first choice is Purdue but she is not a good standardized test taker and even being instate for Purdue we think she needs to do a little better to have a chance at that school.
Both ISU and KSU have the interior design program she wants and good rankings for those programs. Our concern with any OOS school is more about what is the campus life like on the weekends. Based on the RAI she get’s into ISU and we would think she gets into KSU as well and from the pricing both are doable for us on cost.
Any comments around campus activity and campus life on the weekends, do people hang around or do a lot of people leave on the weekends?
My son is at KSU and my intern at work is at ISU. We visited both and both are excellent colleges. Both have great activities. From what my intern has told me just like at KSU being in state or OOS does not really make much difference as far as what to do and how students fit in. There is plenty do do at ISU on the weekends and most students stay around just like at KSU. I don’t think you would have any issue with your student finding plenty to do. For us it was just a matter that S17 liked KSU better (atmosphere; interaction with faculty and students; program) and they offered us a better deal financially and with special programs in his area.
I think your D would be happy at either and it would just be a matter of what she likes better and the best financial deals offered.
My son is an OOS junior from Arizona. He lives in a house with three other OOS students from Illinois. There is plenty to do on the weekends. Ames is a great college town and Des Moines is just 35 miles away.