Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Iowa State University question? -

I m interested in attending and I am currently a junior in high school in California. I know there will be a culture difference, but the city i live in California now is not that exciting anyway (about same size as Ames, Iowa where ISU is). I want to eventually attend Vet school and they have a good vet program, but so does UC Davis in California. I was wondering which school is better (saying that money/location is not an issue). Is it better to transfer or just attend straight out of high school? Also, i m always scared of not making friends in college because i am very shy so are the people in Ames/ISU friendly? Also is it really humid there and how is the weather like year round? Is it culturely/racially diverse? I m asian so i was wondering if there is a large asian population? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!

well Iowa it self is pretty friendly and more open also the pace of life is much more laid back not rush rush rush .. the weather changes alot in Iowa.. at this time its cold and wil get even colder as winter sets in and will snow,, it will be hars at first but join some groups or clubs and you will be just finealos Iowa is about 95% white .. Chicago is just a 2 - 3 hours away a great weekend trip

Well first ISU has a very large Asian Community, you would have no issues what so ever with that. Weather wise it seems Iowa has all the extremes. It gets very cold in January/early Feb often below 0 degrees and has a lot of snow, but gets very hot and humid (in the 90 s) in late July and August. Spring and Fall are beautiful here and nice weather. You would worry about Tornadoes and Snow Storms instead of things like earthquakes. Personally I like having actual season changes throughout the year! The Vet program at ISU is very competitive but also extremely good. I would definitely recommend it. Also the ISU campus has a land grant where there are laws on how much green space there has to be, so it is a gorgeous campus with a park like setting.

ok, I ll start from the top, I don t actually know how good of a vet program they have, but I have heard good things about it at ISU. In my personal opinion I d be staying in california near my family, but I think I d get homesick. going off to college is scary, I cried when my parents left me and I was only an hour and a half from home. Ames itself is a decent place. There isn t THAT much to do though for it being a college town. I used to live in Ames when I was a teen 16-17. The college offers some pretty interesting things, but it d get boring after a bit. The people there are friendly too, I think making friends would not be that hard, especially since you said you re Asian. I ve noticed that Asians like Iowa schools. You could look into clubs specifically for your culture. Now, onto the weather. ugh. Iowa weather sucks. Last week it was 72 degrees and today it s 27 and it snowed last night. The weather in Iowa is very unpredictable. It gets very cold in the winters, down to -30 and very hot in the summer up to 115. The summers are horrid just because it s sooo humid. It almost feels like you re walking through jello sometimes and you re hot and sticky 24/7, even if you just took the nicest, coldest shower ever. The spring and the fall though here are great. spring does rain a lot but it s very pretty and you just feel great coming out of 4 months of ice and snow. and fall has a great feeling in the atmosphere because college football is what dominates Iowa. For 12 saturdays a year just about everyone is watching Iowa, and the Iowa/Iowa State rivalry is incredible.I know this is very long, but I hope it s useful to you. good luck in picking colleges.