Ames compared to other Big 12 College Towns

[madcityCY]

Without someone hammering on me....has anyone else been to Madison? I have found that to be a great college gameday atmosphere. The establishments downtown were also great fun.......................20 years ago:sad:

I also personally like Boulder, but because of the natural surroundings while around the stadium.

funny you should ask.

Gameday in Madison is like that of Iowa City's on HGH- urban atmosphere as the university is sandwiched between the lake and the city/ capital. It's pretty insane, and Camp Randall is a great place to watch football

 

[ajk4st8]

I have been to them all. I would put Ames right around the middle. The WORST is bny far Waco. The next teir would be Lubbock, Stillwater, and College Station. Lubbock is in the middle of nowhere, same with College Station. In fact, with CS the campus is pretty much the only thing there. Stillwater has Eskimo Joes and that is IT... The low middle would be Ames, Manhattan, Norman, Lincoln. Upper Middle Columbia, Lawrence. Then a slight uptick to Boulder and Austin far and away the best college town in the big 12.

Agreed. Waco sucks. I actually kinda liked Lawrence. Manhattan and Lincoln are aweful too.


Cant wait for my first trips to Austin or Boulder.

 

[Phaedrus]

I don't really have time to read the entire thread, but here is my take on it:

Ames is what it is. I just am not interested in comparing it to "other college towns", even though I've been to lots of college towns. In its own way, Ames is an excellent environment, and a wonderful place to live while you're going to college, or if you're lucky enough, it is a cool place to live and work.

There are all sorts of drawbacks to living in Ames, but every place has it's trade-offs and drawbacks. Just be glad you once had the opportunity to live there, and quit with the desire to compare.

I've found this attitude has served me well in life.

 

[jjisu]

Without someone hammering on me....has anyone else been to Madison? I have found that to be a great college gameday atmosphere. The establishments downtown were also great fun.......................20 years ago:sad:

I also personally like Boulder, but because of the natural surroundings while around the stadium.

Madison is pretty fun, gamedays/nights are insane, Camp Randall has a great atmosphere. and lets just say Halloween up there is an awesome time :yes:

 

[jdoggivjc]

ranking up w/ Yale, and Virginia- older, presitgious, east coast schools- That's pretty impressive

That's what happens when you hire the landscape architect that designed Central Park in New York City to design your central campus :yes:

I had heard that ISU ranked in the top 3 most beautiful campuses in the US. Always wondered which two were above us. The fact that it's Yale and Virginia impresses me.

 

[Phaedrus]

While I have to admit I love Ames, there ARE two other campuses that stand out in my memory when I was a younger man and single. NIU at Dekalb, and Norman.

Norman, because I met the most beautiful girl, there, and Dekalb, I met the most enthusiastic. I have limited recollection of either town, though.

 

[ISU2007]

Went to Texas A&M-Iowa State game when Blythe had 4 TD's... awesome game, but A&M atmosphere was amazing, tailgating and stadium. Only improvement to tailgating would be more grass lots... I am kinda partial to grass lots.

 

[cybsball20]

I was blown away by how big the A&M campus was. We played night games there so a few of us thought it would be fun to walk around the whole campus. We got to the other side, by the baseball stadium and rec center and it had taken forever and our hands were swollen from walking so long (blood rushing to them). We had to bum a ride back to the hotel with some girls leaving the rec center (not that that was a bad thing).

 

[Broodwich]

Ames needs to decide if it's small town Iowa or if it's a Big 12 University town. It has a very schizophrenic personality when trying to decide. have lived in Boulder, CO and Iowa City and have been to all of the schools of the former Big 8 and most of the schools in the Big 10.

I love ISU. I love Jack Trice on a Saturday in the fall when the leaves are turning the fall is one of the reasons I decided to stay in Central Iowa. Let me state that I love the Story County area with all of my heart, but I hate Ames. I have never lived in a place that is more fixated on controlling the most trivial aspects of everyday life. It's a stifling place to live. I think there is unlimited potential in Ames to be a really great town, but until we have more young progressive and business oriented people calling the shots there we're going to have essentially Pella with a major university in it.

 

[Wesley]

The only town I've been to was Lawrence, and honestly, I wasn't there long enough to get any good impression of it. I'd love to visit Lincoln for the stadium sometime, as well as seeing Austin for the town.

ISU has a very nice campus, it is just that location of the sports facilities does not bring that "campus cute feature" into play. I do not think the Lincoln split campuses and KU old buildings and KSU prairie campus is visually very pleasing. Maybe their bars are better due to the efforts of past Ames Town Elders to control businesses. Yet their campuses are not that exciting.

 

[BryceC]

Best I've been to - Austin, easily. Awesome town and close to San Antonio too. If I could have gone to any other Big 12 school I would have loved to go to Texas.

I liked Norman - the OU campus is amazing but the town is kind of crappy, at least the area I was in. Football stadium is amazing though and I love how it's at the direct center of campus.

 

[Cybone]

Lincoln - Memorial Stadium is simply an awesome sight
Lawrence - always kinda liked it
Norman - eh..its in Oklahoma think Nebraska with less trees, and it is brown in stead of green
People's Republic of Boulder - Nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there.
Ames will always be some form of home for me.

 

[TxCycloneFan]

Went to Texas A&M-Iowa State game when Blythe had 4 TD's... awesome game, but A&M atmosphere was amazing, tailgating and stadium. Only improvement to tailgating would be more grass lots... I am kinda partial to grass lots.

I was at that game as well. I had the same impression. I bought season tickets to A&M this past year.