Why did you choose to go to ISU?

[tec71]

I was a EE major. Only place to go if you were to be an engineer and wanted the in state tuition, unless you couldn't get in there. I have law degree from Iowa (again with the instate tuition). No comparison in my book. Some of that is certainly the grad school vs. undergrad environment, and the other is my bias I'm sure, but even the hard core hawks will admit a big difference. I've had lots say that the campus at ISU would be the picture next to the definition of "college campus" in the dictionary.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

I came to ISU because, well, because ISU is the University of Iowa. Never considered EIU because I've hated the Pukeyes ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I would have rather walked on my lips through broken glass than to attend that sewer grease institution.

Anyway, I came here wanting to be a mechanical engineer and was one for two years. I was one of those guys who wrote on all the desks and on library tables, and you math guys who have worked with limits will know what I'm talking about-- Limit as GPA approaches 0 = Ag Business in the Limit equation. Well, I thought I was going to farm after college so what major did I change to????? That's right Ag Business....

I never even thought about going anywhere else and I absolutely loved the time I was down there..

 

[Cydog]

I didn't really know what I wanted to do coming out of high school. I was thinking about journalism so I took a tour at Missouri. Nice campus but out of state tuition would have been rough along with being a little too far from home. Toured UNI, was impressed and it came close to being my choice, but I had been raised an ISU fan by my dad and 2 uncles that attended ISU and when I came here for an official tour I just knew it was the right place. Plus I got the Hixson scholarship so that was just icing on the cake.

 

[cstrunk]

I came to ISU because of the quality engineering program and the in-state tuition. I didn't apply anywhere else. I had never been a big Cyclone fan unless they were playing the Fuskers (lived in southwest Iowa) or Iowa (just felt like rooting for the underdog!) until I was thinking about going to school here.

I had been to campus several times for a variety of events (OPUS Honor Choir, and some other event I can't remember) and I seemed to be in awe of the campus, so after I took an official visit, I decided this was where I wanted to go.

After a year of undecided engineering, I am now an Ag Engineer with emphasis in Environmental Systems and couldn't be happier at this point.

Go Cyclones!

 

[cybsball20]

Well, I had just finished playing baseball at a junior college in Florida and going to be playing at University of Florida... The coach promised me a certain scholarship amount IF a guy went pro, he didn't and even with the scholly I would have had to pay a ton as out of state... So I went there for summer school and called the coaches at Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI. Iowa State gave me the best deal so I moved there the week before classes. Ended up loving it... In my opinion, a better college enviroment than Gainesville any day!

Then they ended up canceling the program half way through my senior season... Most of the guys hate the school now, I am still a fan.

 

[gocy1]

Back in the 60's it was the school to go to for wrestling (ISU, OK, and OK St were the BIG THREE of wrestling).

 

[besserheimerphat]

Cool idea for a post, some good stories on here.

I also grew up in Ames and decided on engineering my senior year of high school (BS mechanical engineering 2004). I looked at Simpson and Morningside as places to continue playing football, but the academics was more important to me. In-state tuition also played a part. And my parents both went to ISU, two of my uncles, now 2 cousins, younger brother, and one of those uncles was the director of the vet college toxicology dept for a long time. By the time it was time to apply to colleges, I'd been attending ISU sporting events for almost 17 years.

One thing I noticed is how seperated the university is from the community. Even though I grew up in Ames, I still felt like I "went away" to college - I rarely went to the same places in college that I had in high school. I lived in the dorms, too, rather than living at home.

 

[JRE1975]

Good idea for a thread!

My choice was made easy by my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and my sister before me. I followed my older sister to ISU after my older brother had major problems at Iowa. Fortunately all three of my kids only cost me in state tuition, unfortuately only one went to ISU, in the family we joke that the one smart one (ISU grad) is going to get all the money!

Like others I only applied to ISU because there was no doubt!

 

[aerosill]

I grew up in Urbandale, and have always been an ISU fan. Had relatives who went to Iowa (one was on a Rose Bowl team in the 50's), but my Dad went to Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, Ia), so that paved the way out of Iowa for me (thank god!). Moved to Boulder, CO for high school, but by that time already knew I wanted to be and Aerospace Engineer. Was put on a waiting list at Michigan, ISU accepted me, CU would have been the last resort. Aer E '90 (bad time to graduate with that degree).

So, what am I doing now? I'm a registered Mechanical Engineer in California, and work in air pollution control. Even if I had known this in advance, I would have gone the Aer E route. And yes, that explains the "aero" part of my username.

 

[Psiclone]

Also from Ames

Born and raised in Ames, where else could I go to get a better degree in Civil Engineering for the money??

Went to high school in Ames and dad taught at Vet Med college. As with you, a great school for the money.

 

[cyclonenum1]

That is freaking hilarious. Maybe if you like the sausage party. ISU is alot of things, but a party school it is not.

When I said "excellent social opportunities" why do you equate that to having to be a "party school"?

Back in the early/mid 80s ISU had an excellent Greek System and the array of other campus activities one could get involved with was superior to most other schools I looked at. Those were great "social opportunities"...in fact I still speak regularly to people I met in my fraternity and on various campus organizations.

And by the way, we did OK on the party front too!

 

[loboclone]

great thread...........

Grew up in Cedar Rapids 50's and 60's, forced to ride in a station wagon to Rose Bowl in '59'........never recovered. 5 older siblings all went to EIU and Coe College. I wanted to be a Vet, was accepted at Colo. State and Mizzou but choose ISU for right reason.....walked on football (Majors,Sherrill) lived in Towers, drank beer, Clyde Williams field, and got drafted at graduation....Clone for life.

P.S. 3 rd wife is EIU grad..............many issues

 

[cyclonekj]

When I said "excellent social opportunities" why do you equate that to having to be a "party school"?

Back in the early/mid 80s ISU had an excellent Greek System and the array of other campus activities one could get involved with was superior to most other schools I looked at. Those were great "social opportunities"...in fact I still speak regularly to people I met in my fraternity and on various campus organizations.

And by the way, we did OK on the party front too!

Agreed! If you can't find anything fun to do, it's not everyone else who's lame.

 

[threemuch]

When I said "excellent social opportunities" why do you equate that to having to be a "party school"?

Back in the early/mid 80s ISU had an excellent Greek System and the array of other campus activities one could get involved with was superior to most other schools I looked at. Those were great "social opportunities"...in fact I still speak regularly to people I met in my fraternity and on various campus organizations.

And by the way, we did OK on the party front too!

Hey,thanks for the negative rep! Don't worry, I did alright, but thanks for your concern.

The Greek system? :baffled5wh: Sorry, didn't realize you were a fraterist. Just kidding. :biggrin9gp: The greek system was definitly not my cup of tea. I tried to get into a party at the Pikes my first day on campus and got turned away because I wasn't on the list. But the girls I was with were welcome. None of us went in to that rat house. We all went to a pretty good kegger in Larch hall. That was my last experience with the greek system. The exclusivity of it all didn't really sit right with me.

But compared to most schools of similar size or larger, ISU isn't really the land of "excellent social opportunities." The schools I have visited, EIU, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Texas, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Berkley, hell, even Stanford, all seemed to have more "social opportunites" than ISU, but then again, the grass is always greener. ISU is typical for a land grant Ag/engineering school. Lots of dudes, way less women, high redneck factor, super high geek factor, less than stellar football and hoops. Don't try to pretend it isn't like that, because it is. Good thing, too, I probably wouldn't have suffered through the calc and physics if there were any exellent social oppotunities around.

Still a great school imho. Quality edumacation, and that's why I went to college. Reasonably priced to boot.

 

[CyinCo]

ISU is typical for a land grant Ag/engineering school. Lots of dudes, way less women, high redneck factor, super high geek factor, less than stellar football and hoops. Don't try to pretend it isn't like that, because it is. Good thing, too, I probably wouldn't have suffered through the calc and physics if there were any exellent social oppotunities around.

Still a great school imho. Quality edumacation, and that's why I went to college. Reasonably priced to boot.

While I'll agree with most of this, I don't get the part about "high redneck factor". I didn't see it. Have you ever been to the deep south? I can assure you there is not a redneck factor at ISU. There may be a "ag" factor but agriculture and redneck do not go hand in hand, IMO.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Growing up in Davenport, ISU was pretty much an afterthought. Typical eastern Iowa guy that bled black and gold. The only reason I knew ISU existed was b/c Iowa would stomp them in football every year, and on occasion I'd get to see Johnny Orr's 'Clones in the NCAA Tourney. Then I got into high school. Took both the ACTs and SATs, and both were sufficiently high enough that, if I had the money, I could get into pretty much whatever school I wanted (except the highest-tier Ivy League schools).

Decided I either wanted to be an engineer or architect, so I went to the library to find which schools had both programs. I ended up requesting applications for Columbia (NY), Clemson, Auburn, Kansas, Kansas St., Arizona, Arizona St., Hawaii, and ISU. I was accepted at ISU before I even had the chance to send the other apps out! Never looked back. Started in Construction Engineering, then decided to pursue my dream to be an Architect after 2 years.

After 6 years, I walked away with a B.S. in Journalism & Mass Communication (with minors in Economics and Psychology). Someone want to explain to me how THAT happened?

 

[cyclonenum1]

Hey,thanks for the negative rep! Don't worry, I did alright, but thanks for your concern.

The Greek system? :baffled5wh: Sorry, didn't realize you were a fraterist. Just kidding. :biggrin9gp: The greek system was definitly not my cup of tea. I tried to get into a party at the Pikes my first day on campus and got turned away because I wasn't on the list. But the girls I was with were welcome. None of us went in to that rat house. We all went to a pretty good kegger in Larch hall. That was my last experience with the greek system. The exclusivity of it all didn't really sit right with me.

But compared to most schools of similar size or larger, ISU isn't really the land of "excellent social opportunities." The schools I have visited, EIU, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Texas, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Berkley, hell, even Stanford, all seemed to have more "social opportunites" than ISU, but then again, the grass is always greener. ISU is typical for a land grant Ag/engineering school. Lots of dudes, way less women, high redneck factor, super high geek factor, less than stellar football and hoops. Don't try to pretend it isn't like that, because it is. Good thing, too, I probably wouldn't have suffered through the calc and physics if there were any exellent social oppotunities around.

Still a great school imho. Quality edumacation, and that's why I went to college. Reasonably priced to boot.

First of all, I gave you no "negative rep" for your post. Not sure why you accuse me of doing it.

Secondly, you seem to have made a pretty broad generalization of the greek system based upon one event in your life.

Lastly, I have been around other schools as well (Iowa, KU, Wisconsin, Florida, Maryland, Texas, LSU to name some) and, frankly, I thought our social opportunities stacked up OK in comparison. The one glaring weakness at ISU was poor male/female ratio.

 

[spierceisu]

I was a die hard Cyclone sports fan and was only about 1/2 and hour from home. Also it was one of the best agricultural schools in the country and it was just ouside my doorstep. I knew Ames very well and liked the commuity.

 

[herbiedoobie]

I grew up a Cyclone fan. But the $422 a semester tuition didn't hurt, either....

 

[throwittoblythe]

My story is pretty similar to other's...I come from Eastern Iowa so my entire family is Hawk fans. My stepdad even gives large sums of money to UofI every year. So, I was 100% decided that I was going to UofI until my mom talking me into visiting ISU. I fell in love with the campus and the people were awesome, so I did a 180 and came to ISU for Civil Engineering.

I didn't know anything about ISU or its athletics because I had been a Hawk fan my entire life. So, I found myself ignoring ISU sports because I simply didn't know any of the players (I only went to 3 football games my freshman year). The turning point for me was my sophomore year when I joined the ISU Drumline. I still had no problem with the Hawks, but then I took the fateful trip to Kinnick with the marching band to the ISU-Iowa game. When those f'ing hawk fans screamed the most horrible, obscene things at us and threw beer at us and tried to physically harm us...all for wearing the cardinal and gold, I knew that I was in the right place and became aware of the evil that is UofI. I have never since, nor ever will root for Iowa. They could lose every game in every sport for the rest of time and I would be 100% ok with that. :biggrin9gp: