October 13 - Iowa State University

Go Cyclones! Julia and I traveled to Ames, IA for a tour of Iowa State University two days ago. You may be thinking, "Iowa? Seriously, Iowa?" Well, it may seem random but yes, Iowa. NASA recruits engineers from ISU and we know several people who  attended and had great experiences. Ames is also considered one of the best college towns in America and my friend's son, who was a top track and field recruit last year, did campus visits all over the US (Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Texas, Florida, Georgia, etc) and said Iowa State was the best campus. 

We flew out of Houston Thursday night, directly into Des Moines. It was a quick 2H flight and then Ames was a 30min drive from there. The Des Moines airport reminded me of the Albany Airport (very small and not crowded) and the drive to Ames reminded me of upstate NY (2-3 lane highway, no real traffic to speak of). Friday was a full day on campus and I was very impressed with how organized and thorough everything was. We met in the commons for a general information session at 11am with approx 30 students and parents. Every student received a packet with their itinerary and they gave each student a breakdown of merit (for example, for Texas residents, merit is based on GPA and a 4.0 will result in $48k merit over 4 years, etc). I liked the transparency. From there, we all went to a dining hall and had lunch together.

Everyone then broke off and went to different buildings on campus for their specific interests. We went to "Health and Human Sciences - Undecided" and met with an admissions advisor and a current student. They talked about all the different pathways in that college, from physical therapist, physicians assistant, pre-med, optometry, nutrition, dietician and more. The session was Julia and 2 other girls and they were able to ask a lot of questions and get a lot of insight into course schedules and opportunities in regards to job shadowing and internships. From them, the entire group met up again for a campus tour and then we did a housing tour. Freshman live in either your traditional tiny dorm room with communal bathrooms on the hall or a 2 bedroom suite that share a bathroom. The campus was absolutely beautiful (we definitely went at the perfect time with the fall leaves just starting to change). I think the only negative was Julia is that they loft all the beds in the dorm rooms. 

Overall, great experience. Go Cyclones!