Iowa State University Admission
Iowa State University Undergraduate Program
Iowa State University Application

The Facts

Iowa State University is a large, public land-grant institution located in the town of Ames, Iowa, and is home to over 20,100 undergraduate students and approximately 6,000 graduate and part-time professional students. The students are able to take courses in one of the eight undergraduate schools or the graduate school, which offer academic programs in the areas of agriculture, business, education, design, engineering, family and consumer sciences, liberal arts and sciences, as well as veterinary medicine. These academic divisions offer broad range of majors in the areas of agriculture (a large program with majors as diverse as dairy science, plant protection, and agricultural business management), biological science (home to innovative programs in genetics and plant pathology), business (home to a unique program in transportation management), communications and the arts (which has a wonderful program in advertising), computer and physical science, education (which has a rather hard-to-find program in the industrial arts), engineering and environmental design (a massive program with majors as diverse as aeronautical engineering and interior design), and social sciences. Some of the most popular majors include engineering, agriculture, statistics, and business.

Admission to Iowa State University is extremely competitive among those who apply; last year, over 9,035 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 8,110 of those students were accepted; of those, about 3,850 matriculated. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1090 to 1150 and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 24 to 30. Additionally, more than 91% of those admitted were ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class with an average high school GPA of about a 3.9.

Iowa State University has a manageable student to faculty ratio of 17:1, and while many classes are held in lecture halls, they are usually supplemented by a significantly smaller seminar course in which students are able to discuss the content of the previous lecture. Professors are given fairly high marks from students in terms of accessibility; however, some students complain that they never see their professors after the class lets out for the day.

The Social Scene

The town of Ames has done a good job in recent years of owning up to its college town status; there are plenty of shops, cafes, and bars to keep students pretty busy on the weekends. The town is only about a half an hour’s drive away from the city of Des Moines, so many students take a mini road trip on the weekends to take advantage of the more urban excitement. Greek life is a huge, huge deal at Iowa State; the school is home to a staggering 48 national and local fraternities and sororities, which are extremely popular with students. The Greeks basically run the campus social life; their weekend parties are both famous and infamous. Alcohol is definitely in play at these soirees, and most students’ weekends are filled with keg party after keg party.

The dating is incredibly vibrant and diverse. There are students here of all shapes, sizes, and orientations...

What’s Good

“This school has it all--the incredible research facilities, the variety of courses, the party scene, the location; everything is here.”

“There are so many majors to choose from, and the administration really encourages you to explore all your options before making a definitive decision.”

“The weekends are out of this world. Boredom is a word that simply doesn’t exist here.”

What’s Bad

“There are a lot of people who just slide through their weekends wasted, without doing any work.”

“A lot of people here seem to still think they’re still in high school. It can be a bit cliquish.”

“There tends to be a dorm shortage, and finding off-campus housing isn’t an easy task to accomplish.”

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