Networking!

Introduction
I would say that you should look at the programs that Drake has to offer. If you're looking at pharmacy or business, Drake is an excellent choice. We may not have a highly ranked business school, but we have something WAY more important...networking. You can pretend that business isn't about connections, but you're only lying to yourself.

I choose Drake because I fell in love with the campus and the business school. I really like Des Moines and all that it has to offer. If prospective students don't enjoy Des Moines, realize that if you choose Drake, you're choosing Des Moines, too, so take that into consideration.

Also, Drake is not necessarily a "party school". If you want to party every night, you can and there's a certain (low) percentage that does, but most partying is saved for Wednesday night through Saturday night.

Campus Life and Social Life
Greek life is HUGE at Drake. Something like one in three students are in a social greek house. And those who aren't in a house (I'm not) still go to the parties and such. Most social greeks don't have an elitist view and they're eager to get others involved with their philanthropy, parties, and such.

Other than that, the main social scene revolve around the 3 campus bars. Each one has it's really busy time. For example, Wednesdays belong to "the Library" for dollar bottle night. But on the weekend most people are at West End, or at least stop there at some point during the night. The bars get busted very rarely and they know when they are going to and will be very strict on fake IDs. When it's not bust time, getting in w/out a valid ID is a cake walk. Advertisement
Academics
Drake is known for its pharmacy and business schools, but we also have a fine journalism school. The only program that I do not like is the language department. We have this "innovative" language program that, I found, makes it very difficult to focus on the language and not all the little hoops you have to jump through.

The professors are very accessible. They encourage you to get in contact with them and to stop by their office hours with any issues you have. We really don't even have TAs. First year seminar classes do have TAs, but they really don't do much more than edit papers. I can't speak for the other schools, but in the business school, at least 90% (and I think the exact number is 93%) of professors hold the highest degree in their field.

Student Body
There's a surprising amount of diversity at Drake. The most common type of student is a whiny upper middle class white kid from the suburbs, though. There's a substantial amount of carbon copies of Abercrombie, J. Crew, and Hollister ads wandering around campus.

A majority of students are from Iowa or the suburbs of Chicago. There's also a large amount of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin with fewer people from Missouri and other further-away states.

In Closing...
I love Drake. What others tend to complain about Drake are things that you would find at most other schools. I can imagine you would run into people who are more than willing to bitch about Drake, but these people are normally more than willing to bitch about everything.