ISU: Where you're just a number

Introduction
I chose ISU for its beautiful campus and location. ISU is a land grant university, and has a walking campus. However, the focus of Iowa State is on engineering, agriculture, and vet med. If you're not majoring in either of these three fields, stay away from here! Two brand-new buildings were just built with state-of-the-art technology (there is even a walkway between the two) and they are soley for the engineering classes. This is my third year at ISU, and I've never needed to go in either. The tuition money you pay will go toward the engineers. As a journalism/mass communication/anthropology major, I attend classes in run-down buildings. My main building, Curtiss Hall, has buckets in the hallways to catch the rain from the leaking roof. Engineers get new buildings; liberal arts get buckets in the hall.

Campus Life and Social Life
Campus life depends on what you're in to. If you like to drink, there are plenty of house-parties for under-agers. All the bars except for two (Bali Satay and La Boheme) are 21 only. You can get into Bali and Boheme if you're 19. Other than partying, there isn't much to do. Ames has a couple movie theaters, but nothing major. There are intramural sports, but they're not very big. Some clubs on campus have a lot of members, especially the religious ones, but ISU has very little social/political activism. The campus is VERY conservative and static. As for weekends, my friends and I sometimes go to the bars or usually watch a movie at one of our places, because there is no other choice. Advertisement
Academics
As an editor for our school paper, I wrote a story about graduation rates. Only 29% of ISU students graduate in four years or less- the rest take about a year longer. Unless you know exactly what you want to major in right now, you'll probably need the 5-year-plan. I don't know anyone on the 4-year-plan. My smallest class this semester is about 150 students. I don't have any professsors teaching- the 'professors' are actually TA's with bachelor's degrees or lecuturers working on their master's. I don't have a single professor who knows my name. My sophomore year my statistics TA knew my name, but only because he was my same age and we ran into each other at the bars every so often.

Student Body
The typical student at ISU is male, farm-raised, neo-conservative, wealthy, and apathetic. A campus organisztion, ActivUs, tried to rally students to contact their representative about rising tuition. They campaigned for several months and even offered their own cell phones, but the student response was negligible. The students don't care about anything, so long as they have their meat and potatoes.

In Closing...
At Iowa State's orientation, you'll be assigned a 9-digit number. That number controls everything: without it you can't eat at dining services, ride the bus system, go to the rec, take an exam. Who you ARE is meaningless; you become the number. Professors don't even ask for your name- they ask for your number. Above all else, LOOK AT TUITION. Look at the increases.

As for safety: Five ISU students died last semester. In one case, a drunk ISU student drove over another ISU student on Mortensen Road. The driver did not stop so the girl froze to death on the side of the road. ISU police declined to press charges against the driver, a sorority member. The road where this happened- Mortensen- is the south border of campus. There are no sidewalks and no streetlights. The city is doing nothing to change this situation, either.