It Is What You Make It

Introduction
The biggest piece of advice I would have is to visit the campus. A few years ago it was rated one of the most beautiful campuses in the country behind Princeton and Harvard. The campus is absolutely amazing, it was designed by the same guy who designed Central Park in New York, and Riverside, Illinois. There is plenty of open space around campus to hang around between classes. The town of Ames has everything you would need except the mall is pretty small. DesMoines which is only 30 minutes away has several big malls. Anyone who really likes big cities probably won't like the more rural appeal of Iowa State. I chose to come here mostly because only a few people that went to my high school (in Chicago) came here.

Campus Life and Social Life
The social life at Iowa State is really energetic to say the least. On any given weekend, except UNI and UofI homecoming, there is an innumerable amount of things to do. You have to be 21 to get into the bars, but that can be a good thing because it helps perpetuate a healthy house party atmosphere. The cops can be bad at times but if you're smart about where you drink (if you're underage) you should not have a problem. Almost everything you would want to do on a weekend night is within walking distance of the dorms: bars, house parties, eateries, movie theater, you name it. The sports here are are usually pretty fun, even though we have some trouble winning most of the time, although when we do we celebrate. This year the football fans rushed the field and tried to take down the goalpost (which by the way are the only set of goalpoats in the nation GUARANTEED not to come down (NCAA and NFL)). For any game there are probably around 50,000 tailgaters, which is always a good time. I heard somewhere that we have around 600 clubs on campus, and if you want to you can make your own. ISU also has a large Greek system. If you're into the outdoors, there is an awesome national park 15 miles west, 2 disc golf courses (one awesome, one not great) a ski hill 15 miles west, and plenty of woods and creeks to explore. Advertisement
Academics
It is relatively easy to get a scholorship here: a good high school GPA, or a good ACT/SAT should help. The math department really really sucks. If you want to major in math do not come here. There are not a lot of great math professors. The psychology department has some of the best professors and doctors that I have ever worked with, not to mention the psych classes. Most of the TAs are really good at teaching and know what they are talking about, but occasionally you will get one that doesn't exactly speak the best english, which can make learning difficult. The workload that I have is not very bad, (17 credits, 12 hours a week in a research lab, and a part time job) with plenty of time to hang out.

Student Body
Most of the students are from Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. There are two types of people here, most easily separated by those in the Greek System, and those who aren't. I chose not to be and I am happy with that. If you enjoy that type of thing there are 27 frats, and 17 sororities. If you choose not to pledge, the dorms are an excelent place to live. The people here are generally good natured, as opposed to the University of Iowa, where if you wear any Iowa State gear you might get beat up. If you don't go out of your way to mess with anyone, they won't go out of their way to mess with you.

In Closing...
No matter who you are, and what you're in to you will most likely be able to find a bunch of others that are into the same things. With almost 24,000 students anyone can find a niche that they fit in. Iowa State is also a reasonable distance from Chicago (5 hours) and Minneapolis (3.5). Iowa State is a good combination of a big school with tons of things to do, and the small town atmosphere. Depending on what you want, you can spend the whole day on campus with people you know, or spend the whole day and not see a single person you have ever met.