Ames, IA (Des Moines, Iowa City: relocation, real estate, tornado)

[uniquemonique]

My son has applied for admission to Iowa State Unversity. We currently live in Baltimore, MD and I'm very concerned since this will be his first time away from home. Can someone give me some facts about this town. For instance, cost of living, jobs, places to shop, crime, public transportation, minority population, etc.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by uniquemonique

My son has applied for admission to Iowa State Unversity. We currently live in Baltimore, MD and I'm very concerned since this will be his first time away from home. Can someone give me some facts about this town. For instance, cost of living, jobs, places to shop, crime, public transportation, minority population, etc.

All that info is right here in this website. Ames, Iowa (IA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders

Something to watch out for... There is not much to do there except a lot of parties and drinking. I had several friends get into a lot of trouble because of that. I'm sure your son will be fine though...very few poeple have as bad of judgement as my friends.

[El Rhino]

Ames seems very straight-laced for a college town. Like Steve said there's not much to do there besides drink or maybe hang out at Donutland or Taco Time. I'd imagine it's a pretty safe place with the usual problems you see in college towns.

As far as the minority population, you're looking at a bunch of Chinese international students and the ISU football/basketball team, that's about it.

Campustown has pretty much everything a student would need within easy walking distance. They've got a bus service though, not sure how good it is. It seems like Ames is comprised of two major highways where you'll find almost everything in town, so I'm sure the bus system would be sufficient.

As for jobs, I hear that if you can get on at the Barilla plant, they pay full tuition. That would be a sweet gig. Other than that, I'm sure it's just your basic retail/service jobs.

[GraniteStater]

Also, Ames is very close to the Des Moines metro area if that is of importance to the OP.

[patmc]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

All that info is right here in this website. Ames, Iowa (IA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders

Something to watch out for... There is not much to do there except a lot of parties and drinking. I had several friends get into a lot of trouble because of that. I'm sure your son will be fine though...very few poeple have as bad of judgement as my friends.

To get opinions from Amesonians you might want to try www.AmesTalk.com

[LPerkins33]

Those tornado/redbirds are confused about their mascot, he should probably apply at the University of Iowa

But like others said there is next to nothing to do in Ames except watch the Cyclones lose and then drink away your sorrows.

Same can be said about the U of I this year as well though

[Chicago60614]

Ames is a nice town of around 60,000 or so. Half of the people in town are college students.

I can't see their being much crime in Ames other than typical college town types of things. I looked, and the city has had 2 murders in the past 7 years. Nothing really to worry about.

It's about 30 minutes north of Des Moines, which has a metro of around 550,000 people, and quite a bit of things to do, shopping, etc.

[zz4guy]

IA State (Ames) is an Engineering, architecture and veterinary school. Theres next to no diversity (big surprise). And the night life doesn't even compare to Iowa City. I wouldnt recommend the school unless you like sausage parties and meeting a bunch of squares. Not my idea of a well rounded education.

There. That's my honest opinion. I've attended Iowa and have been to IA state a lot and know a lot of people who went there. I went to Iowa and I am so glad that I did.

[WoodwardGirl]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

IA State (Ames) is an Engineering, architecture and veterinary school. Theres next to no diversity (big surprise). And the night life doesn't even compare to Iowa City. I wouldnt recommend the school unless you like sausage parties and meeting a bunch of squares. Not my idea of a well rounded education.

There. That's my honest opinion. I've attended Iowa and have been to IA state a lot and know a lot of people who went there. I went to Iowa and I am so glad that I did.

Since the young man is coming to Iowa from Maryland to go to school, I think it's a pretty safe guess that he is coming for one of the programs in which ISU has particular strength -- the Agricultural sciences, perhaps. So suggesting that he go to UI, instead, because they have better parties... is this is some reverse-psychology ploy to reassure his mother?

C'mon, folks -- some people go to school to get a degree in a particular field, and choose to go to schools where that field is renowned. I went to UI because of the Writer's Workshop, not because I heard there were good bars. And, other than the fact that the ISU dorms seemed nicer than the UI ones, at least when I was in school, my ISU friends and I all seemed to find our college experience pretty much interchangeable -- I had fun in Ames, they had fun in Iowa City, and we all studied hard and got great educations and great jobs.

ISU remains a good school and has a beautiful campus. Some days, I wish I had gone the Veterinary medicine route instead of my multi-major-mashup at Iowa, and, if I had, I know I would have been as comfortable, safe and happy at ISU as I was at Iowa.

[Iowagirl566]

Originally Posted by uniquemonique

My son has applied for admission to Iowa State Unversity. We currently live in Baltimore, MD and I'm very concerned since this will be his first time away from home. Can someone give me some facts about this town. For instance, cost of living, jobs, places to shop, crime, public transportation, minority population, etc.

I went to ISU for one year in 82(no money for more than that). Beautiful campus. I now live 9 miles away and shop there often. Jobs available would mostly be restaurant or discount stores for a part time job. There is a downtown shopping area, campus town, and North Grand Mall. There is also a Target, Walmart, Kmart, Staples, Best Buy, and Borders. Crime is very low. There is a great bus service called CyRide. I think it is like 50 cents to ride. They have routes all over the city, out to the Mall, the westside(Lots of apartments), down Duff Ave(The Target, Kmart, Best Buy, Staples, and Borders route). The college has many Asian sudents as previously mentioned but there are other nationalites as well. There is a whole dorm devoted to foreign students. While I went to ISU there was a program that matched an American up with a foreign student so they could practice English and learn our ways. I don't remember what it was called back then or if they still do it but it's something to check out if he's interested.