(ISU) To begin with, I went there from out-of-state, and

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Date: Sep 29 2005
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
To begin with, I went there from out-of-state, and paid a ton of money, to get an advisor who put me in the wrong classes! I was naive, I just did what he said, I didn't know how college worked. My tests indicated I should go into Chem 50 and he put me in 177! That was not the only mistake he made.

For the undergrad classes, they TRY to flunk you! Graduate school was great, but for a person who did so well in high school they did not learn how to study, the undergrad classes were a shock. I didn't even know to drop a class. I had more than one class where the teacher could hardly speak English! I thought, well I'll just copy what he writes on the board and read the book. That didn't work! The class average on the tests for my trig class was 20%!! For a C! I got my C+ and got out.

Another professor stated his grading policy at the beginning of the semester, then changed it the day before finals! I worked my butt off to get an A, and he changed his policy and I ended up with a B!

Also, it is way too cold to be tromping several miles to get to class - no parking anywhere near.

Grad school was great, the professors were helpful. But watch out for those big undergrad classes - you really have to know what's going on, and there is no support.

Responses

I am a recent graduate of the Chemical Engineering program.

I'm sorry, but this is just not true at all. I am still amazed at how the university cares for each individual student. They have student run student groups available to pretty much every large class. These smaller classes are run by students who have gotten an A in the class they teach. Additionally, I have never met a professor who wouldn't find time to help me out with a class or a problem.

Parking. Iowa State has the nicest campus I have ever seen/heard about. The campus is compact and easily accessible. To walk clear across campus is 15 minutes max, which is not bad for such a large university.

I will admit the out of state cost is high, but there are so many opportunities for easy scholarships.

I wouldn't/ couldn't imagine going anywhere else.

I'm an international student in ISU. i think above all you wrote depends on how you managed those problems by yourself. first of all, i think knowing academic policy is very basic thing you have to do. we are not high school student, but college student, right? i think we should take own responsibility. i had a similar problem like you when i arrived here, my school advisor put me into wrong class,even worse, my placement test data was lost by technical problem(not my fault), and i also had the case I had to drop my class after the first week, but I figured it all by my self and solved it.

That is really confusing by reading all those comments in life at ISU, life after ISU, getting into ISU in addition to those above.

Is it really that bad? I am going to be an international grad student in ISU and im dying for some candid comments about the study and living and social condition of ISU. Plz help me out!

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