Malformed University Name, Uncategorized Surveys

Date: Jan 23 2009
Major: Physics (This Major's Salary over time)
I graduated 25 years ago, so things may have changed somewhat, but…

I very much enjoyed my time at Iowa. I think I got a very good education. But it would have been too easy to skate by. During sophomore year I made a conscious decision to challenge myself and take a double major. Without that, I think my degree would not have been nearly as valuable. This was mostly on my own, undergrad advising was pretty much non-existent. So it really comes down to the cliche' that what you take away from your time at the University of Iowa depends on what you put into it.

Other comments here mention the Greek system, usually in a negative way. I wasn't in a frat. The Greek system was very active when I was there also. But if you didn't want to be a part of it, there were plenty of other social opportunities. I stay in touch with the Univ. and Iowa City, and I'm pretty dismayed by the number of athlete-rape type of scandals that seem to occur and how they are handled by the Univ. The Administration doesn't seem to do much to discourage or offer alternatives to the huge drinking culture. Don't get me wrong, I drank lots of beer and went to lots of big parties when I was there and the drinking age was only 19 then. But now as a parent, I'ld like my daughter's university to be a little better.

The quality of instructors was very mixed.

I got to take some classes from some great professors, and I had some really crappy instructors, particularly in the calculus sequence. Out of 5 math classes (Calc I-III, Lin Alg, Stats), two of the teachers were just total crap. I'd have to say that was pretty typical among my friends.

The possibility for undergrads to get involved in research (science, engineering) was pretty small.