Iowa State University

Date: Jan 27 2011
Major: Aerospace Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Before you choose to go to Iowa State University for engineering there are a few things that as a current engineering student, I think all future engineering students should know:

1) It does not seem that they require their teachers/TA's to take English proficiency exams before walking into a classroom… Now I know this may sound extremely arrogant, but when you begin to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars a semester to attend a university and then realize the teacher is incapable of answering your questions, simply because he doesn't understand or speak English, the frustration will set in.

2) Most professors have RIDICULOUSLY limited office hours. And even during the listed hours, there is still no guarantee that they will be present. When I brought this up with the head of the Aerospace Department, he said that all teachers are required to hold a certain amount of office hours per week and that he would look into it (nothing has ever changed).

3) The Engineering Student 4-Year Plan looks great at first glance, but in reality it is filled with wasted credit hours. At first your counselor will give you an enormous list of classes that meet the criteria for their "General Education" requirements. What they won't tell you until your Junior year is that in the fine print it clearly states only a few of those classes will actually fulfill the degree requirement. In other words, ISU makes it next to impossible for you to take any General Education classes that pertain directly to engineering (in hopes of getting a minor degree) and still graduate on time.

I cannot speak for how the other departments at Iowa State University work, I can only speak for the Engineering Department. That being said, my recommendation to all prospective engineering students is to look elsewhere.