Iowa State University Top Questions

Athletic events are attended by a very hardcore group of fans. Most other fans just like to tailgate and hope the Cyclones win. Most of my closest friends I met on my dormitory floor freshman year. You can find a large number of people out at bars pretty much any day of the week, but starting Thursday evening and ending Sunday night, a huge majority of the partiers are out.

There are many ways to get involved at Iowa State. Living in the residence halls freshmen year is a great way to meet people. Often times students leave their doors open so friends can walk in and out. Floors often hang out as friends, eat dinner, hang out, and even do homework together. Students may also decide to join the greek community which expands the range of people that you meet and a lot of the times have friends inside of the residence halls and in their houses. Joining clubs are also a great way to meet people, there is often a club fair that happens at the beginning of each semester to recruit new members. An activity that I am involved in is the marching band. It was an amazing way to meet people because I moved in a few days before everyone else did and when classes started I already knew people! Hanging out with friends at Iowa State is awesome too. Students who are not of age to drink can still have fun on the weekends. There is the Memorial Union where students can play bingo or even go midnight bowling. There is ISU After Dark which hosts free movie nights and fun activities. Students can shop at the local mall, dine at Perkins or Hickory Park, watch movies at the Dollar Theater or Cinema 12, go bowling, watch theatre at C.Y. Stephens, or just hang out in the residence halls. Many people I know sometimes venture to Des Moines to enjoy a change of scenery.

ISU has a ton of clubs on campus, and if you do not find one that you like, all that you need are 3 friends and you can start your own. Friley is the dorm that is closest to the engineering side of campus and in my experience most people keep their doors open when they are around which is a great way to meet people. The University brings comedians, plays, ballets, bands, orchestras and other great groups to perform on campus. We have a variety of venues including Hilton coliseum, CY Stevens Auditorium and then the more intimate M-shop at the Memorial union. In the summer/fall movies are also projected outside on central campus. I don't think that the frats and soroities rule the shcool by any means. There are parties on the weekend, but they are not dominant. There is a student festival in the spring called Veisha which lasts a week. Last weekend I travelled with the Crew Club to a regatta (race) in MN, good times.

If I am awake at 2am on a Tuesday I am working for a class. Some members of sororities and fraternities go out on any weekday evening. Tradition: VEISHA and campaniling! Specific groups of people party a lot. Others party less often. Fraternities and sororities are important to the people in them. On a Saturday night you could go out to dinner with friends, go to a movie with friends, hang out at someone's place, or go out of town.

I love going out- it's a great part of college. I love meeting new people every weekend and being able to relax after a stressful week.

The social life here at ISU is very exciting and fun. I really like the greek social lives, it helps et me very involved in the University.

I'm a member of the Greek community and I feel that this has given me the opportunity to make the huge ISU campus into a smaller and more manageable community.

Intramurals are a very big part of Iowa State and very popular among the student body.

Iowa State students are some of the nicest people you will meet. When I lived in the dorms, I never locked my door. Greek life is pretty popular on campus. Most of the leadership roles on campus, (Government Student Body, Homecoming, etc.) are filled by Greeks. So are most of the philanthropic organizations. I have met my closest friends through Greek life. If you want to get involved on campus, you want to be Greek. People party every weekend. Every night, actually. Now, we don't have a big "party school" reputation, but we still know how to bring it. Every spring we have VEISHEA, which is an old tradition meant to celebrate all the colleges of the university, but really equals lots of drinking. We have concerts during the weekend, and everyone gets smashed. One year, a riot broke out, leading to flaming dumpsters and tear gas. VEISHEA was cancelled that next year. This year, the administration is demanding money for the once previous free concerts, and are also limiting the number of people able to go to these concerts to about half what normally go. There is talk of riots again this year. Which probably means some really drunk people yelling "riot!" and being promptly arrested. People are pissed about the changes, but I think they will resort to drinking rather than organized protest. To be honest, there is not a whole lot to do that doesn't involve drinking. I mean, there are movies, and bowling. That is about it. I suppose if you are a dude, you can hang out with your friends and play halo. That just isn't very socially acceptable for girls. The music sucks here. We rarely get good acts booked. For instance, this year, Eve 6 will be headlining for VEISHEA. You have to go to Minnealpolis or Chicago if you want to see a good show. You have to be 21 to go to the bars here, so there is alot of house party/ parties at fraternities.

There isn't a most popular organization or club on campus. So many students are involves in various activities that not any particular one stands out to me. Athletic events are semi-popular along with shows or other events on campus. I met my closest friends in the activities on got involved in. I even keep in contact with some of the people I met in the dorms. On a typical weekend I am usually with my friends taking a break from academics. We do all sorts of things like play games, rent movies, go to movies, make dinner, go shopping, what we can do is endless. Partying is what I'm here for so I personally choose not to do it often. Some people here party every night of the week while others never drink, ever. Fraternities and sororities are not important. They are a good way to meet people and find different networks but I wouldn't call that important. They do great things however. By this I mean philanthropies. Greeks raise so much money to donate to charities which is a powerful thing that many non-greeks cannot do simply becasue they dont have a lot of people.