University of Iowa Top Questions

Writing in Spanish was the best class I've ever taken. My teacher was incredible- Gay Allan was her name. Class participation is very common. Even in lectures. For example, one of our professors, Dave Collins, walks around in the lecture and will just sit down in the middle of students and start doing his lesson from there. He even holds competitions in the class, he asks for students to find as many "promotional cards" in their wallet and whoever wins gets money... incredibly engaging and hilarious professor. I love the marketing department at Iowa. The teachers are fantastic and all have a strong background in the field. I even work for one of my professors as a marketing consultant with one of her Iowa based clients. The entrepreneurship program is one of best things about our business school. Despite the name, you do not have to want to start a business to take the classes. You don't even have to be a business major. You learn all about creating a business plan (you create several fake companies even), how new business gain capital, how to market on a small budget, etc- all the very principles that all of the big companies we know of were based off of. Plus, the program is backed by John Pappajohn who is a multi-millionaire entrepreneur who owns a venture capital firm in Des Moines.

Yes I know my professors name. I don't think I have had a class yet that I look forward to go to every week. But I think once I get into my major, more excitement will come. Requirements here are good and legitimate. Education at Iowa looks very good for job futures.

Iowa gives a student a pretty good education. It is hard sometimes to be motivated to work for classes with teachers that care more about the research they are doing for the school then about the students they are teaching. This is of course not true of all teachers. Intro to marketing with Dave Collins was a very good class that pushed me to learn and gave me motivation to learn. I spend a lot of time with TAs outside of class. I visit at least one TA's office hours each week asking questions about the class/assignments.

All but one professors know my name. My favorite class is Gender and Society. My least favorite is calculus. Students study often. All classes require students to go to discussion, it counts as participation. Iowa students do have intellectual conversations outside of class. Students are competitive. The most unique class I've taken is Gender and Society. I keep changing my major; I've changed i 6 times already. I do not spend time with my professors outside of class. Iowa's academic requirements are legit. Iowa's education is great for getting a job and/or learning for its own sake.

My favorite class may ultimately be Principles of Biology I. If you plan on being a pre-med student (or a Biology major - duh) then you'll have to take this class. Professor Denburg and Professor Poulton are probably two of the smartest men relating to Biology on campus. Dr. Denburg teaches the old-fashioned way of scribbling down notes and having his students copy them down unlike many professors who throw all of their information on powerpoints and have slides for students to print out. The major benefit of this is that you actually get to learn in lecture because you are forced to write something down and think about it at the same time, which usually helps you remember it better instead of looking at a powerpoint and drooling on yourself because you're so damn bored. Professor Poulton came from Oxford so that's self-explanitory - he's awesome. They both have a good sense of humor too.

The University of Iowa has one of the best Honors Programs in the nation. As long as you take advantage of the numerous possibilities here, you will be at one of the most competitive Universities in the nation.

There are a variety of class sizes here, but mostly large lectures that split up into discussion sections of about 20. It's not as close-knit as a small school so you might not know everyone's name, and the professor or TA might not know yours. The upside of a large campus though is its variety of courses. There are thousands of courses for every interest. Here at Iowa they focus a lot on learning for learning's sake. Hence the extensive gen ed requirements. But, for example, you could take Age of Dinosaurs instead of, say, Principles of Chemistry. A lot of majors have state of the art buildings and learning communities within the dorms. There are great resources available for every major. The professors and TA's however--you really could go either way. I've had great teachers and some really boring or mean ones. Just ask other undergrads.

I have only met one teacher at Iowa I have disliked and thought was horrible, but then, she was a TA. Every other teacher is amazing and class participation is extremely good. Classes are also fairly challenging if you try hard enough to pass. TA'S are very responsive to your needs and teachers love to hear from you. Everyone just seems to want to help. The best teachers I've had are foreign. My linguistics teacher was the funniest man I had every met and all the teachers in the Japanese department are possibly the most caring and hard working people on the campus. They really seem to want you to succeed. Some classes are difficult yes, but just like every other school, classes are what you make them. You'll learn if you want to, and you wont if you don't. It's really interesting to go to lectures because throughout the semester, they're fairly small, but when a test rolls around, the class doubles. you find out who the slackers are, and the teachers warn you not to be one of them.

I hated the large lecture classes I had in most of my intro science classes. Principles of Chemistry I especially. There were about 400 students in the class, and the lecture hall was always warm, so it was very hard not to doze off during lecture. Even in these large lecture halls the professors have an uncanny way of knowing your name. Whether or not you have intellectual conversations outside of class depends on who you surround yourself with. Although curves set up classes to be competitive, the classes that have them are the ones people are most likely to buddy up with others to get through. One of my Teaching Assistants was from U.K., and he said he felt we spent too much time outside of our major as undergraduates. We have General Education Requirements that require us to be well-rounded students. I loved taking Spanish at Iowa. The classes were very small and personal, and I had several instructors that were native speakers.

All the classes that I've taken here are unique. A lot of the people/teachers that I've run into have there own funny quarks that make the classes fun. There is always help for people who ask for it. The professors and TAs are very helpful and aren't as distant as I thought they would be.

I have a nice mixture of classes in terms of numbers-some are held in a huge lecture hall, and some are in classrooms with under twenty people. The nice thing is that all of the really big classes also have smaller discussion sections with about twenty to thirty people in them so you are able to get extra help and ask questions. The professors are almost always available outside of class during office hours or by appointment. I suppose it depends on the major, but I feel that for the most part the students are very competative. I was in biology, physiology, and chemistry classes with a lot of pre-med students and it was pretty tough.

Most huge lecture hall classes (anywhere from 100 to 600 students) have a small weekly discussion group that meets with a teaching assistant. This is where you are able to ask questions, turn in homework, take quizzes, etc, with only about 22 students in each discussion section. I am an English major here at Iowa and we are known for our English department and our highly recognized Writers workshop. Many famous writers have received degrees from the UI as well as certificates through the writers workshop. I also know that the UI hospitals and clinics are at the top of national ranking.

The professors will take time to get to know each and every student if the student is willing to get to know the professor. My favorite classes are marketing, with Advertising Theory being my favorite with Nancy Abram.

I think students are competitive but also can learn a lot from eachother studying in groups. The Pomerantz Center is wonderful. That is where anyone could go when wondering where they are going in life and how do they get there.

Iowa's academics range dramatically from your first semester. During your first semester, or first couple semesters, Iowa's classes are very large with lectures with around 300 people and total class size of around 1000 students. Once your specific major starts, classes get smaller and range from 25-70 people which offers more attention from professors.

Everyone in the philosophy department is amazing. James Duerlinger is retiring unfortunately and you guys are losing out huge, it will be very hard to find someone with his unique approach to philosophy. Fales, Fumerton, Landini, and Cunning are all always there to answer any questions, and they all know my name. Iows students have intellectual conversations out of class, we are just few and far between. As I said above, I do wish that the philosophy department required at least one of each of the following classes, metaphysics, and epistemology, in addition to what is already required. My department is more geared towards learning for its own sake, but it should be, and that should never change.

I have only a few professors who know my name. It is hard awith so many students but I will go to office hours and get to know them too. All of my teaching assistants for my smaller discussion classes know my name. I'm in the Honors Program so I definitely see and experience intellectual conversations outside of class. Most people go to class and participate to some extent. Once you get into your major classes and have people are really interested in the subject, participation will go up. This is also a very political campus so debates and quite common.

I would say that there is a wide variety of classes and difficulty levels for people to choose from here. A big concern of a lot of people when they go to college is that the classes will be too big. For the first couple of years when you are taking mainly gen eds there will be some really big classes. My psychology lecture last semester had over 500 people in it, but then I also had a philosophy class that only had 19. So it all depends. Also once you get into your more major specific courses the size drops down dramatically. Next semester I will be starting my actual Nursing classes and will never have a class larger than 75 people (unless I take a large gen ed again).

The professors here are awesome. Very accessible and always willing to help. The most unique class I ever took was Plants and Human Relations with Ken Jensen. It satisfied my sience without a lab pre req. It is a class I would never haven taken otherwise and Ken was such an amazing professor. He knew so much about all different kinds of plants and really cared about what he was teaching. Every week he would bring in things for us to look at, taste, and smell. We even made paper!

Academics at Iowa are as hard as you make them. If you want A's and B's you need to actually put some time in at the library. If you want C's then just go to class because if you don't you'll find out that your grades will be terrible.