We started with Iowa State. The campus looked really beautiful, although it was hard to see anything through the torrential rain that was coming down during the majority of our visit! We had a driving tour of campus because of the threat of rain during our tour time. As a result of the rain, I didn't take any pictures, but in addition to the tour of campus, we had an extensive tour of the engineering department (including the wind tunnel simulator!) and we met with an admissions person to talk about the application process. Overall, I was impressed with the university.
From there we drove through dark grey clouds and a heavy downpour to Des Moines where we enjoyed dinner at Mezzodi's and an uneventful night at the Hampton Inn.
The next morning we went to Drake University where we met with two admissions reps and had a tour of their campus.
They are the Drake Bulldogs so scattered all over campus were bulldog statues painted with different colors and themes.
After that we drove to Grinnell where Brad treated us to lunch at Relish. We met with Rachel in admissions, heard all about their individual curriculum and self governed student body and went on tour with Sarah from New Jersey.
After checking out the campus bookstore, Meg and I walked downtown for some frozen yogurt from The Fix, a new yogurt place downtown Grinnell. We were lucky enough to stay with Brad and Mary that night -- they just moved into their new place a few weeks ago so we were one of their first guests. We had dinner at the Prairie Canary and then headed back to their house to visit. The next morning, Mary and I got up early and went for a run -- just like old times. :) It was really great to spend time with the two of them and their three adorable little girls.
Wednesday morning we drove farther east to Iowa City and the University of Iowa. We met up with Sabrina, their admissions person who works with Minnesota students (we were on the MACAC board together, so it was fun to see her again!), attended an admissions presentation, went on tour of campus with Liz from Illinois and enjoyed lunch with Sabrina in one of their dining halls. They continually stressed how "walkable" the campus is. It does seem like many of the academic departments are in the center part of campus, but it's still a large university so hard to tell if it's pretty compact or if they're stressing a smaller size in order to not seem too huge. Either way, I was also impressed with the University. The grounds were beautiful, facilities seemed well kept and they certainly have great academic programs.
They, too, have statues of their mascot, Herky the Hawkeye, all over campus, painted to represent different things: Shakespeare, Big Foot, Jackson Pollhawk, Student, Graduate, etc.
That concluded our campus visits, so we headed home. Overall, we had a great time! I enjoy spending time with Meg and it was good to learn more about some great Iowa colleges.
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