UArizona or UIowa

[Anonymous]

Not interested in a contest, but the University of Iowa is a nice place to spend your college years and Iowa City is a great Midwestern college town. The activities center largely around the university and there are tons of cultural activities. While DC has since graduated, I've actually thought it would be a good place to retire. But it does get quite cold.

[Anonymous]

Arizona has an amazing campus. Tucson does have a college town feel near the university, there’s just surrounding sprawl, but it’s a good city to live temporarily. The student body tends wealthy, attractive, and non-studious, even in STEM.

[Anonymous]

Arizona

[Anonymous]

U of A grad so I am a little biased. Great town and great school. A little bit of culture shock for me coming from the east coast (Tucson schools get off for when the rodeo is in town). Some really strong majors in sciences, medicine, education, speech pathology.

[Anonymous]

U of A, definitely. Great value, and Tucson is great. Lived there for 3 1/2 years, wife is a U of A graduate from Eller School of Business. She did an internship at a local bio-tech firm in Tucson that set her up for a great career in the DC area.

Tucson is a really a unique place to live, though. No offense to Iowa, but the southwest just has a unique style to it, and Tucson is a very unique city with an artsy, laid-back vibe. I miss it, though the heat starts late-March to April through October and really does take time to adjust to.

If you are in to camping and hiking, nothing beats Arizona and New Mexico trails.

[Anonymous]

Lots of comments here about the climate rather than the education.

If you look at the WSJ survey of attitudes of recent alums (on a scale of ten):

Was your college the right choice: Iowa: 8.6; Arizona; 8.3
Were the students around you inspiring: Iowa: 7.6; Arizona: 7.4
Was your college worth the cost: Iowa: 7.7; Arizona: 7.3

Those are strong scores for both, and the gaps aren't huge, but Iowa grads rate their experience higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of comments here about the climate rather than the education.

If you look at the WSJ survey of attitudes of recent alums (on a scale of ten):

Was your college the right choice: Iowa: 8.6; Arizona; 8.3
Were the students around you inspiring: Iowa: 7.6; Arizona: 7.4
Was your college worth the cost: Iowa: 7.7; Arizona: 7.3

Those are strong scores for both, and the gaps aren't huge, but Iowa grads rate their experience higher.

So since the scores are both strong, and the gaps aren't huge, you should base your decision on other factors, as previous posters were alluding to.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe how many people are saying Arizona over Iowa based simply on the weather. I would think outcomes would be the decider here and Iowa simply has to look better to prospective employers than Arizona, doesn't it?

[Anonymous]

DH and I are from the midwest and now live in AZ. Would never ever move back. U of A wins hands down. If the person doesn't want to stay in the midwest, why go to Iowa? If they want to stay in the SW Arizona has better networking.

[Anonymous]

They will work harder and be less spoiled at Iowa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are from the midwest and now live in AZ. Would never ever move back. U of A wins hands down. If the person doesn't want to stay in the midwest, why go to Iowa? If they want to stay in the SW Arizona has better networking.

How do you know where OP's kid wants to live/work? For instance, I never want to live in the water-deprived SW again. And I love Tucson. It just seems so dead-end for the future in terms of climate. (Not sure I want to live in Iowa though either with the floods!). Chicago and other northern midwest cities are on the up-swing with climate change for the long term--and they also aren't going to be flooded with retirees like AZ--so I'd rather settle there if I were a young job-seeker. (Not saying that anyone should share my tastes--just saying that we don't know what OP's are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many people are saying Arizona over Iowa based simply on the weather. I would think outcomes would be the decider here and Iowa simply has to look better to prospective employers than Arizona, doesn't it?

No. They look *exactly* the same: like flagship universities that aren't Berkeley or Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many people are saying Arizona over Iowa based simply on the weather. I would think outcomes would be the decider here and Iowa simply has to look better to prospective employers than Arizona, doesn't it?

No. They look *exactly* the same: like flagship universities that aren't Berkeley or Michigan.

+1 this, although it depends where you are located. If you are in the southwest, California, mountain west/PAC NW...Arizona will be more represented. University of Iowa is big in the midwest...Chicago is crawling with Iowa grads. They are probably the same on the east coast and southeast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of comments here about the climate rather than the education.

If you look at the WSJ survey of attitudes of recent alums (on a scale of ten):

Was your college the right choice: Iowa: 8.6; Arizona; 8.3
Were the students around you inspiring: Iowa: 7.6; Arizona: 7.4
Was your college worth the cost: Iowa: 7.7; Arizona: 7.3

Those are strong scores for both, and the gaps aren't huge, but Iowa grads rate their experience higher.

margin of error. ignore

[Anonymous]

margin of error. ignore

yeah, and the election was stolen.