The Iowa State 2024-2025 school year has finally begun with new students becoming Cyclones. However, college can vastly differ from high school in class structure, campus size and housing, and these issues may seem daunting for first-year students. Now that the school year has started, they have experienced many of those differences and have their own thoughts on them.

Lucy McInerney, a first-year architecture student, talked about what it’s like to have different class structures than in high school.

“It was like three hours,” McInerney said. “I’ve never had classes that long. And deadline stuff… [it’s] definitely a lot more rigorous than my high school. But other than that, I think it kinda seemed same-ish.”

She also talked about her first reactions to dorm living.

“I actually really like it,” McInerney said. “I definitely thought I wouldn’t at first, but luckily, my roommate’s nice, and the AC is definitely great.”

Vinay Jami, a first-year computer science student, talked about how Iowa State is a significant part of Ames and how that affected his decision when choosing which college he would attend.

“What really sold it is that Ames is not just a college in a city; it’s a city that’s around the college,” Jami said. “The college is the main part of Ames and it feels very suburban, and that’s where I’ve always grown up.”

Jami said he was looking forward to participating in intramurals. 

“Especially flag football for me, and meeting new people,” Jami said. “The other day, I just ran into some people playing; they just created their own game with a volleyball and called it Frileyball. So now, that happens every other night or so.”

Jami also expressed that he liked how accessible his friends were.

“I have a bunch of guys who [I] met through [my] fraternity that we didn’t know until last weekend,” Jami said. “Everybody’s really close by, and everything is not even that bad of a walk, and even if it is a little longer, you’ve always just got somebody that you could walk with or that type of stuff.”

Maddison Gates, a first-year in architecture, mentioned the diversity on campus.

“It’s a lot bigger here, but there’s also a lot more diversity here, and I think that’s very nice,” Gates said when asked about the differences between ISU and her previous school. “I think it’s nice to see people from all around the world instead of just a 20-mile radius. I think that’s really cool.”

Gates also likes how easy it is to meet new people in her dorm.

“It’s really nice to be able to meet a bunch of new people,” she said. “It’s really hot, but it’s nice to get into a new environment and just make a lot of new friends.”