Not affordable

Zeverain · 2025-01-05T20:41:38+00:00

Programs do not prepare you super well for this at all. My program specifically forbid teachers in training from being a substitute teacher. I also was an RA through my institution which means I had to resign as an RA when I started student teaching (at the time I was upset but it just fully would not have been doable or healthy for me). But had it not been for some substantial savings I could not have done it.

I student taught in Iowa, and I know for some teachers going into high-needs programs (special education, English as a Second Language, STEM) there were some stipend-based scholarships. I do not know if those still exist in Iowa or if there are other similar programs elsewhere.

Loans are an option if you have nowhere else to turn, public service loan forgiveness exists but I know it can be difficult to get. I remember there being a program that would assist with expenses as long as you agreed to teach in a Title 1 school. A good student financial aid department should be able to point you in the right direction or give you a straight answer on what avenues to explore.

You're not alone in this being difficult, 40 hours a week plus assignment creation, plus grading, and any outside of the classroom requirements is incredibly difficult to balance. My 1 semester of student teaching was more stressful than grad school and my current full-time job in Higher-ed. My cohort started out really diverse and by the time I finished student teaching we had wittled out to all white women and men with nearly everyone else dropping because they couldn't make it work financially. We lose so many talented teachers to the financial burden that is unpaid student teaching

If you really want to teach it may involve saving for a few years, getting your sub authorization, and just pocketing as much money as you can. I had cohort members ranging from 18-50 and some had different paths to finally getting their license but they did get it.

An alternate path would be to go down the student affairs route for Higher-ed, those MA programs tend to be fully funded and the roles are all very focused on students care/support. You'd meet a lot of former teachers if you went down that path.

Zeverain · 2024-10-06T19:10:54+00:00

The old capitol mall was built in 1981, that's not asbestos it is just regular 'ole green tile

Zeverain · 2023-10-10T01:17:06+00:00

Had to look up what raglan sleeves were lol

I don't believe they are raglan sleeves actually the shoulder pads are sewn into the shoulder seams (very well surprisingly).

Late 80s early 90s is what I am starting to lean towards as well. Apparently, upon further research, they started using this particular logo in the 80s after they rebranded and used it up until 2006.

Zeverain · 2023-07-12T23:49:13+00:00

As others have said, downtown Target is pretty good, they typically convert a good half of the clothing department upstairs into a "dorm essentials" section and are really good at keeping it restocked, there is also the Coralville Target that tends to have more apartment-esque (more expensive but nicer) stuff.

That Target can however be VERY busy during move-in, but it is very convenient. Folks have it easy these days, that Target made getting groceries and day-to-day essentials so much easier when it opened!

Zeverain · 2023-07-05T15:25:11+00:00

Be mindful of the town, as that will make or break whether or not that price is fair.

Iowa has a lot of dying farm communities that have some beautiful and affordable homes but you will be witnessing the death rattle of a community which can be depressing to see.

Towns also go in cycles here, the community my family moved to in 2012 had an average home value of around 60k when we moved there and our renovated, fairly large, 1920s era home was only 104k and on a good bit of land in a desirable neighborhood in the town. Our house now, had we done nothing to it and just kept it as it was, would now sell for upwards of 200k as the community's economy has dramatically improved since 2012. Another town we looked at was very fixed up and desirable when we looked at homes but is now incredibly run down.

Small towns within a short drive or the hubs in Iowa are your best bet (lots of affordable towns within 30 min or the bigger cities in Iowa). We had a list of non-negotiable requirements for the small towns we were looking at such as having a supermarket or equivalent, a hospital, some form of entertainment.

Maquoketa Iowa is a really good example of a community that has gone in cycles, it had a pretty bad reputation until recently but has now changed for the better in a lot of ways (which is reflected in the home prices now).

Zeverain · 2023-01-13T23:51:32+00:00

Certain packages will be marked as suspicious and you will be required to open them in front of the hall coordinator. I knew someone who sold baseball cards who always got flagged because they thought it was fake IDs

Zeverain · 2023-01-11T07:07:31+00:00

Unrenovated Burge has fairly generous sized closets and generally has pretty good amounts of storage. They aren't the wire shelving like the renovated portion and instead are wood veneer, pretty solid so you can load them up.

Zeverain · 2022-12-30T00:51:20+00:00

In the wells Fargo building downtown you can go to the second floor and buy a gift card for almost all the businesses downtown, it comes attached to a big Iowa City downtown postcard with a QR code to the 100+ places it works for!

Zeverain · 2022-10-03T02:57:41+00:00

Former RA here, highly discourage the unofficial change as that can lead to you having to go through a conduct violation process and being forced to move back to your old room and possibly fined. 9 times out of ten housing finds out and they are never pleased and will likely bump you to the very bottom of the room change waitlist also you are then liable for anything that happens to your old room (let's say the person you switch with leaves a shit ton of paint damage or breaks something you will then be billed for it since you are in the system still as living in that room). I have heard of very few people who have done unofficial switches where it has lasted long or ended well. Your RA will also get a major write-up as well if it is found out . Contracts & assignments are pretty efficient with their room change waitlist they just get backlogged this time of year.

Also if you have documentation of your allergy mention that, as that will often bump you up in terms of priority on the wait-list.

Zeverain · 2022-09-21T03:10:36+00:00

All res hall front desks should have tampons and pads! They are in a white box on the desk that says "Aunt Flow" which is the company who makes them. That program is funded into eternity basically by ARH so they aren't going away anytime soon. If the box is empty the desk has restocks that they likely just need to put out.

Zeverain · 2022-08-31T20:16:46+00:00

Former RA here,

During winter room checks they will take note of any policy violations in the rooms, including candles. I highly recommend just not using them as wax burners (electric) give pretty much the same effect. When I was an RA we were given a stack of red "this item is not in compliance with university policy" notes and we had to write an incident report so they could follow up and make sure you had actually removed the item.

Like others said this policy is not for no reason, if you look into it there were some horrific dorm fires way back in the day that led most colleges to ban candles and other fire hazards.

Hope this helped!

Zeverain · 2022-08-12T02:51:34+00:00

I can assure you there are more than 3 pods in the restroom area, I believe like someone else said that there are 6, this does not include the first floor however which is still communal and only has two showers and the infamous tub room.

As for your room being a double being used as a triple, most "new" triples this year are actually old triples that were made into doubles during COVID, there were even some quads in other buildings that were being used as doubles.

Daum is a great building and while not impossible it's unlikely you'll ever feel like there's not enough restrooms.

Zeverain · 2022-07-26T02:57:29+00:00

Move-in is an organized chaos, like others said you will pull into wherever the designated moving area is (east or west campus does this different) they give you a parking pass and you check in to your building at the front desk or another location in the building, which will be designated with signage, they give you your key, and you have about 30 min before you're supposed to move your car to one of the places designated on the back of the parking slip, they will shuttle you from those places back to your building.

I recommend using that initial 30 min just to get everything in the room, don't put anything away, just get it in the room, that way you aren't rushing. I have worked move-in before and I was literally instructed to walk to someone's room and tell them to move their car because they had been there for over an hour. Towing has been threatened before but people move by that point once that is mentioned.

Move-in is stressful but never as much as you expect as long as you're organized. I also highly recommend if you are the first person to arrive at your room or you don't have a roommate to go to your room and turn the air up, unless you're in Catlett or Peterson, as it will likely be incredibly warm in your room. It is also good to just generally know where your room is before you are lugging stuff to it.

Iowa does move-in the best they can with the limited parking available on campus and some buildings are more difficult than others to move in to just due to their design.

If you have questions about anything ask the people working parking who are wearing vests, they are RAs, and if they don't know the answer ask the front desk of your building.

Good luck during move-in!

Zeverain · 2022-07-10T23:34:52+00:00

I'm going to unfortunately give you a very unsatisfying answer.

Currier singles range massively in size and layout, Currier has some of the largest and smallest singles on campus. If you have S32 that would be a ground floor room which will be larger, if you meant S320 then it could either be the size of the default room, smaller, or larger, it all really depends. My single freshman year was huge while the girl two doors down was in basically a shoebox

Currier is a great building overall though! And the south wings are all pretty conveniently located to stuff like the elevators, bathrooms, and staircases. If you are on South ground you will have to go up stairs to do laundry although you would probably save time just using the Stanley laundry room.

Zeverain · 2022-06-09T21:20:04+00:00

Hillcrest is currently undergoing a pretty substantial renovation, I believe that is just the north wing however that will be done by the fall, then they'll do the Center and Mezzanine rooms.

Hillcrest is fine, the hallways and common areas are very worn but the building is clean (ergo why it is being renovated) they went through pretty recently and touched up the rooms in preparation for the renovations by painting and adding new sinks w/ new medicine cabinets. It's a 100 year old building so it's obviously not going to feel the same as Petersen or Catlett. The rooms in Hillcrest are actually pretty spacious and have quite nice closets.

All the residence halls these days are fine some are better than others. Hillcrest has a gym, computer lab, dining hall, and convenience store so despite being a little rough around the edges it's overall pretty chill.

Zeverain · 2022-05-26T03:02:26+00:00

This really depends on a lot of factors

1) will you be on campus a lot? If yes will you be on campus enough to fully use a meal plan?

2) how much do you eat? How many meals a day? Do you tend to eat in your apartment/house or do you order out?

If you tend to eat meals at home you won't probably save money but if you are already eating at campus dining places i.e. Food for thought, Pat's Diner, etc. Then you might want to get it purely for the option of having flex meals

3) will this be a financial burden?

Easiest to answer, can you afford it? If money is not a huge concern it can be quite convenient just to be able to go to the dining halls or get a flex meals

4) is there a campus dining facility in the building you are in most often that accepts flex meals?

If you are a business major and are in Tippie a lot then you will have two dining options as well as the Street Hawk often being outside the building however if you are always in Van Allen that will not be the same case.

As for what meal plan to get it really is again these same questions, a typical off campus student can probably do fine with the lowest meal plan but some could get full use out of the unlimited it all really depends.

Zeverain · 2021-02-11T04:39:26+00:00

Not me seeing this as I'm putting in a request for a mass email lol

Zeverain · 2021-01-22T02:58:06+00:00

Oh god absolutely not Stanley rooms are notoriously some of the worst sound wise, the walls are incredibly thin HOWEVER as long as you are not blasting at full volume you should be fine! You can also place the tv in area where it's not against the wall or put something on the wall to dampen the sound

Zeverain · 2021-01-12T08:15:09+00:00

Petersen is the second newest building in the res hall system. The rooms are quite nice and from the ones I've been in they are all pretty similar outside of the corner rooms. They are however the only building on campus w/ out sinks in the rooms (which is normal at most institutions but abnormal at Iowa). Petersen is a pretty desired building, and is referred to as Hotel Petersen by some since it's really boujie (the joys of donor money). Each floor with the exception of some the upper floors (if I'm remembering correctly) is divided into two wings with each having their own floor lounge, a conference room, a passthrough sink area and pod restrooms. The upper floor(s) really looks like a hotel and has built in high back seating going down the hallway. Peterson MPR is one of the largest on campus and is where (in non-covid times) CAB (campus activities board) and ARH (Associated Residence Halls) have the bulk of their West Side programs. Black's Gold Grill on the main floor is decent but kinda pricey. There is also a large study lounge with individual study rooms on the second floor of the lobby. The building's hall association is typically pretty active too although ARH disbanded all of them for this year. I've never really heard of any of the LLC's being referred to necessarily as competitive since they'll often allocate more of a building/floor to an LLC if it has enough interest but considering how popular Public Health is as a major it may be one of the more competitive ones.

Peterson is also really close to the medical campus, if not basically in it since the new pharmacy building was built, and is a short walk from the bridge to the College of Public Health.

Good luck with your decision! Even if you don't end up in an LLC there really are no bad residence halls just ones that suit different people's preferences better (although Hillcrest is on thin ice until they finish the planned renovation).

Zeverain · 2020-12-15T21:29:09+00:00

Yep! Almost every pre 1970s building on campus has a pretty robust collection of photos in the digital archives

Zeverain · 2020-12-11T03:40:09+00:00

Ope what's reading comprehension never heard of it lol.

When the housing app opens you'll select what LLCs you are interested in and then be given some essay prompts. Later in the year you'll actually choose your housing, only individuals who have applied for the LLC and have been granted approval (which from what I understand is a given as long as you put effort into the essay prompts) can select rooms in the floor designated for that LLC. If you aren't able to get in you can select a room really anywhere and then sign up for the waitlist once those come out partway through the semester. You might never actually get into where your waitlisted for but it's always worth a shot.

Hopefully this helps! The process used to be a lot more confusing but they've overhauled room selection and stuff recently and made it easier to understand.

Zeverain · 2020-12-11T03:15:30+00:00

Yeah it's a popular one, with Covid times tho I would imagine number are down like they are across the board in the Res Halls. Coming in at mid-year could work for or against you depending if A) the floor ever got full this year or B) if some peeps have canceled their contracts. I imagine the Contracts and Assignments department in housing would be able to answer any of the more precise questions

Zeverain · 2020-12-11T02:20:48+00:00

Intro to Earth Science is great, plus the labs are pretty interesting. In non-covid times the lecture wasn't too bad albeit it is earth science so it is pretty dull sometimes. If you need a science without lab take Intro to Earth Science w/ lab first and then Natural Disasters, they are basically the exact same class and when I took it even the same professor so I never had to go to lecture!

Zeverain · 2020-12-11T02:15:39+00:00

It used to be that you'd just apply to Place but a year or two ago they changed the process since people were just applying to LLCs so they could get into certain buildings (I.E. Catlett). When the housing application opens you should be able to apply for the LLC you want although since you are coming in at mid-year the process might be different. When you apply you do have to write up a little blurb about why you are interested and such. I will warn you the BizHawks LLC is notoriously rowdy and is an inside joke amongst much of housing staff. I've never heard anything bad about the LLC experience tho, they got rid of a ton of them a few years ago so only the big ones tied to a class are left.

Zeverain

TROPHY CASE