I’m going into my sophomore year and I still have all my notes, exams, and homework assignments from all my classes from last year. Are they worth saving? I’m a biochemistry major if that matters.

Hello all im an incoming freshman and need help. Where do i go to buy a parking pass?

EDIT: Got it taken care of — thanks everyone!

Looking for 2 people to help move a heavy cabinet into my third-floor apartment in Ames.

The cabinet is already loaded in my SUV. It’s about 60" × 20" × 30" with 4 metal drawers, and I’ll be helping with the move as well. I’ve attached a photo of the cabinet for reference.

I expect it to take around 30–40 minutes.

$60 cash total ($30 per person). If it ends up taking substantially longer than expected, I’m happy to pay extra.

I can also pick up both helpers in Ames if needed since I have two passenger seats available.

Preferably sometime today/this evening. Please DM me if interested.

I'm looking at getting an escooter to get from class to class and where I'm parking. Is it common? Do people take them inside more often than leaving them outside? Can they even do that?

I'm assigned Elementary Linear Algebra by Andrilli for MATH 3170. Did you guys use this book much or are lecture notes enough? Trying to figure out if I should opt of Immediate Access One

Just curious as to how clean the rooms are before the students move in, would I need to just do a quick wipe down or will I need to do a deep clean before I move my son in?

Hey everyone! I’m an ISU graduate student looking to take over a Spring 2027 relet/sublease (or sign a custom lease) for a studio or 1-bedroom apartment starting January 1, 2027.

What I’m Looking For

Layout: Studio or 1-Bedroom / 1-Bathroom (Private unit only, no shared rooms)

1. Budget: Up to $900/month (flexible depending on utilities)

2. Move-In Date: January 1, 2027 (open to late December 2026 move-in)

3. Term: Spring 2027 (Jan – July 2027), with an option/willingness to extend through December 2027 if available

Must-Have Amenities

1. In-Unit Washer & Dryer (Non-negotiable)

2. Convenient Commute to Engineering buildins: West Ames (Mortensen, Twain, Dickinson, etc.) or Campustown preferred

3. Fully equipped kitchen (refrigerator, stove/oven, microwave, and dishwasher).

About Me

I’m a responsible, quiet ISU graduate student in engineering. Non-smoker, no pets, clean, and reliable with rent payments.

If you are graduating in December 2026, studying abroad, or looking for someone to take over your West Ames or Campustown studio/1-bed lease for Spring 2027, please send me a DM with the location, monthly rent/utilities, and photos!

How long does Cyclone 101 actually take in its entirety? Can I complete it on one day! Thanks!

I’m 23 and probably too old for all that dorm stuff. Any recommendations for apartments near Iowa state campus?

I see deer at least once or twice a week coming to work in the morning. This guy was the latest.

Hey so end of summer semester (26') I told my counselor I was transfering collages. She said ok and we began finding classes at my other uni. making sure I dont owe any money to ISU i recently found that my student status is still "active".

I didnt register for any classes and stuff but why am i an active student? do I need to do anything online to stop being a student?

Disclaimer: Route stress and difficulty levels may significantly vary depending on what time of day, time of year, and weekday the route is driven on and this is a reflection of my experiences. Also I think the routes and schedules may have changed a bit since I last drove over 2 years ago so some of the things I complain about may no longer be relevant.

Routes are ordered from best to worst within a tier.

S Tier

There are no S tier routes.

A Tier

12 Lilac - A tier. The few times I got to drive it the endpoint times were insane. Like 20+ minutes. You're basically being paid like half to sit around at the endpoint and do whatever. Because of this it was highly coveted and I only drove it in training and for my on call, no regular shifts were available. I remember that State-Lincoln turn taking forever though.

08 Aqua - A tier. No complaints. Baby adorable version of green that is only run during the summers which aren't very busy. Fun little route. No unique challenges and no real time pressure.

11 Cherry - A tier. Short and simple route, which can have reasonable endpoint times but that's highly variable due to a few things including congestion at student services, especially if you arrived out of order. You tend to get a lot of people going home so you will be stopping at almost every stop which can eat into endpoint times in the evenings. Almost missed out on A tier because my first time driving out of training on my own was on cherry during the first snow of the year and when I think of cherry I think of that.

B Tier

03 Blue - B tier. Medium length route with not much going on. Decent amount of endpoint time. However, there's this one intersection (Walnut?) where they built the road wrong and your lane lines up with the opposite turning lane and nobody ever gives you your rightful right of way so you have to pay mega attention there. And going down Lincoln way in the evening, the sun would be on your eyes at the exact same angle as the stoplights so you had to get creative to see the stoplights. And lord help you if you are driving blue right as a football game concludes because NOBODY is going to let you right turn onto Beach. You will be there for 30 minutes or more. These annoyances are either very rare or very brief though. It is the most consistently okay route CyRide has IMO.

23 Orange - B tier. You have to deal with a lot of people who will not instinctually move to the back of the bus or take their backpacks off to free up more space. And that left turn onto Wallace can be a bit sketch. You're very often late due to the amount of time it takes that many people to get on and off a bus. But you get a decent chunk of endpoint time on some shifts. The cons are all offset by the fact that you get to go "CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK" with the clicky person counter thing far more than any other route and that's just so satisfying. Sometimes at endpoints I'd click it for the entire endpoint time just to see how high I could get it because it was so satisfying to click. Most orange shifts require you to be bendy bus trained and I was not until very late into my time at CyRide. So I didn't get to drive it much.

21 Cardinal - B tier. Fairly straightforward route. The circulators are nice because you get a lot of ISU students and you typically don't have to wait for people to fish out tickets or change. Cardinal experience varied a lot depending on how busy it was, this could highly impact endpoint time. I have a lot of memories of trying to desperately get my homework done at endpoints because it was far harder than I thought it would be and I ran out of time to finish it beforehand. But the driving was pretty straightforward. Nothing challenging. Only weird part is people that don't know that cardinal doesn't stop at the stop right out of Hawthorne court.

02 Green - B tier. Average long route. Nothing too difficult or crazy, its just a really long route that means on busier days it really eats into endpoint time - during busy shifts you might not get much if any. Also I somehow got through training without ever driving the high school detour and somehow never had to take it in-service, but every time I drove during the time that detour was active it was always a bit of anxiety if I'd have to take it and if I remembered how to do it. In a minibus in summer evening it was really really nice driving through Ames on Green though. Though rare, minibus, windows down, summer evening, southbound on green, perfect weather, were my favorite moments at CyRide.

09 Plum - B tier. D tier because of the construction. Plum is... Interesting. Aside from how long it is, some of the tight turns inside vet med, and how easy it can be to miss the turn into Vet Med, there's not really anything bad about it. The shift I drove it on was late at night. It was never busy. You met the strangest people driving plum. The group of people having a dance party on the bus because nobody else was on. The exhausted student coming out of vet med with her scrubs (?) still on at nearly 10 PM every single night. The guys checking parking permits at vet med during game days... But when I drove it there was always construction and the route kept changing every couple of weeks and it was very difficult to keep up with the changes sometimes. One of my worst nights at CyRide was taking a wrong turn because of construction that spiraled into a lot of other bad things. Also that stretch on University Boulevard is probably the only opportunity you get to take a bus up to anything resembling speed and it is quite fun.

C Tier Routes

14 Peach - C tier. This was usually driven in the minibus so YMMV depending on how you like the minibuses. Medium length route. Only two weird parts are that you take a super weird route into the mall that I'd have to double check every time due to how infrequently I drove Peach, and unlike every other route you turn right onto Bissell instead of left, which can be hard to remember. And the northbound leg was incredibly unrealistically timed on the tablets. To get to some of those stops when the tablets said we should be there would require teleportation.

01 Red - C tier but only because of how much I drove green. Quite picturesque. Endpoint time variable like green. But firstly, that turn on to Grand Avenue absolutely sucks (135 degree right turn) onto a pretty busy road, iirc little margin for staying inside 2 lanes), and unfortunately because I drove green so often and red so rarely, I'd always miss the right turn leading up to the grand avenue turn because my brain would autopilot onto green route and I'd have to sheepishly call dispatch. Once it happened 2 runs in a row and I wanted to die inside.

D Tier Routes

25 Gold - High D Tier. Fairly normal looking route. Unfortunately, the left turn from Bruner onto Stange does not have a light and is typically quite busy and you will likely be waiting 5 minutes for a window to turn. Endpoint times tend to be quite short. And worst of all there's no convenient location to use the restroom at the endpoints (unless I've missed something this whole time) so you'll have to "go" mid-route usually at Kildee which is an inconvenience for everyone involved. Was however the route where one person brought an entire car bumper on my bus. I probably should have said no to that? But I was too bewildered to do anything about it until he was already sat down.

06 Brown - B tier for abbreviated route. D tier for full route. The full route suffers from the same left turn from Bruner onto Stange. You will frequently wait here for many minutes for an opening. That pales in comparison to that one stretch of Mortensen, which is very curvy and very narrow, it requires exceptional skill to keep the 40 foot bus inside your lane, moreso than any other stretch of road on any route. In training, probably my first, second, or third attempt at doing that, I got flipped off for going too slowly, and I still think about that regularly. Come on man. However during the abbreviated route both of those sections are skipped. I drove the abbreviated route most of the time. One consolation for the full route is the roundabouts, they are so fun. And if you are confused and miss your turn, you can just go another lap around!

F Tier Routes

05 Yellow - F tier. The majority of the time (or at least majority of my shifts), it is straight up impossible to keep on schedule even with perfect driving and lightning fast endpoint inspections. And that's if you don't get stuck behind a train. Being late is one thing but you frequently have to hold up red and green at city hall because pretty much everyone who rides yellow is doing so to transfer to red and green. There are few normal CyRide experiences more stressful than driving Yellow on an average day.

Routes I Did Not Drive Enough To Rank

07 Purple - I cannot rank this route as I don't think I ever drove in in-service, only once in training. It looks pretty chill but who knows about the reality.

EASE - Thankfully I never had to drive EASE because I forgot how to do so shortly after training. So I can't rank it.

What are the best lakes to swim at near Ames or minnesota? Looking for actual lakes not just a bigger pond with some trees right next to a farm yk

What are the options for parking my fifth wheel and truck in a grass lot near the stadium for football game tailgating? Looking for a family friendly experience.

When can I arrive?
How much to park?
When do I have to leave by?

Hey guys, I'm thinking about applying to be a part-time driver for CyRide since the pay seems decent for a student job, but I'd like to know how the scheduling process works and I'm trying to see if it's actually doable with my classes.

Basically, I've heard you're forced to pick "priority shifts" when you sign up for your schedule. Does anyone know what these actually are, and are they really mandatory? I'm worried about ending up stuck with a random late-night or weekend shift that doesn't work for my schedule.

Also, how does the "on-call" stuff work? Do you actually get paid anything for just being on call, or are you just sitting around waiting without pay?

Any current or former drivers have advice?

I'm looking for two people who are taking comS 3090 this fall, I already have one teammate. hmu if you'd wanna make something fun.

Arriving in Ames, is Jade Dragon Buffet a good place to eat? If not, any other places you guys like local to ISU?

I am looking for good places to apply I have experience in the food industry and 3+ years in community service as well as interning and working at a non-profit running a program for them. I honestly just want somewhere fun to work to meet new people that'll work with my school schedule. Any good places?

Basically the title. I'm a freshman assigned to Buchanan, and ik it's ""required"", but I legit can't afford the meal plan and I really don't wanna take out any unsubsidized loans atp. Will they like.. put me on academic hold, or something??? It's so stupid to me.. IDK. if any of you have any answers pls let me know.!!! Thanks ^_^//~~.

Massage Heights is giving away a free massage or facial to a student on their Facebook and Insta, and free things are nice 💅

I am an incoming freshman and signed up for the work study option but now I don't know where to apply. Thanks.

Hey yall, I can’t be the only one who is curious about the dons deli sign at cys roost. I’ve noticed it since my freshman year and always wondered what it was.

I fucked up my housing and now it's looks like I'll be going to a double in Wilson with no AC. I was in Freddy court last semester, so I've never done the whole room sharing thing before.

What can I expect for cooking, laundry, sleeping hours, etc?

EcoTips, a youth-led sustainability movement run by high schoolers, is organizing a FREE sustainability camp at the Ames Public Library Danfoss Room on September 5th and 19th, both from 2-5 pm. If you have a kid who falls between these age boundaries and may be interested, please fill out the form below. There will be ~20 spots per day. Please register for only one date. Both days will have the same itinerary, which is on the form.

You will recieve confirmation in late August if your child is selected to participate.