Iowa State University

Iowa State University is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Chartered in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, it enrolled its first students in 1869 and adopted its present name in 1959. It is organized around a land-grant mission in agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, and statewide extension, on a campus of about 2,000 acres in a college town.

Teaching and research run through seven colleges plus the Graduate College: Agriculture and Life Sciences, Business, Design, Engineering, Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. Graduate work concentrates in agricultural and biosystems fields, engineering, statistics, and veterinary medicine. The Ames Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory on campus, and the veterinary teaching hospital are the main specialized facilities.

Enrollment is about 30,000, including roughly 4,500 graduate and professional students. International students make up about 10 percent of the student body and come from more than 100 countries. Faculty number about 1,800. Former students include agricultural scientist George Washington Carver, computing pioneer John Vincent Atanasoff, and suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt.

Graduate study proceeds by master's and doctoral degrees and the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, with thesis supervision in laboratories and field stations under a semester calendar. Research and teaching assistantships are the usual support for doctoral students in the sciences and engineering. Ames is a small college town, so graduate housing, labs, and daily life sit on or next to campus.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Iowa State University lists 26 graduate programs across 11 subjects: 10 master's programs and 16 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in biology, statistics and biological engineering. Iowa State University holds rank 390 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.