I will preface this by saying that your impression of des moines is heavily dependent on where you are coming from. so I will give you my opinion in addition to facts about each topic.
4 seasons. easily 0-30 degrees the entire winter (from November til early March). Hot and stupid humid in the summer. Spring and fall are the gem seasons. Fall its beautiful, on the colder side, but still manageable. Spring there is a lot of blooming going on and 60-75 degree weather so basically very nice. The airport is very close. There is a wide variety of markets and grocery you can choose from. From school, downtown is a hop a skip and a leap away so its nice going down there just to hang out after a tough exam. if you go west, you will hit a very nice suburb of des moines called *wait for it. drum roll please* West Des Moines. I didnt go there often but when I did go I really liked it a lot. The bus system is useful if you dont have a car... a lot of my colleagues used to take it if there was something going on in the downtown area.
This one heavily depends on where you came from. for me it was cheaper from where I used to live but for people from the coasts, it is
way cheaper. I havent talked to anybody that has complained about living costs in des moines. Also you can have your pick of whether you want to live lavishly or simply. Lavish apartments close to school are scarce but I can think of a couple buildings. Not sure how much they cost but I would say in the neighborhood of 1100 for a 2 bedroom. There is a ton of medium quality housing where you can get like 700 or less for a one bedroom and 900 or less for a 2 bedroom. plenty of students also live in downtown Des Moines and I think that it is a good place to live if you like the hustle and bustle of a city (lol, who am I kidding. its more like a whisper of an
occasional passing car). if you have a car you can migrate out west to the west des moines apartments which tend to be newer and nicer but you will have to think about the commute every morning. Once you fine people get accepted torwards the end of the year, you can hit me up and I will try to suggest specific apartment complexes that you can take a look at.
Des Moiners: absolutely. very nice group of people. Although like any other city, you can get some people that you will have to watch when being in close proximity to them, but that is a good habit to develop regardless.
Des Moines University-ers: they cool. people are mostly focused on their studies. There are parties that classmates will occasionally throw and then there are random mini meet ups at restaurants or bars especially after hard exam weeks.
Des Moines is as diverse as Iowa is gonna get. Its not diverse, per se. just more diverse than the more rural Iowa areas. the diversity of DMU is meh. not
that diverse but I would give it a passing "Diversity Score". I just think that it is hard to convince people to move out to Des Moines from states that are way more diverse so I think, in my opinion, it is a self fulfilling prophecy.
The ethnic food in Des Moines has a reputation of being bland from people that have tried "the real deal". I think it is as good as you would expect from a city that is as diverse as Des Moines. not trying to throw any shade lol.
This winter was extremely mild in the state of Iowa. We had like 15 snowy days, if that. And when you wake up the next morning, most of it was gone. Last years winter was also mild but the 2017 one was exceptionally mild. Maybe by the time you folks show through, it will be nasty winters?