macattak

Is anyone considering Bradley for the fall? My son is leaning heavily towards the school after visiting twice and speaking with a couple of Profs at other schools. He intends on majoring in Industrial Engineering. He has been accepted at Bradley, Purdue and St. Ambrose. We're still waiting on Uof IL, VA Tech and Northwestern.

sglass

Hello! My daughter was looking again at Bradley's International Relations program. She has submitted some materials but is wavering due to the location- what was your impression of the area surrounding the campus? The city? Does the student population seem farily diverse? Your insight is much appreciated! Thank you!

macattak

I grew up about 40 miles form Peoria. It's not a bad town, but I wouldn't say it's a cultural Mecca either. It is the largest metro area in Illinois outside of the Chicago area, about 350k. There are a lot of things to do if you put out the effort to find them. There is a good bus system that serves the campus too. It's big enough to have some good concerts and entertainment as well.

The neighborhood around the campus appears so-so. We talked about college locations in general and felt that about any urban campus would have the same feel. I think if a student uses common sense like traveling in a group at night, using the escort service if needed, etc., they'll be fine.
The student body is definitely Illinoiscentric, with Chicago dominating the landscape. As far as diversity, the mix is about 90/10 with very few international students.

L.U.C.K.Y.

This is off topic but, I got accepted to Bradley University but chose to go to U of I-Urbana-Champaign. Is this a good decision I made in terms of academics?

macattak

UIUC is a top flight public. If your choice was based strictly on the basis of academis rep, then I would say you made a good choice. S was accepted at UIUC for engineering as a James Scholar. He is still leaning toward Bradley because of the out-of-state tuition and the size of UIUC. Bradley gave him a Presidential scholarship that makes it cheaper than Purdue, our state school for engineering. Given the price structure, I can't really argue too much with his leanings. Bradley is very well respected in engineering and he'll get more personalized attention.

xaguamelonx

hey! i applied to bradley and got deferred. they just got my senior grades (straight A's) so we'll see what happens. I hear there stronger in the engineering and applied sciences areas than really anything else. anyone know about their business majors? i don't know if i really want to go yet... not sure it would fit me as a student, but you never know. any comments?

macattak

Bradley has a pretty good overall reputation in the Midwest. If you put much stock in USNWR rankings, they're 6th in Midwest Masters Universities. I don't know much about the business program. It is definitely a Midwest school. Bigger city with smaller feel.

Lp75

I am a long ago Bradley graduate and currently live in Peoria. I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

The area around Bradley is mixed. The university has bought up quite a bit of the property and built apartments, etc. The section right to the south (along Moss Ave.) and west is undergoing a re-gentrification with people buying and renovating the older homes. Many of them are quite lovely. The area to the east and northeast is not so nice and I would recommend
not walking there after nightfall. Daytime is fine. Along Main St. to the east they are putting in a new Med-Biotechnology district. Buildings are being demolished and will be replaced with brand new, high tech facilities. So this will be changing for the better as well.

Peoria is not a Chicago or New York, however it does have some benefits. You can get anywhere in 20 minutes. There are two large malls for shopping, lots of movie theatres and restaurants, a symphony, opera and many concerts from nationally known groups. Nelly, Green Day (I think thats the name), and Josh Groban are a few that are coming in the next couple of months. YoYo Ma was here last May.

Bradley itself is well known in the area. They are very good at getting internships for their students. The city is both large enough and diverse enough to provide interships in quite a variety of disciplines. Caterpillar is great for engineering, accounting and international studies students. At my place of employment, and insurance company, we hire about 15-20 interns from Bradley each year with a large percentage of these going on to full time positions.

Their engineering program has a very good reputation. I have been impressed with the students from their business program who have worked with us.

My own daughter decided not to apply there because she wanted to get out and see more of the world.

Peoria may not be paradise, but it does offer enough of the "city" to those who don't want to go to school in the middle of the corn fields.

Hope this helped. If you have any specific questions that I could answer, please let me know.