For professors, you can get an overview on ratemyprofessors.com. A better thing to look at is the grade distribution databases on the Registrar's website
http://registrar.indiana.edu/~registra/gradedist.shtml. This gives you average GPA of the class, and the average GPA of the students enrolled in the class. Make sure you compare the two. Sometimes a lot of smart kids will enroll in an honors class, only to find out that the class lowers their grades (i.e. the average GPA of the class is lower than the average GPA of the students enrolled in the class). You can find good professors this way.
You will be taking the same classes as non-direct admits. The I-Core prerequisites are the same for everyone. The only difference between being a DA and not is that you get your own advisor for the 300+ of you (which still stinks) and the you don't have to worry about getting into the school. You will also have more honors courses available to you, such as but that's about it.
If I could do my freshman year classes over again, I would have utilized the grade distribution much more, and I would have built my GPA up so I could get into the Honors College and then the Business Honors Program. If you get something like a 3.5-3.6, you have so many opportunities at IU. Knowing this, I would look at the grade distributions, and only sign up for classes where I had a chance for an A, when I had the option to.
There are many business classes where you don't have the prerequisites satisfied to sign up for. The only one's you can sign up for are below. Every other class you have an opportunity to sign up for will be a general education class:
BUS-X 104 Business Presentations (3 cr.)
BUS-X 204 Business Communications (3 cr.)
BUS-A 100 Business Accounting Skills (1 cr.)
BUS-K 201 The Computer in Business (3 cr.)
BUS-X 220 Career Perspectives (2 cr.)
BUS-G 202 Business and Economic Strategy in the Public Arena (2 cr.)
ECON-E 201 Introduction to Microeconomics (3 cr.)
MATH-M 118 Finite Mathematics (3 cr.)
MATH-M 119 Brief Survey of Calculus I (3 cr.)
I would hold off on the Math classes and the Economics classes. You could take them over the summer at your community college and transfer those credits over, or wait until you do well your freshman year, get into the honors college, and then take the honors version (easier grading). Econ and Math are typically the two hardest grading courses at IU.
When you go to Orientation, just write these classes down on your list that you show to an advisor (Note for others reading this - normally W131 would be included, and Business Communications wouldn't be included). In addition, you have to write down general education classes. As a Kelley student, you have 2 options - the Distribution and the Field Specialization option. What you would do then is find through that grade distribution database a subject you are interested in (say Geology, GEOL), then type it in, and all the geology classes will come up. You find the one with the highest average GPA, and that's the one you try and sign up for.
Some won't like this method, think it's sleezy and beating the system, and want to take classes that interest them. That's fine, but i'm warning you, taking Psychology or Criminal Justice may be fun, but it will likely be a B on your transcript, unless you are an excellent student.
Here's the recommendations i'd make for your first semester:
GEOL-G 103 Intro to Earth Science (N+M)
CMCL-C 122 Interpersonal Communication (S+H)
MUS-Z 103 Special Topics in Music for Nonmajors (A+H)
BUS-X 105 Honors Business Presentations
BUS-K 204 Honors Computers in Business
BUS-X 220 Career Perspectives
Signing up for those 6 classes gets you off to a 4.0 start without much effort, filling a lot of the prerequisites.
