Indiana University Bloomington Visit Report by A2Wolves6

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Information given on financial aid, payment information, loan info, what it's like to be a student, general info that you can find on a website.

Campus Tour: Yes - Tour guides seem dumb by saying 'like' every other word, not making jokes, telling us about the history of the campus. Walks you around acad

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Campus:

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Was lost initially on campus (didn't have a map) and asked students how to get around. All had good attitudes and were more than willing to help.

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Very friendly, small town people. Make you feel at home. Hoosiers (natives of Indiana) typically are very nice and have good attitudes.

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The most beautiful campus i've seen. Is ranked in the top 5 in terms of campus beauty, was mentioned as a top campus in "The Campus As A Wor

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They do a good job of trying to keep the campus beautiful, although some classrooms leave much to be desired for.

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They are dorms. You aren't going to find a place that is luxurious. Many are air conditioned and well sized. Better than other Big Ten dorms that

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I can't imagine anyone being afraid of walking alone at 3 am in this town/on this campus. It's a peaceful city

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Funny, my mother came back talking more about how great the school was than I did, and i'm writing a novel here.

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Off-Campus:

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Kirkwood has everything the college student needs in terms of food and clothes. Other areas of campus have stores too. Won't have to go far to ge

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A small town that is built around the college. Everyone; even locals realize that IU makes the city of Bloomington.

Campus Visit Notes for Indiana University Bloomington

Visit Description:

This was a post written in the forum in April about my visit as it was happening.

DAY ONE:

I'm actually typing this message from the IU Memorial Union, where i'm spending the night.

We drove from Ann Arbor, and Google said that it was going to be 6.5 hours. We made it in 5, but that's because I was driving. When I was coming here, I thought I was going to be driving through farms, flat land, and seeing corn. Really wasn't like that at all. It was rolling hills, huge trees, lots of green. Was cloudy skies though. Drive wasn't bad at all, Indianapolis was easy to drive through. Although northern Indiana is a bore, it's ALL FARMS.

The campus actually reminds me a bit of Michigan State's campus if anyone has visited there, in terms of location within the town. Okay, that didn't make much sense, but what Indiana is to Bloomington, MSU is to East Lansing. They make up the town. It's definitely a college town, there is the college, and not much more here from what i've seen so far.

The Union is gigantic. I've gotten lost here about 3 times already, hopefully I can find my way back to my room without ending up in a meeting room again. I heard it was the largest Union in America, no doubt, with the Hotel and Conference Center, the Bowling Alley/Game Room, etc. There are kids literally studying everywhere, I walk across the union and at every couch, there are kids reading their textbooks. I don't know if it's finals week or not, but I fail to see the party reputation that the campus is known for so far.

We went exploring, seeing as we arrived a few hours earlier than anticipated. I was told to go exploring on Kirkwood Ave, where the shops and stores are. We saw Steve and Barry's, so I bought $25 bucks of apparel there. I was actually dissapointed with stuff to do on campus. You don't get the feeling like you're in the middle of nowhere here, but there really aren't many dining options. We were thinking of eating at Kilroys, which a lot of students were at, but my mother didn't like the stench of stale beer in the restaurant, and outside kids were smoking and drinking. We really didn't see any other restaurant bars there, so we just stayed in the Union and got some fast food. Again, even in the fast food place, there were kids studying. I'm from Ann Arbor, and there are so many things to do downtown. Here, there's maybe a Starbucks, Kilroys, this place called Nicks, Jimmy Johns, some Mexican food, and that's it. Like 10 restaurants in one block.

The campus is really just like it shows in the photos. There is no graffiti anywhere, it's beautiful, the flowers are starting to bloom, red and white tulips. Love the Indiana Limestone buildings, they are nice. There were some walking paths in the woods, but we didn't walk those, we probably will on our tour tomorrow. Central Campus looks really nice, but I don't know how Northwest is. That's the dorm I requested, and if it's really near the football stadium, that's a ways away. They have bus systems running throughout the campus though, I see buses every 10 minues.

This place is big and crowded. There are SO MANY PEOPLE HERE. I couldn't believe I didn't hit one of them trying to find the Union (we didn't bring a map, that was a mistake). Fortunately, they are all pretty nice. Girls look good here, but I have the feeling that the majority of them came here for the parties. There's an article in the IDS today about Girls and Fraternities, and nude pictures, I won't go into it. Anyways, the student body is nearly all whtie. For every 50 white people i'd see, I would see 3 minorities. Not much diversity at all, but it's not like people have been discriminated against. Seems like it would take a while to get from place to place here.

Okay, I don't know what else to talk about. Going to bed soon, waking up in the morning, doing the tour. First impressions: positive, but somewhat dissapointed.

DAY TWO:

Okay, i'm back from my visit!

So i'll talk about the academics, because i'm guessing that's what a lot of you want to hear, what they told us about the business school. Okay, so everyone has a real high opinion of the business school. Our tour guide was doing a useless Psychology major (sorry if that offended anyone, but it is), and she was jealous that while she's a poor college student, she sees all these business school kids going to high paying internships over the summer to NYC and LA, whereas she's doing nothing. You could definitely tell the business school people from the rest of the school, there are more asians in the business school, more diversity, and people from all over, coming to IU just for the B-School. It's the nicest and newest building there, you get that feeling the second you walk upstairs, and you see the words "Hall of Honor", and pictures of important people on the walls. You walk into a meeting room and it's got a 40 inch plasma TV, with nice chairs.

I had to leave and talk to my Sport Management person in HPER (which the students call "hyper"), and I was like "dang, now I have to leave this building"! But the B-School overlooks the arboretum, which is GORGEOUS, there's a pond, lots of open field. About the arboretum, a bit of history. They were going to make it a parking garage, and the students protested, so they got that area instead. The library also overlooks the arb, the library is big. In 2 sections, the UG library and the G library, she said she doesn't like going into the G library, because it's really quiet and serious. In the arboretum, you can bring your laptop and access the internet. It's sweet, anywhere on campus you can access the internet. Indiana was one of the most wired and unwired campuses in the country. They have ethernet in each dorm room, and if you don't do ethernet, you just have the really nice wireless connection. Oh, and if you don't have a laptop/don't want one, they have computers everywhere. Every dorm has a computer lab, you get like 650+ pages for printing so no worries, you're not going to get over that quota. When you turn in a paper, they use something called "Turn it in.com", which is a plagarism check, in addition to a hard copy. There is something called MTS, where the graduate students volunteer for experience for, and you turn your papers in a few days before the deadline, and they turn it into an A paper. Real nice.

The dorms were alright, they weren't new or anything, some are airconditioned, actually only 3 of them aren't. Briscoe in NW isn't, Reed in SE isn't, and I don't remember the 3rd one. It's on central campus. It's easy to get A/C, if you have a nice doctor they can make a note for you, and IU doesn't care, they don't have the time to call the doctor or anything. And you don't really need A/C, they let you put fans in the windows and it doesn't get real hot except for the first few weeks of the school year.

I said earlier that I saw a bunch of kids studying. Turns out, they are getting out in like a week, a lot of papers were due, and it's a busy time academically. The Union is HUGE. I got lost in it about 3 times. There are so many places to lounge and study, although there was more lounging than studying going on it seemed.

If I had to describe the typical IU student, I would say it's a white male who wears IU clothing, is casual, not too social, not too into parties. If you are preppy and wear collared clothing everywhere, Abercrombie, popped collars, etc, you won't fit in here. Although the fraternity guys seemed to be like that. As for the girls, well, it seems like half are here to party. Short skirts, IU clothing (3 out of 4 kids had an Indiana shirt on it seemed), some had heels, some didn't. Just the typical kid at a high school, not real alternative, not preppy, for both sexes.

My mom is in love with the campus. It's so nice, we were there on a 70 degree day with nothing but sun. The river that runs through, the architecture, the Indiana Limestone buildings, the Union, the gates, it's all SO NICE. The pathways, they are well lit at night, fun to walk through. There is no place that seemed even close to unsafe. And they have phones with blue lights that you can call in emergencies on campus too, although I only saw a few of them. There is a lot of lilac colored trees/plants, also Red and White tulips in the gates, it was real pretty. Kids were walking outside, making sure they enjoyed the scenery rather than staying in buildings, just a gorgeous day.

As for things to do, I found more today. Turns out, I didn't go far enough down on Kirkwood Ave. to really see things. There are tons of places to eat. There's even a mall north of campus that the bus runs to. Buses run all over campus, kids say it's easy to take them, I didn't see any real long lines to get on the buses. I would even see 2-3 on one street at a time.

Okay, for my sport management meeting, this was real important to me. I asked them about internships, and she said that actually she got an e-mail from someone who was just employed by the Raiders, who came back to IU saying "Hey! Send me some interns!" She said that there have been a lot of kids that have gone on to work in pro personnel for major organizations, and that placement is good. They don't have guaranteed jobs for graduation, but rates are high. They have a career center, postings, and advisors. I don't know much about the business school, but everyone said those graduates get the best jobs out of all the graduates. For SM, I asked why their program wasn't approved, and her response was great. "

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

If you are looking to walk around campus, the only place is the Indiana Memorial Union, which is in the center of the campus. On College Ave there is

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Kirkwood Ave. has many dining options, with a nice inexpensive Ice Cream place. There are many different places to eat, lots of different cultures rep

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

If you are shopping for clothes, go to Steve and Barry's. It's much cheaper and the same clothes than at the bookstores around campus. The c