It’s a huge school plus it has more eager parents due to the auto-DA program where without it many would not be admitted to top school, for many it was their only “top 10” admission, they can be insecure about the rating of the University vs Kelley, Indiana people in general I find relatively positive and happy folk. March and April are really great times to be in Bloomington so maybe especially happy right now. Probably due to the student population being less highly strung overall than some top schools the parents may actually feel a need to tell you how happy they are. Maybe the unhappy ones are drinking in Upstairs Pub not telling their parents they are miserable.
Kelley is huge, it can be hard to make friends at first, social sororities are extremely competitive, it’s really cold in the winter, the school has limited overall interest in you at 2500 people a class, they give very little “merit” aid, you have no idea as a frosh if someone is pre-biz or admit to Kelley so it feels even bigger that year, depending on your dorm it can be really hit or miss on friendships, a lot of people transfer out in winter 1st sem so you make friends and they are gone, the academic calendar is really early compared to some other schools on start/finish dates. If you have a really defined path like IB it can be difficult to achieve that by connections and feel unfair, the ACE kids love to talk about being ACE and you want to punch them, there’s a smarmy always networking crowd, a lot of the DECA kids know each other already from midwest competitions, you have to pump your own gas, the Kentucky Derby can be right at finals.
Objectively in the P&Q survey Kelley always gets the top I love my school scores. People do genuinely like it.