Indiana University - Bloomington

Date: Dec 22 2008
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
To preface this review, keep in mind a couple things:

1) I came to IU from a boarding school in Rhode Island

2) I did not go into the Business or Music schools

3) I did not go Greek or ever harbored any desire to do so.

So, as writing this from someone from an entirely different perspective from many people at IU I can safely say that there is a great community here. I studied East Asian Languages and Cultures with minors in Comp Lit and Econ. I never had a bad professor. Everyone was sufficiently available, knowledgeable, and challenging students to make their own thoughts as opposed to parroting the reading. The only time I felt hassled by bureaucracy was when I had required adviser meetings that were completely unnecessary for me as I knew what I was doing with my major, but I can see them greatly helping the undecided or those that have majors with complicated requirements. Much of the academic life, though, is based upon personal performance and choices. This worked out great for me, but those who are very much undecided about everything might find it difficult to settle into a major, although I heard accounts of advisers being helpful at times.

As far as social life goes there is a place for you here. The Greek system is large, but in my entire 4 years at college I only really encountered frat fellows while working the register at the local Chinese restaurant. I moved off-campus my sophomore year and would recommend doing the same your sophomore or junior years. I find it odd that people found campus stifling as I hardly spent any time on-campus outside of class routine and Bloomington, while small, is an oddly cosmopolitan town with many different restaurants, stores, play houses, wineries, and community events. There is a great student-run radio station, WIUX, that has weekly shows for local and student bands, many of which are quite good. There is a great sub/counter-culture scene here that will appeal to anyone who doesn't like to talk about the music program, theatre, or business in their off time. I didn't have a car for my first 3 years and got along fine, even living off campus, but once I got one there were even more options: lake Munroe, caves to explore, numerous fun country-style things in Nashville and Columbus, Indy or Louisville if we needed to escape. There was something new to do every day.

I'm very skeptical about the negative reviews here that mention a bad social life and the dorms in particular. You don't have to live in the dorms aside from the first year and you're all grown up. You can spend as much time out of the dorms as you like. I for one was only in my room that first year to sleep, and as a result I barely knew my roommate, but that's ok. We got along but had nothing in common. I made other friends in the same dorm, other dorms, and off-campus. I feel that people complaining about the dorm scene somehow think that by winding up with a dorm that they're essentially signing up for friends. Besides, as I recall, when I was given the info for the dorms themselves they described the scene and people that lived there so you could request a dorm that more comfortably fit your style.

I live in NYC these days and I miss Bloomington. I often find NYU and Columbia kids on the subway and feel so grateful that I was able to spend time in a culturally vibrant place like Bloomington and not have to spend time with pretentious brats in a big city who don't really learn to interact like so many of us did in a real college town.

IU was one of the best choices I could've made.