I’m a high school senior who was recently accepted to the exploratory college at IUB. I live in NJ and my parents want me to visit. I was wondering other then the campus tour if there is anything else I should do in Bloomington? If I were to go to IU my goal would be to try to transfer into Kelley so would I be able to learn more about Kelley while I’m there even though I’m not a direct admit? Any good restaurants or cool places to visit? I’m hoping to maybe see a basketball game too. Just trying to get the most out of my visit, thanks in advance.
Also was wondering if there was a business discipline or business concentration I could of put on my application instead of just exploratory? Or does that not matter?
Bloomington is a pretty small Indiana Town. Most of the best places in my opinion are just past the Sample Gates and down Kirkwood Ave. That is the main drag where a lot of the activity is as far as bar’s and restaurants are. If you are wanting to take in a Basketball game you better jump out there now and grab tickets and just now they can be pricey.
I’ve only been to Bloomington a few times for my D’s visits. We liked Mother Bear’s for the pizza and The Irish Lion was pretty decent as well. The main bar just off campus was Kilroy’s, we didn’t stop but it seemed like a lot of college kids hanging out there.
Also know there is a lot of construction between Indianapolis and Bloomington. Assuming you are flying into Indy and then driving down.
When I visited over the summer (I’m from NJ too!), I called the Kelley admissions office to see if they had any tours available. They actually ended up scheduling me to meet one on one with an admissions director to talk about Kelley and IU as a whole. It was incredibly informative and helped answer all the questions I had, so I would definitely encourage you to try and schedule a meeting.
Mother Bear’s seconded here. We have a copy of the menu and fully intend to try every pizza on their menu :). There’s a couple pretty good Turkish restaurants also. It’ll be kind of hard to not eat well. Basketball tickets require a bit of planning, as mentioned. Traffic from the airport generally not too bad if you’re used to East Coast traffic and you use real time traffic.
I’m gonna back up @tubo93; Anatolia and the turkuaz cafe are a treat.
4th street has some amazing deals from noon to 3-ish, and there are neat places to eat left and right.
The best bubble tea in town is at Cafe University, and the best Chinese food is either at Long Fei or Lotus Garden.
And don’t forget the food trucks! Here’s a recent-ish article on their excellence: http://www.limestonepostmagazine.com/the-mavens-in-the-food-trucks/
I also really, truly recommend dropping by the public library.
to get an idea of best campus fare, stop by the food service available @ Forest Hall. Quite good. Also try the Bloomingberry’s frozen yogurt there.
Also, there’s hardly any construction going on. The road is simply barricaded to one lane and the machinery sits idle 
If you drive it on your own from the airport, make sure to use some real time traffic or another, esp on the way back if it’s a popular day. I dropped my student off today and was on my way from B-town at 12:30 pm. and it was beginning to jam on the other way.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Looking forward to visit.