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** I know a handful of kids that go to IU and I asked each of them to show me on a map where Indiana was. Not one of them was able to locate it.
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**</p>
<p>Yeah well midwestern students in Bloomington know nothing of the A train. Difference between JFK and LaGuardia. Gray's Papaya. I loved your comment though. Quite the statement of fact.</p>
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** Some 39,000 students help keep Bloomington, Ind., a vibrant community. And retirees like it that way.
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**</p>
<p>and</p>
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** Bloomington's Benefits</p>
<p>Bloomington is one of those places. The city has an active arts scene, eclectic restaurants, Big Ten sports and plenty of opportunities for lifelong learning. It's an easy-to-navigate city (although not without its congestion around campus and oblivious student pedestrians). The cost of living is low, and health care is accessible, with two hospitals.
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**
Young</a> at Heart - WSJ.com</p>
<p>yeah well bloomington kids aren't invading the streets of manhattan and I'm sure they couldn't care about the difference between hot dogs and over crowded disgusting airports</p>
<p>Aw come on now....Kelley IBankers, Ernie Pyle journalists, Jacobs musicians?? Sure they are.</p>
<p>My ex is from New York, and yes, they're a different breed and they don't seem too interested in blending in once they get to IU. Many won't even hang out with anyone outside of their NY circle and many of them do act like they're better than the majority of students. It's nice that IU is getting exposure, but it can change the atmosphere of the school and not in a good way.</p>
<p>Our family's from the Northeast, but not NY. Our D, who came to IU from a public high school, graduated in '06. It was a great college for her in every way. She made friends from all over the country, including quite a few from the Kelley School and those from fraternities. Our D still gets together with her IU friends and considers them some of her closest friends.</p>
<p>It wasn't her experience (or ours when we visited) that NY students at IU acted any differently than those from IN or other parts of the country. It's difficult to fathom that her experience was so unique or that students have changed so much at IU in the last 2-1/2 years.</p>
<p>Mom of 2</p>
<p>Mom of 2, with all due respect, just because your DD didn't notice any difference doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The article in the Wall Street Journal and a follow up article in the Indiana Daily Student Newspaper both included complaints by those in the midwest about the attitudes of many of the students from New York. I really think we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. There's no reason they would be making things up. I know of one young woman whose New York fellow classmates were so nasty to her, she changed majors. And she is a very beautiful, bright, socially skilled girl. She just couldn't deal with the mean spirited encounters she had to face going to class with them every day. </p>
<p>DS was a freshman in the fall of '06 who roomed with someone from NYC and even he admitted that <em>we all tend to be cliquish</em>. They got along very well, but as the NYC group expanded, DS noticed a big change in his roomie who was a great kid otherwise. DS mostly hung out with other kids anyway, so it wasn't a problem for him, but I can see where it might be for others.</p>
<p>I wouldn't diminish the experience your daughter had, so I hope you will not diminish the experience other students are saying they have had.</p>
<p>Here's how I see things:</p>
<p>(1) Everybody tends to be very clique-ish and to themselves when they first get to a new place. This does make them seem "distant", but it's real more of a security thing, and a time thing in adjusting to the new surroundings. They feel out-of-place and aren't sure if they will fit in--or even if they want to. To try and fit in they are more likely to hang out with those like themselves. I don't think it's a NY thing--or an out-of-state thing--it's just that it takes time to adapt to a new environment and to how people in a different place see things and treat things. (This is why schools encourage diversity--so you can get different opinions and learn to question your own pre-conceived notions). To many NYers and Californians, Indiana people seem a bit naive--but it becomes clear over time that they are just very polite.</p>
<p>(2) Generally the first thing New Yorkers (and Californians like my son) are asked when they first get to IU is: "Why did you leave there to come here?" The fact is that most students who live in the rural areas of Indiana are attracted to the metropolitan area of New York or to the sunny beaches of California--areas that are "idolized" in TV, movies, and on MTV and the like. This makes the students from NY and California begin to wonder themselves if they made some kind of mistake in going to Indiana--and why they would leave their "fantastic" and "comfortable" surroundings. It's only after going home and living with the parents for awhile at Christmas or during the summer that they realize that they can't wait to get back to the new friends they've made at school.</p>
<p>(3) The longer you are at the school, the more friends you make and the more you therefore adjust and enjoy the school. When my son first came home his first Thanksgiving, he had all his "old" high school friends to hang out with and do things with--but by the following summer--he missed his new friends more than the old ones--and by the second summer, he now only keeps in touch with three of his old friends, but has lots of new friends (and a girlfriend) at IU.</p>
<p>(4) There is a different in cultures between some areas that are more pronounced than others--and the greater the difference, the longer it takes to adapt. If someone comes from the "mean streets" of Chicago or New York where being "tough" is absolutely necessary, it will take awhile to fit in at a place like Bloomington where everyone is "super-nice" and quite accommodating. The fact that these people from the big city aren't acting like the ones in Bloomington within the first week shouldn't be a surprise. The surprise would be if they could throw off their "protective, I've got to protect me" attitudes within a very short time. I'm guessing that the greater the cultural divide, the longer it will take. This is also why international students quite often need support groups--so they don't have to try and adapt all at once.</p>
<p>In other words, just give this stuff time--and don't judge everyone from first appearances. Some people have more to overcome in adapting than you might expect.</p>
<p>"The fact that these people from the big city aren't acting like the ones in Bloomington within the first week shouldn't be a surprise."</p>
<p>I agree with some of your comments, but the girl I referenced above just graduated in June and according to her and many other IU students at her graduation party, the New York kids never adapted. They said it was the only group of kids that seemed to have a problem with THEM, which then led to everyone else having a problem with the kids from NY. I asked about kids from the south, kids from California, they all said they were great and fit right in. That wasn't at all what they found with kids from NY, who they say never made an effort to fit in. They didn't have to, they came with a crowd and left with the same crowd, critical of kids from the midwest all four years. </p>
<p>Look at the response from A2Wolves. Apparently these experiences are not uncommon.</p>
<p>Well, if you come with your own "crowd" and hang out with them all the time, then I agree with you--there is no motivation nor reason to change--which is sad. Hopefully, more NYers will attempt to go outside their "comfort zones" and get to know others at the school who aren't exactly the same as they are. </p>
<p>Plus, like you said--it's only a 5-10% group at the most--so that probably makes them stand out from the others even more than usual. I'm not sure I'd want to categorize it as entirely a "NY" thing, though. Generalizations tend to be often oversimplified--and incorrect--as I learned in one of my previous world studies classes.</p>