IU Bloomington: A Student's Perspective

Colleges and Universities A-Z Indiana University - Bloomington
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<p>Calcruzer thank you for a logical legitimate post. My D applied to all top ranked colleges which I researched thoroughly. When the first one was listed as a "party school" it gave me some concern. But as I made my way down the list eventually I found each and everyone was listed somewhere by some entity as a party school. With the exception of BYU or a military academy this is just the perception of these colleges. My D personally detests the taste of alcohol and has found numerous new IU friends on FB who share her desire to socialize without getting drunk. As they say, birds of a feather. From advice on CC and FB she knew which dorms were considered the noisy distracting party dorms and chose instead one stereotyped as quiet and boring. I'm surprised after 4 yrs the OP didn't learn how to do this. </p>

<p>It's estimated that 30% of Americans have drinking problems. Yet many of us manage to live in this society and succeed and excel in life surrounded by drunks. What makes it any different in college? College, like life, is what you make it.</p>

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<p>As an incoming freshman this year I have no more experience of IU than the indiscriminate meanderings—the common hearsay—from my friends that attend and my other friends that ‘gossip’ about the University. So, my experience merits nothing in comparison to joojoojelley. Wrong.</p>

<p>Of course IUB is a party school, fifty thousand students attending a school with a 70-80 percent acceptance rate! Let’s use good sense. Most students are not accepted because of their prodigious standardized test scores or impeccable essays and recommendations. In fact, my Indiana University application was the easiest of all of the schools to which I applied (14). The application was quite simple. I could actually probably copy all of the sections on my Facebook page, add a social security number and a transcript and apply to IU. Bottom line: don’t be stupid in expecting IU to not be a party school. It’s inevitable along with other schools on the same caliber. Of the almost 20,000 students the admissions office accepts, about 13,000 decided to go elsewhere, probably because IU was their fallback school. </p>

<p>A sad and simple fact of the world is that money fuels everything. We eat it, fuel our cars with it, and—yes—learn with it. While some fat around the edges could be trimmed as far as the university’s budget is concerned (this holds true with any budge), an education is still an expensive thing. Another fact is that most people look to advance themselves for more prestige, more money, and more power. So, one should not be surprised to find the university coercing professors to research and publish so that it can earn a more respectable position. Earn prestige, get $$$. It’s a simple cycle that exists anywhere. </p>

<p>One who must blame the administration, the other students or any of the circumstances most likely cannot blame himself. Congratulations on the 3.9 GPA, you’ve overcome the stupidity, selfishness, hardships and whatever else. It seems a little like the real world. You’re living example of the rewards of a great work ethic and good sense.</p>

<p>Now, to repair the damage I’ve done. </p>

<p>I am attending Bloomington this fall and have my reasons for not choosing one of the aforementioned fourteen schools. I also have reasons for even applying to IU. As joojoojelley mentioned, “lots of opportunities for the students who really care to take advantage of them.” Success will manifest for the ambitious student. The system is built that way.</p>

<p>Apathy plagues any environment and one must always overcome that. It’s humanity’s nature, getting by on minimal effort. So, unless the vicissitudes of a mere thirty years have altered so many circumstances, then I’m sure the parents on these forums underwent many similar aspects. </p>

<p>I’m sure there aren’t drunken people at the library.</p>

<p>If everyone is hung-over on a Friday, then there should not be too long of a line to see your unreachable-like-God professor. </p>

<p>Also, why are we complaining about the people who don’t care, advising those who don’t care to avoid IU? Those who don’t care should probably skip out on post-secondary education altogether, but life’s not that nice. This is a forum consisting of those who give more “hooplah” about their education than most. So, congratulations to those on already winning the war on apathy. I’m sure intelligent people realize there is not perfect environment and that there are always idiots running around. The truly intelligent probably avoid the un-ideal and those who distract them. So, open your eyes to joojoo’s perspective and understand the environment will suck, but that there are pockets of ideal places to learn and to work. Use that to your advantage. Open your eyes to an even wider perspective and realize this environment is true anywhere you will attend. There will always be things you don’t like and negative aspects. The admissions office only tells tales of the good. Really? I don’t think anyone is that awestricken.</p>

<p>P.S. I personally think there are many better places to attend than IU. But, the location of undergraduate education is not too important once you reach a certain level, IU for example. Graduate school is where one really separates from the immature behaviors. So, go to IU if it makes sense financially. Spend $$$ on grad school.</p>

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<p>IU Bloomington has approximately 30,394 undergrads and 7672 graduate students - not 50,000</p>

<p>31% in top 10th of graduating class
68% in top quarter of graduating class
Average GPA: 3.57
(based on past records - note article below for current and future trends)</p>

<p>According to this article 31,000 applied for 7000 slots. Isn't that a 23% acceptance rate not 70-80% ? </p>

<p>IU</a> receives record number of applicants</p>

<p>US News ranks IUB as #75 of National Universities - you can argue the validity and methodology of their rankings but it is what it is. </p>

<p>I just cannot fathom anyone spending their own or their parent's $40,000 year if OOS and having some of the sentiments expressed on this board.</p>

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<p>joojoojelly has made some valid comments.. yes Indiana is a party school.. so what.. alot of big universities are party schools thats just life.. as far as academics go..I agree because some of the students are not motivated to study/ do well in class they will get poor grades as a result the students who do study will benefit by getting their test scores curved... it is pointless to just b*tch and moan on a fourm.. if you don't like IU you should have just transfered (You would have gotten into more academic-oriented schools with your 3.9 GPA).. obviously there were some Pro's for you to eventually stay and get a degree from IU.</p>

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<p>Mom--they admit FAR more students than actually enroll. To get 7000 in school they probably admit 16-17,000.</p>

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<p>Actually, they admitted over 20,000 last year to get 7,200 enrolled.</p>

<p>University</a> Reporting and Research - Institutional Research - Indiana University</p>

<p>Note that based upon the article posted by HooserMom2012, the admission percentages will be dropping drastically once again, however:</p>

<p>Admitted percentages:
2006-2007: 80% (19,000 out of 24,000 applications)
2007-2008: 70% (20,000 out of 29,000 applications)
2008-2009 (projected based upon numbers given in article): 65% (20,000 out of 31,000 applications)</p>

<p>The main cause is obvious from the statistics above--the number applying has gone up by 7,000 in two years (a 29% increase in applications).</p>

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<p>which means more competition... and less slackers =P</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Thompson said IU looks for the usual strong GPA and test scores to make individual students stand out. But he also said IU is looking for leaders.</p>

<p>Hanson said IU also looks for the applicant who has made special contributions to his or her community and high school.

[/quote]

HA! You're claiming this to be true, yet you're not asking for any essays, any recommendations, any extracurricular lists... </p>

<p>Admissions are 100% statistics based. The application is simply information based so that they can contact you, all you have to do is submit test scores and a transcript. Don't feed me this BS.</p>

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<p>In terms of the rankings, I think IU will rise in the US News this year. The acceptance rate has fallen 10 points, the SAT scores rose 30 points (going off of 07-08 numbers that will be used in the US News). This is the first jump we've had in a while in terms of test scores and acceptance rate.</p>

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<p>Yes, I would expect to see an "increase" from a National University ranking of 75th to about 65th or even less. However, remember that USNW uses 10 categories for their ranking--and then does everything they can to maintain their "Northeast" orientation (like adding in stuff like "alumni giving rates" or "actual graduation rates versus projected graduation rates"). After all, they are in the sales business--so the rankings will ultimately be whatever will help them sell the most magazines--and accordingly the same colleges will be at the top as last year--and the colleges in the midwest (except for Northwestern, Notre Dame, and Chicago) will be discriminated against once again.</p>

<p>As you can tell, I put very little faith in the USNW rankings other than in the separate "disciplines"--like business, engineering, etc. In these areas, they don't change the ranking criteria every year to manipulate things so that the same schools always end up in spots 1 through 5. </p>

<p>Just once I'd like to see a top public school like Wisconsin or Michigan or UC Berkeley or Georgia Tech or University of Virginia make their National Universities' top 15 list--rather than private schools like Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt or John Hopkins which will make it based upon their "prestige"--(meaning larger alumni giving rates and larger endowments).</p>

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<p>Well, that's why I am a big proponent of peer assessment. I realize that the US News peer assessment is a bit flawed (some schools have ratings that are a bit too high, others are way too low), but most of it is good data. It makes sense to me to ask a bunch of people who have been affiliated with these programs to rank them, and get an averaged score from all of them. That's how the individual disciples are ranked in the US News.</p>

<p>There's typically no fluctuation in rankings from year-to-year, so I am just hoping for a small rise in the rankings. Considering IU's score of 46 is only 5 points away from being in the top 60, a change in the student selectivity will help it drastically. Also, the PA score dropped from 3.8 to 3.7 last year, a rise back up to 3.8 would help as well, considering the weight of the rating.</p>

<p>The retention rate rose 2% to 89% as well. It should be interesting, I would like to see us not rank at the bottom of the Big Ten.</p>

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<p>Yeah, it's funny how people love the USNW rankings scenario as long as it suits them.</p>

<p>For example, on this collegeconfidential thread:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/521133-peer-assessment-usnwr-rankings-based-undergrad-grad-reputation-45.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/521133-peer-assessment-usnwr-rankings-based-undergrad-grad-reputation-45.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>there are people from Duke and Penn that just can't stand the Peer Assessment scale since UC Berkeley ranked ahead of both of them, and Michigan ranked ahead of Duke. These students/alumni will "sing the praises" of the other stuff--like alumni contributions--and size of endowments--and per capita placement into medical programs--even though without the "fluff" stuff, they would be ranked about 18th (Penn) and 35th (Duke) instead of both being in the top 8 in the final rankings. </p>

<p>And yeah, I think Indiana should be ahead of Michigan State and Minnesota (and possibly Iowa and Purdue) this year, but don't count on IUB moving past Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, or Northwestern.</p>