I am an incoming freshman to IUB and a direct admit to Kelley. I moved to the states when I was 8 and lived in the Bay Area in California my entire life. When I chose IUB as my school, a lot of family and friends were very against it due to the huge " culture shock" I will find myself in. If anyone has any input or experience about this, please share with me!
Can you be more specific about what your family and friends are concerned about? College should be a time to test your comfort zone so going to a new geographic area is a great way to do that. Midwesterners are friendly and IU is huge with students from lots of other places so you should be able to make friends and enjoy a great school. It would be easier to respond to specific things they are concerned about.
I guess your friends and family were shocked since there’s a lot of great schools in CA. But you picked IU. There are still Asians in the Midwest, although not many we’re still here! And I think it’s good to have that “culture shock” because most of the Asians I known who live in CA only have Asian friends, when you come to the Midwest you get to go outside of your comfort zone and befriend many different kinds of people. (I moved to the Midwest in middle school from an Asian filled area on the East Coast)
But good luck! And college is always what you make out of it.
I used to live in Bloomington, and trust me, IU is FILLED with Asians. I even heard them speaking in their native languages. There’s even an Asian food store, if you like preparing those dishes. IU is really diverse in general!
Uh, I think the thing they are most worried about is that the white people in Indiana are not like the white people here. I think I have a pretty good mix of asian and white friends right now. And my reason for choosing IU was because I did want to feel a new culture and do something new. I think they are just worried that there might be a lot of racism due to the news depicting Indiana as a very backward state.
Don’t be concerned with the news about RFRA. Lots of people think it is a terrible idea here, and this law really affects nothing for almost everybody. Nobody really cares or talks about it anymore anyway. Obviously there will be some racism everywhere, but I would say most people are fairly tolerant.
You’re going to university. Every part of the US has some people with odd views…even in the Bay Area. My young Korean friend came to the US in 11th, to finish hs. She had a blast at IU, class of '12, worked hard, won accolades, made friends, expanded her horizons.
My husband and I went to IU for grad school in the late 80, even then there were many many Asian students in undergrad and grad school. You will not feel out of place.