Next Year

[s24891]

Hi. Next year I will be a senior and I am interested in applying to IU. I would be from out of state and I currently have a 1350 SAT and high GPA. Just a few questions:

1. How strong is Kelley nationally? Do they get lots of recruiters? What’s the KLLC all about?
   
2. I know there are three areas for freshmen to room on campus: Northwest, Southeast, Central. I would like to party and hope for a social floor/dorm. Best dorm for me?
   
3. IU at my high school seems to be known as a party school. I’m not concerned about it that much, but how much partying is typical for students?
   
4. I’m undecided on Greek Life. Is joining a frat the only way to get into parties as a guy, or are there open parties?
5. What factors does IU consider most on the application? (SAT, GPA, recommendations, activities?)

Thanks so much. I hope to visit sometime next year. I hear great things about IU. Hoping someone can answer these questions to solidify IU as a top choice of mine.

[iubaccounting]

1. Kelley is highly ranked nationally. The top 3 cities graduates work in are Chicago, Indianapolis, and NYC, but you can get a job anywhere in the country. Bloomberg ranks Kelley 4th in the country in undergrad business schools:

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-best-undergrad-business-schools/

The Big 4 and other firms are always on campus recruiting, so there are plenty of opportunities to talk to firms. The KLLC is mainly just a dorm full of business majors. I’d recommend it because it’s pretty easy to make friends when you automatically have something in common with everyone, and it seemed to be a good atmosphere when I was visiting my friends’ rooms. Kelley seems to promote company interaction a lot with the KLLC, but it’s really just listening to company reps giving presentations and not that valuable. The main draw is the people in the KLLC.

1. The KLLC is in McNutt, which is Northwest, but Northwest would be good for partying even if you aren't in the KLLC.
2. It varies a lot. Some people never party, and some people party multiple times a week. You can party pretty much whenever, but nobody is going to force you to go out if you don't want to.
3. I don't know much about this
4. IU considers GPA first and test scores second. I don't think anything else matters a whole lot unless maybe your GPA and test scores are on the borderline.

[brendancollins]

1. Kelley is ranked really high nationally I agree that a lot of recruiters come around and it seems there are a ton of opportunities. I stayed in the kllc last year and there were a lotta opportunities to meet with corporations and we had to go to 10 events. I often found it difficult to make these events with my schedule but I'd say they were good experiences when I got there. The dorm itself was really run down, the bathrooms were disgusting and there was a ton of mold. I think the floor experience can go either way Ik a lot of people were super close with their floor and that was their friends but on my floor I knew only a couple of people by the end of the year. Some of that may just be cause it was a lotta quiet people or maybe that's just how all floors are. Another thing to consider is i had a roommate going in and he didn't get into the kllc so I had to room with a kid who was a nightmare so I would personally choose a different dorm if I had to do it over.
2. I've always heard that the northwest area where mcnutt is is the party side that wasn't my experience but I feel like a lot of people got caught for dorm drinking which I wouldn't recommend.
3. Most people Friday and Saturday plus maybe Thursday on a regular week but if you're in Greek life parties Thursday through Saturday plus maybe something during the week
4. I did Greek life and I think it was the best choice I made in college but I've also heard a lotta really bad experiences. First of all, the alternatives to Greek life is dorm drinking which will easily get you in trouble or sketchy house parties. The amount of these sketchy house parties diminish as the year continues and I've never felt safe at one. They're usually $5 for a guy and there's no alcohol and it's a bunch of strangers. I've been to ones where there's been stabbings, people thrown through doors etc. the alternative with Greek life id say is safety and familiarity in that you know where you are and who you're with. I joined a more low key frat that's a ton of fun but doesn't do as much of the hazing. It's super fun and it's where I met all my good friends. On the other hand I've heard a lotta bad stories about Greek life where people have gone a bunch of places and haven't been invited back or they couldn't take the hazing and quit. I'd say just go around and find a place that you fit at cause the alternatives aren't great.
5. Gpa

[ace550]

I will focus my lengthy post on addressing #4 - greek life at IU. IUBaccounting and brendancollins covered the others pretty well.

Based on your comments, I assume you are very interested in the party/drinking college experience. I will tailor my advice accordingly. For all others reading this, disregard the following if you are not into the party scene - IU has plenty to offer the more mature/culturally-inclined students.

4. Ah, the much maligned Greek system. The reality for a young male IU student interested in maximizing his social experience is this: not being in a fraternity will limit your partying options. As @brendancollins has mentioned, house parties at IU can be incredibly sketchy. A fraternity offers you the comfort of knowing your surroundings and your fellow partiers. As a non member, you CANNOT enter fraternity parties unless personally invited by a brother of that house who happens to be your friend. And in most cases, it just becomes weird if you keep coming to frat parties as “someone’s friend”. This is because you have not gone through the same pledgeship experience, rituals, etc and are not privy to the daily operations within the house - all of which means you will always be looked at as an outsider.

Generally speaking fraternities can draw upon a MUCH deeper pool of resources to host social events than can unaffiliated students. Here is a list of reasons why fraternity parties are better than off-campus parties:
.

-fraternity houses have the space to comfortably host hundreds of people (party basement areas, courtyards, lawns,

balconies, etc.)Off-campus apartments and houses do not.

-Fraternities have social budgets to purchase decorations, sound speakers, lights, alcohol, party themes, etc.

-Fraternities have the means to mobilize and organize every aspect of a party down to the last detail (pledges). Much
more goes into planning fun parties and managing risk than one would think.

-Fraternities party with sororities, which means not only a guaranteed turnout of at least 40+ girls on any given night,
but also the benefit of each guest being implicitly held accountable as part of an organization recognized by campus
administrators (if you get too drunk and do something stupid, you will face official consequences, as opposed to being
a random stranger at an off-campus party who could put their fist in the drywall and disappear unnoticed).

-Even once you turn 21 and start going to the bars (sporadically at first, then almost exclusively as a senior), affiliation
with a house will benefit you in the sense that you will likely know more people at the bars.

Now given all these perks, OP and other likeminded people, I’m sure you are thinking “well now I HAVE to pledge a fraternity”

Not so fast. Pledgeship is an incredibly time-consuming 16+ weeks, and depending on the fraternity, induces varying levels of physical and psychological discomfort. In reference to my above bullet point regarding fraternities having the means to organize parties, who do you think sober drives and cleans up parties at 3 AM in the morning? That’s right, the pledges. Often times, fraternities plan for parties 4 days per week (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday)

Even the handful of fraternities considered to be the most balanced have demanding pledgeships.

Now, assuming you make it through pledgeship, a new set of pitfalls await. Any time you combine a hundred 20-something yr old males under the same roof, reckless decisions are bound to be made. Obviously, many students fall off the deep end. Not everyone can thrive academically and professionally while living under a roof where drinks are flowing and the music is blaring 4 nights a week. If you understand your own limits and have the discipline to live a balanced lifestyle, then I think fraternity life could be beneficial beyond the social agenda. And even then, I think there are only a handful of fraternities that can offer such benefits.

Which brings me to my final point: Your goal at IU should be to learn how to enjoy life and meet new people while also getting your work done, learning and growing as much as possible, and establishing yourself as a budding leader on campus. The fraternity experience certainly offers you the opportunity to do all this. But you MUST be aware of the potential risks, and prepare accordingly. Yes, fraternity parties are better than the alternatives. But it isn’t worth it if you cannot take care of yourself. Your decision to join Greek life or not should depend on deeper considerations beyond a simple “Is joining a frat the only way to get into parties as a guy, or are there open parties?”

College is only 4 years. Everything you do at IU should be preparation for the real world. Fraternity life can teach you the social, time management, and leadership skills necessary to succeed. And you can have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.

Short version of my Long Answer: Absolutely join greek life.