The Midwest

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Okay well I plan to apply to UCSB, SDSU, Pepperdine, UMiami, ASU, and Indiana.</p>

<p>I've been to UCSB, SDSU, and Pepperdine and love them all. And I don't see how anyone couldn't like Miami. And Tempe sounds pretty sick, and with Phoenix being so close, there is bound to be so much to do.</p>

<p>However I'm worried about Bloomington. I mean it is supposed to be a huge school in a nice college town, with a huge party atmosphere. But what is it like?</p>

<p>I visited Nashville, and I really don't like it. Well basically just the people. The people seemed really racist, like they can't get over that they lost, and it seemed like a city of country music loving hicks.....I mean it just was discusting, to see teenagers with confederate flag cell phone covers.</p>

<p>But what is the Midwest like. Is it more like california chill, or the racist "deep south"???? Or is it like its own thing?</p>

<p>I know I'm sounding a little judgemental of the south, but that is just what I perceived it to be from my visit....Maybe it was just the days I were there.... but it just felt very wrong.</p>

<p>If you can give examples of daily life in a small town like Bloomington, that would be great....also to mention if it is a big farm or something....that would help to.</p>

<p>Thanks....</p>

2

<p>The Midwest is generally considered to be a bit like the South, with its own distinctive flavor. People are usually pretty friendly, and a lot of midwestern schools really get into the sports scene. I have a relative at Indiana, and she says that there's plenty of great offerings for shopping/entertainment/food off-campus. U Indiana is pretty liberal, and Bloomington is a great college town. </p>

<p>
[quote]
I know I'm sounding a little judgemental of the south, but that is just what I perceived it to be from my visit....Maybe it was just the days I were there.... but it just felt very wrong.

[/quote]

<em>shrug</em> We're all entitled to our own opinions. You couldn't pay me to live in California.</p>

3

<p>I love sports. I plan to go to all of the home football games (at the schools that have football), and the basketball, soccer, and volleyball.</p>

<p>That is one of the things that draws me to Indiana.......Big10 Sports.</p>

<p>Thanks for your opinion.....but how could you not like California?</p>

4

<p>I'm from Illinois, and I don't see the midwest as being anything like the south. People in the midwest tend to be very straightforward and honest. They also tend to be very hardworking, and have standard, middle class values (focus on family, value work, saving and education, politically moderate, polite). There are exceptions, but that's what midwesterns act like in well, the midwest, where I live.</p>

<p>Country music isn't very popular were I live, and the Civil War doesn't mean anything. Maybe I'm spoiled by Chicago, but the food here is really good (it is good in Indiana, St. Louis, Minnesota and Wisconsin from my experience too). Oh, and in terms of racism, it's not much of an issue. Midwesterns tend to be straightforward with everyone, regardless of background. </p>

<p>The midwest isn't "chill" it is NOT like the south at all (life moves pretty quick up here and is focused on the present, not the distant past). It's it's own thing.</p>

5

<p>I was a grad student at Indiana a while back. I can't imagine anybody not liking the place. Students and faculty are friendly, campus is beautiful, there's a big frat scene if you want it, sports are huge. The campus is very clean; the whole university is very well run. Climate is a bit more mild than the climate of, say, Chicago or Boston. Bloomington is very nice. I found nothing Southern about it.</p>

<p>The most distinctive thing about the university is that it doesn't have engineering or agriculture. Its med school is in Indianapolis. Its law school in Indianapolis seems to be at least as prominent at the one in Bloomington that has only about 700 students. So the "professional" schools that often dominate other large state schools do not dominate IU-Bloomington. Therefore, if you major in music or philosophy, you don't have a bunch of "professional" students around (except for the business folks) telling you you're wasting your life.</p>

6

<p>The Midwest has the Big Ten, which are all biiiiiig sports schools that like to party. But, they're all public with the exception of Northwestern. Any public school is going to be pretty huge, with a big sports scene, and lots of partying. :) </p>

<p>I can't speak for Bloomington, because I've never been there. But, I do live 15 minutes from Dekalb, which is where Northern Illinois is at. I don't like NIU much, but Dekalb is a really cool town. There's alot in the way of coffee shops, unique resteraunts, thrift stores, basically any place where garage bands can play. It's surrounded by corn, yes, but what isn't?</p>

<p>Anyway, what's the Midwest like...My school is completely surrounded by corn and we have a huge dirt hill by our football field. We have "ride your tractor to school day". But, when kids from neighboring schools come to mine they think it's incredibly different than their own--10 miles away and they think we're hicks! So where you go in the Midwest varies alot. If you live in Evanston, it's alot different than Sterling.</p>

<p>But I echo what Illinois kid said. We're definitely not "poor" or backwards hicks but there's alot of farming, so thus to generalise I guess we're honest and, as said previously, hard working. :) My top choice school has a Midwestern Awareness club--for kids who don't understand why no one in Massachusetts will smile or make small talk with you! <em>My</em> area is really conservative, and it's annoying because alot of people are steadfast in their beliefs, but they're not far-right nuts. There's certainly no "white power" or families who go to churches to protest at soldier's funerals because America is gay or something. It's just annoying to me because I'm really, really far left. Plus colleges are widely left-leaning. </p>

<p>Midwest is not my personal taste, and either before or after college I'm going to move out of here, but it's a great place to grow up.</p>

<p>PS: Midwest is <em>definitely</em> not racist. My state is the Land of Lincoln. :)</p>

7

<p>the culture of the midwest really varies from state-to-state and from city-to-city.</p>

<p>as a whole, the midwest is not racist at all, and is fundamentally different from the south. the south has a certain 'seriousness' to it, and also a 'concentrated politeness' that you just don't find in the midwest. the midwest is more full, in general, of open, laid-back people. definitely no amount of racism, you might find some amount of racial slurs used in the more affluent areas, but this only happens in the context of the conversation and really there is no overt racism that actually exists.</p>

<p>that being said, i went to school at iu last year, and i would say indiana is as close to southern as it gets in the midwest. it is kind of a backwards state and minus the immediate area of indianapolis i would say it is nothing like the rest of the midwest. yes, you will find racism in bloomington.</p>

<p>look at university of illinois, university of michigan, university of minnesota for schools similar to IU but in more conventional midwestern states.</p>

<p>oh and PS, to the above poster, lincoln only drafted the emancipation proclamation as a political move, and only freed slaves in rebelling states, it really had nothing to do with equality or some sense of justice he was trying to instill :p</p>

8

<p>The Midwest is NOT the South. We're always on the move doing one thing or another but take our time to relax too. Like the above posters, people around here are straightforward, open, and honest. Not much racism here either. </p>

<p>And a note on the Confederate Flag cell phone covers--some of my closest friends live in the South and they have those covers and flags on their vehicles not because they're racist, but because they're proud of their heritage and what their relatives did. They don't necessarily agree with what was done and they don't "whine about it", but they keep their flags to show support for the people who came before them.</p>

<p>Bottom line, I don't know how people could NOT love living in the Midwest and you'd have a great time at Indiana.</p>

9

<p>::they have those covers and flags on their vehicles not because they're racist, but because they're proud of their heritage and what their relatives did. They don't necessarily agree with what was done and they don't "whine about it", but they keep their flags to show support for the people who came before them.::</p>

<p>that's ridiculous ... do you see normal, well adjusted German teenageers walking around with swastikas? Slavery was wrong, and the Confederate flag is a very divisive symbol. It's a slap in the face to most African Americans and displaying it 'proudly' is not only stupid but also arguably racist.</p>

10

<p>Some people's opinions of the South haven't changed since the Civil War. </p>

<p>That's pretty sad.</p>

11

<p>Obviously you don't see African Americans sporting the latest confederate fashion.. how does this fit in with your theory?</p>

<p>I think that if they really think they are doing it to honor their ancestors then they are kind of kidding themselves... Their ancestors were wrong in their beliefs that people can be considered property simply because of the color of their skin. To honor ancestors who were racist by demonstrating their own racism doesn't seem quite right.</p>

<p>And yes, I'm just posting b/c I love a good debate :)</p>

12

<p>Not to derail the topic...but yeah, I know Lincoln was no freedom fighter. But when you're 6 years old, and America's distortion of history results in a passion for civil rights movements and your favourite book is a biography on MLK Jr, isn't that <em>beneficial</em> historical revisionism? :) I can't say I was much of a Howard Zinn in 1st grade.</p>

13

<p>"Some people's opinions of the South haven't changed since the Civil War."</p>

<p>No, our opinions of the Confederate Flag haven't changed since the Civil War. Quite rightly, imo.</p>

14

<p>As an Indiana resident, I think most of the generalizations offered by previous posters are fairly accurate. There is a lot of farming, and people are generally friendly, honest, straightforward, middle-class, and hard-working. However, the midwest is DEFINITELY not the south, and I wouldn't call Indiana "backward". I live in "The Region" (northwest Indiana) and we are much closer to Chicago culturally than we are to the rest of the state. However, in southern Indiana you will start to hear "southern" accents, but not nearly to the degree that exists in Tennessee or Alabama. Politically, Indiana is generally conservative (the last democratic presidential candidate to win Indiana was Johnson in 1964). However, Monroe county (where Bloomington is), is one of the two counties which vote democratic and tends to be far more liberal than the rest of the state.</p>

<p>But don't take my word for it; visit and see for yourself. One word of warning, there are going to be a lot of in-state residents. For many instate kids, they either choose Purdue if they want to go into a technical or vocational program or IU if they want to do something else. If you come to IU, it will be a cultural adjustment, but who knows? You might like it.</p>

15

<p>The upper midwest -- Minnesota and Wisconsin -- have the practical, straightforward, nice people, along with extremely progressive politics.</p>

16

<p>The confederate flag does not represent slavery... it represents state's rights, and the establishment of a nation of states who hold the same goals.</p>

<p>This differs from the swastika, which (although it means peace or something in reality) represents a very short regime. It has come to represent death, and only death.</p>

<p>This is not the same for the confederate flag. Although I'm a southerner, I do not display the flag- I think that it's in poor taste, inconsiderate, etc, but I do realize what it is meant to represent. </p>

<p>People need to stop making the Civil War out to be solely about slavery... it was about state's rights, and Lincoln did not free the slaves. If you look at it from a state's rights perspective (without considering the social issues involved), the south had every reason to secede.</p>

<p>The north only went to war to keep the income brought in by the south, anyways... not to stop slavery.</p>

17

<p>The Midwest is awesome. I'm from Chicago, but I've been all around Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, etc. Btw, I'm going to college down in Texas, which is not quite the 'Deep South' like Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, etc, but it's pretty close. The Midwest is definitely NOT like the South. That's about as accurate as saying California is like Massachusetts. Um..... NO.</p>

<p>I have not been to the West Coast much, but I do know the Midwest, some of the Northeast, and I've had my share of Southern culture since coming down to college.</p>

<p>Personally, I prefer the Midwestern atmosphere (although clearly I'm biased). Okay, so the Midwest has lots of cornfields. That means jack sh(i)t. California I'm sure has a lot of fishing wharfs. Does that mean even 1% of the its people are fisherman? Hardly. The Midwest, especially its major cities and suburbs, is very modern and fast-paced. Midwesterners are friendly if you approach them with a problem, but generally everyone goes about their own business. It's not like the South where someone will strike up a conversation with you, a random stranger, in the bathroom to be "friendly." However, it's also not like New York where many people have a sense of entitlement and might tell you to "**** off."</p>

<p>Also, the Midwest is not as elitist as areas of the Northeast, South, or even parts of California. You're not going to here some guy say "This is how we do things in New York" or "Don't mess with Texas" or basically a statement that your culture is superior because you invoked the power of your "mighty" state's name. Anyhow, every region seems to have its extremist cultures in some segment of its population, but I'd like to think of the Midwest as an oasis of sanity, with a "live and let live" atmosphere and a kickass ton of fun as well.</p>

<p>First of all, Tennesse is not part of the Midwest. AT ALL. Simple mistake, but do not associate that state with the Midwest. First of all, it succeeded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. That should be a tip off. Illinois, on the other hand, is the Land of Lincoln (ahem President and leader of the Union). BIG DIFFERENCE. Tennesse = part of the South. Yeah, I visited Nashville as well one time when going on a trip to Graceland. Yes, I experienced the same culture shock seeing a bunch of banjo-playin' Southerners talking about the "War of Northern Agression." (Not to stereotype the South, but there is a tiny minority of people like that here).</p>

<p>Anyhow, I've never been to Bloomington, but it is considered a small city. That means its not a farm, its not even a suburb, it's a significant urban area. The Midwest is FAR from being like the South. Why? Because it's essentially the North. I find it's culture to be the most mainstream of the United States, because it's the least stereotyped of all the regions.</p>

<p>In terms of culture shock, the Midwest will probably give you none at all. I don't know if you can say that about the Southwest or Florida. Of course, a little 'culture shock' may be good for you anyway, but, I would not be worried.</p>

18

<p>
[quote]
You couldn't pay me to live in California.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm third generation Californian (transplanted to WA). If only 25 million people suddenly adopted your opinion, I'd move back there.</p>

<p>Edited to add: There is a certain irony in my moving to Washington, I suppose, but I hasten to add that my wife's great-great-grandfather moved to Marysville, WA back in 1880-something. She brought me along under the terms of the 14th amendment.</p>

19

<p>Grim67, you are completely wrong. The confederate flag IS like the swatstika, it has a changed meaning despite it's original intentions. It's like the origins of the "N" word. The word originally referred to any person who was considered lowly or despicable, but the word clearly shifted to be a racial slur towards black people. Does that mean you can use it (if you're white)? HELL NO.</p>

<p>If you display the Confederate flag in Chicago, you WILL be killed. Without question. Do you have a right to display the flag? Of course. You also have the right to go up to a gang leader and spit in his eye. There's no law against being an a-hole; but your actions WILL be seen as offensive.</p>

<p>Now, do all people who fly the Conferate flag hate black people or are trying to be offensive? No. Some people do it simply for Southern pride. But SOME people are flying it to be offensive. And there's no way of telling which one you are.</p>

<p>If you want to show your support for state rights, how about you fly the flag of the United States, whose constitution also supports state rights. Or maybe fly your own state's g.oddamn flag.</p>

<p>Btw, the South had no right to secede.
Wikipedia:
"Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause:</p>

<p>"This Constitution, and the law of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be Supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."
The Supremacy Clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. treaties as "the supreme law of the land." The Constitution is the highest form of law in the American legal system. State judges are required to uphold it, even if state laws or Constitutions conflict with the clause."</p>

<p>Btw, Lincoln did "free the slaves." The Emancipation Proclamation. I think you're trying to say that slavery was not the main point of the Civil War. You're right, seccession, federal authority, and state's rights were the official reasons for the war, but slavery and its economic implications were a powerful factor. Lincoln freeing the slaves was perhaps an additional goal after accomplishing the goal of maintaining the federal union.</p>

20

<p>No, the slaves were really freed by the 13th Amendment. As for the rest, we can just agree to disagree.</p>