Indiana University
College review by Lisa Bleich
Indiana has an expansive, 1,800 acre campus with limestone buildings and lined with trees and flowers throughout campus. The former football field was converted into an arboretum that sits in the center of campus, making for a beautiful setting with a lot of open space. Students can walk from one end of the campus to the other in about 20-25 minutes. The campus has a bus system and is a big biking community.
IU is a large state university with 32,000 undergraduate students, 11 schools and 150 majors. Given its size, students have a wide range of options from IU’s renowned Kelly Business School to its stellar Jacobs School of Music to its nursing program or apparel merchandising major.
While students get admitted to the general university, some programs have a direct admit such as music or business. Students apply to nursing, social work and optometry once they are already students.
The campus is surrounded by Bloomington, a quintessential college town filled with numerous ethnic eateries and various shops. Students take advantage of the numerous sporting events and musical performances. Students get free tickets to all sporting events except for basketball and football; those tickets cost approximately $300 for the season.
Despite its size, IU has a very strong Hoosier community. Students feel connected with each other and have a strong sense of pride and spirit for their school. Students were wearing shorts, t-shirts, and a lot of IU apparel.
64% are from Indiana and out-of-state or international students make up the remaining 36%. Our tour guide came from Denver, Co and was majoring in hospitality. She was down-to-earth, friendly and engaged in the Hoosier community.
IU is continuing to build and has four new or revamped schools that will be starting within the next two years including public health, global and international studies, informatics, and media (where journalism, communications, and film will be housed.)
Admissions
While students get admitted into IU directly, several direct admit major programs have higher academic standards. For example, students admitted to Kelly Business School directly have a 3.7 GPA and a 30 ACT or 1270 CR/M SAT. (IU does not consider the writing section of the SAT.) For most other programs, admitted students have a 3.7 GPA and a 28 ACT or 1200 CR/M SAT. One thing to note about the GPA is that IU does not recalculate the GPA and does not give more weight if a student has a 3.7 out of 4 or a 3.7 out of 5.
Merit
There are approximately 150 honors scholarships for students with a 34+ ACT or 1400 on the SAT. The Jacobs school of music also offers talent based merit aid up to $17,000 per year.
Summary
IU is a great school for students who want a large state school with strong school spirit, sense of community, and academic offerings and want to go to school in a typical college town with nice, down-to-earth students.
Indiana University
107 S. Indiana Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
(812) 855-4848
Indiana University photo gallery
