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[quote=Anonymous]DD is junior there.   From OOS, into progressive politics and sustainability, not into Greek life (and before choosing IU she checked with some recent alums to confirm Greeks orgs aren't the dominant force of social life there -- and they haven't been).   She liked the campus, liked the programs in her fields, liked the range of options.   She's having a fantastic time.   It's a huge school and it seems like to offset that they have a lot of smaller-sized groups and clubs as an initial way to meet people.  She opted to live in a "living/learning" dorm that focuses on sustainability and that's provided many of her closest friends (but she's made friends outside that too -- in the Kelley business school, in some sororities and fraternities, etc).   She also joined a few clubs freshman year - isn't as active in them now but again it was a good way to meet people.  Bloomington is wonderful and offers a lot of dining and entertainment options; the performing arts programs bring a lot of inexpensive events to campus; Big Ten sports are not really a primary focus for her but she likes the energy it brings to the campus and she and friends attends a couple of times a semester.   She and friends get up to Indianapolis for concerts from time to time, and have road-tripped to places like Chicago and Cincinnati and Nashville.   Her friends are serious students (okay, one exception) and she is too -- actually, she's probably more serious about her studies than she ever was before.  Over five semesters she's has had one meh professor and has liked or loved all the others.   She studied in Europe last semester - not in a generic "Americans abroad" drinking and sightseeing program but in an honors exchange program IU has with a leading European uni (which I mention only to underscore that IU has some great programs that smaller schools won't).

Any surprises?   Her best friends are from Indiana and they are smart and hardworking and well-travelled (because we didn't know what to expect).   The IU campus and Bloomington absolutely seem like a typical university town (or small city) bubble consumed by the usual student passions and insulated from a lot of state- and national-level politics (because she wasn't sure if going to school in a pretty red state would feel different from the blue states she's more familiar with).   IU doesn't feel isolated (Bloomington is an hour from Indianapolis, which isn't NY but is a real city).  'Midwest nice' is actually a thing, not just hype -- with the kids, with the administration, with the people in town.

We really hadn't known what to expect - had no prior connection with the school except some grown family friends whose eyes would tear up whenever they talked about their time in Bloomington.   But she liked the programs and loved the campus when she visited, and that IU seems to look for reasons to accept rather than reject applicants.  It's vastly surpassed her expectations (and ours to the extent that matters).    I obviously can't categorically promise every student will have a great time and find their niche there, but it seems to offer as good a shot at that as anywhere, and DD's experience (since she's definitely not a sorority/business school 'type' of IU cliches) tends to confirm that.   Hope this helps.   [/quote]

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