Indiana University

 As the mother of an IU alumna who played in the marching band before anyone cared about IU football….Hoo… Hoo… Hoo… Hoosiers!

Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana is a bit of a study in contrasts. Jacobs School of Music is world class and Kelley School of Business is nationally ranked, while many of the other programs draw from within the state and the Midwest. I’m a big fan of Jacobs, where my daughter studied music. It’s ranked alongside top conservatories in the country. Faculty are accomplished and students are serious, practicing multiple hours per day. On the downside, there are many strong masters and Ph.D. programs, so opportunities for undergraduate students in the more competitive ensembles may not be as robust.

The Kelley School of Business has changed some of their admissions practices in the past year. They told us that GPA is meaningless to them; they’re looking for more A’s than B’s, and don’t like to see C’s and D’s, and want to see excellence in quantitative classes. The acceptance rate at Kelley is about 33%, and if students aren’t admitted, they may be offered “pre-business.” Those pre-business students take exactly the same first-year classes as the Kelley business students, and the faculty don’t know who is who. Furthermore, the pre-business students will have the same Kelley advisors as the students admitted directly into Kelley. But they will also have an extra class to show them how to prepare for a career in business through other majors at IU outside of Kelley, should they not ultimately be admitted to business. If they receive an A- or better in all their freshman classes, they’re automatically admitted to Kelley. If not, game over.

The Luddy Schoolf of Informatics, Computing and Engineering is another solid pre-professional track at IU, but my fear is that they may take second place to their in-state competitor, Purdue, in this area. I was also concerned that they talked about these students pursuing entrepreneurial paths because of a lack of jobs. I don’t know if that is a reflection of the quality of the career services department or not.

Some other things about IU:
The campus is stunningly beautiful. I can’t think of another flagship state university that’s prettier.
Greek life is very big here.
Bloomington is a really great college town, about an hour from the Indianapolis airport.
And lasty: we were told that they’re “encouraging students to submit testing,” and this is also stated on their website. Average scores of admitted students last year were 1250-1440 SAT and 29-33 ACT.

I think Indiana University is a great option for students who are looking for a big state university with a gorgeous campus, great college town, and a variety of strong programs. And their football team is pretty good, too. Finally!