Indiana University-Bloomington Top Questions

There's to much going on at this campus! There are too many popular groups! Of course, athletics are big here. Our swimming team are even renown around the world! we have intramural sports for everything, and there are also many athletic clubs. There are various dance groups that are big: the IU break dancers, IU Essence (both are Hip Hop groups), IU Gumboots Dance Ensemble and more. We have the IU Singing Hoosiers, the IVE performers, and various artists from the IU Jacob School of Music. We also have an African American Arts Institute with 3 different Ensembles: IU Soul revue, African American Choral Ensemble, and African American Dance Company. These ensembles are also classes, and from my own personal experience, I must say that it's enjoyable for everyone who participates, regardless of your ethnicity! I will give you one of the many sides of IU by giving you a peek of my social life. This past semester, I had an intership with INPIRG. This stands for the Indiana Public Interest Research Group, a student led and funded organizatoin on campus. With that group I was involved with local volunteering projects to help fight hunger and homelessness as well as conversing with Baron Hill on his ideas about the Farm Bill. INPIRG deals with the social, political, and economic concerns of the students. Our past/present campaigns are but aren't limited to: Hunger and Homelessness, College Affordability, New Voters Project, Local Foods, Campus Climate Challenge, and much more. Each campaign worked on either local or international levels, and some got so involved that they focused on both. INPIRg is actually part of a group of PIRGs, which is in totality a nationally known organization that's represented in 14+ states. Although I worked for the hunger and homelessness campaign, I always had the opportunity to volunteer with other campaigns. Our weekly CORe meetings allowed us to get updates and service opportunities from every campaign. We also had socials such as open mic night or our special letter to the editor parties and posting parties "INPIRG style. We were able to create a social community within our group even as we made a change globally. I've sung with Acabella, an A capella singing group. I've volunteered and served as an ambassador for various groups on campus. I've also served as a member of the Board of Governors for my residence hall. This to me is interesting because the majority of my activities didn't revolve around my residence hall. However, there's always an activity going on. I've always lived on a thematic community. The majority of the residence Halls are made that way. During my freshman year, I was on the Teaching and Education community, and during my second year, I was on the computers and computer community. The benefit about living on these floors rather than on a floor withouth a theme was that since you paid a higher activity fee, the money that the floor got was a lit bigger. On one floor, we bought a tv and a ping pong table. The next year on the other floor, my floormates went to Chicago. What's interesting is that I endulged in none of these activities, but whose to say that those activities are suitable or made for everyone. I always had somewhere else to be. Predominantly white, black and other selective fraternities and sororities are very active on campus. A variety of greek organizations even have their own house on campus. The list goes on...

Basketball and football games are the most popular, along with the running of Little 500. I am involved with figure skating which is considered a club sport, even though it shouldn't be. There are a lot of events in the auditorium that I have attended, like some concerts. I am annoyed with fraternities because they care too much about drinking. Bars here are also very popular.

If your not 21 its lame house parties for you. If you are 21 its lame bars for you. As a big city kid I basically resigned myself to the fact that this will never be a "happening" place for my standards. But whatev's, I'm here to study.

If you don't have a good, healthy social life at IU, then you are trying to not have one. There are great people everywhere and bazillions of great things to do.

I'm heavily involved with IUSTV...indiana university student television. I started my freshman year and have worked my way up to creating and producing two shows. IUSTV is at that particular stage of clout where they have the people and the equipment to really put together a great program, however they're still new enough not to have a waiting list when it comes to joining. IUSTV has been an AMAZINGLY fantastic incubator for myself and the people I work with for honing our particular craft: film.

- IUB has over 500 student organizations. That means there is something for everyone...and if there isn't something, the Student Activities Office will help you create something :) Most organizations will let you be as involved as you want to be. Maybe you want to help organize your organization's activities, and maybe you just want to attend the events. Either one is okay. - There is a student organization called Union Board that does lots of events each week. My favorite is their free movie viewings every weekend (Thursday - Saturday at 8 and 11 pm). They show recent movies (sometimes before they are released on DVD) on a large screen; it's a really popular thing to do. They also bring in a lot of speakers and also put on concerts. - Little 500, a world-renowned bike race, is one of the best parts of the whole year. A lot of people know it for the partying, but far better than the partying is the way the entire campus comes together to celebrate the events surrounding the race. There are multiple concerts, cookouts, midnight pancake dinners, special outdoor movie showings, and, of course, the races! Even the weeks leading up to Little Five (as it is known by students) are exciting as teams participate in time trials to qualify for their starting positions. It is a special activity that only IU has!

I love my dorm, especially my floor; I have met my many of my closest friends through getting involved on my floor. I also love that there are more preformances, speakers, and shows than anyone could ever attend. My favortie thing to do on the weekends is to go to the free movies at the union.

Greek life is very big at IU, as is sports. We are a Big Ten school, so a large part of school conversation revolves around the recent updates in sports. As I said, some students do a lot of partying, but for the most part there is a good balance. My favorite organization that I am involved in is Alpha Phi Omega, a community service fraternity. I have met a lot of friends with similar interests as me there.

Social life is Great. The football scene in the fall is not so great...at the game at least. Tailgaiting, however, is huge and such a blast! Everyone goes to basketball games too and it's a ton of fun. Greek life is pretty big, but there's still a lot going on if you don't go Greek. There are a lot of big shows at our auditorium (student prices!!) and random events around campus. If you're awake at 2 am on a Tuesday, there's always someone else up to chat with. Kirkwood, downtown bloomington, has a lot of great bars and restaurants that everyone goes to.

The most popular groups/teams on campus are definitly the intramural sports teams. On my floor, everyone leaves their door open. Athletic events are extremely popular here. Football games are alot of fun but Basketball games are insane. You have to reserve tickets months in advance and they are really expensive. All of my closest friends live on my floor. 2 am on a Tuesday im on my computer or in my friends room-no one's asleep then. People party honestly every night of the week, they dont care if its a Monday. There is so much to do on weekends that doesn't involve drinking. You can go to the union and watch a movie or go bowling.