Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Top Questions

In undergrad, I noticed that probably about a third of the students were complete imbeciles who were only there......well, who knows why they even bothered going? But there are a lot of serious students too, and in the graduate program, there were nothing but highly devoted students. From what I understand, the strongest programs at IUP are the business program as well as safety sciences.

Like I mentioned above. They need to put more restrictions on acceptance for students. Other than that I approve of everything but a few professors I've had.

Academics at IUP were a lot harder than I expected. Although the sociology department was excellent, the professors always offered great lectures and were always willing to help. Many of the liberal studies classes were quite difficult. It is important to look at the professor before registering because they can really determine your grade. A unique class that I would recomend taking is Child Abuse and Wine Service; both of them were informative and fun.

I think the participation level and studying level varies from student to student at IUP. I try very hard to participate in my classes that are in my major, or classes that I feel comfortable with the material. I have had classes where students interact and argue points of view and I've also had classes where the professor was pulling teeth to get an answer from any student. I think it depends mostly on the topic, how interesting the professor makes the class, etc. In most instances professors do make an attempt to learn your name. This is almost always true in your department. I am on a first-name basis with most if not all of my Journalism professors and feel comfortable stopping by their office after class to discuss any problems I'm having with the class. Surprisingly, one of my favorite classes I took was for my English minor, and it was The Bible as Literature. The professor made the subject very interesting to learn, he brought in food as a means to make connections to the stories of the Bible. I think the education at IUP is geared more towards getting a job, but this could also just be the instance of the Journalism department. My professors very much want me to succeed and learn as much as possible and encourage me to try my hardest to get a good job when I graduate.

At IUP my professors in my major know my name, but it was a rarity that my professors in my liberal studies classes knew my names. I can think of 1 or 2 teachers who knew my name. My favorite class that I have taken would have to be Fundamentals of Conducting that I had to take for my major. My absolute LEAST favorite so far has been general psychology. Horrible teacher, horrible classes. I don't want to remember that semester in there at all. In the music department, yes, students are competitive..extremely competitive. I believe that to be true in other majors. The most unique class i have taken would be world religions. Being a religous person my self, I went in to the class being a little skeptical. But after the class I really learned to appreciate other religions practiced in society today. For a major in music education, I think it is ridiculous that we have to take as many credits and have as many liberal studies requirements as we have. In the long run, i believe that it will all be beneficial. I feel the music class requiremnets i have are very geared toward getting a job but i have found no use in the math and science classes that I've needed to take.

Most of my professors knew my name. The professors like to know everyone's names and interact with them on papers and assignments. The lower level classes that everyone has to take are the ones that are in the auditoriums mostly, but they are packed. The teacher rarely knows anyone in those classes, but in the others the professor knows everyone. Class participation is normally given a point value on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester. Coming to class is important to a lot of professors and they give rules at the beginning on how the grades will be given if you miss a class. Professors are strictly at school. I rarely see them outside of class unless I visit office hours with questions. I have had plenty of groups in class and we communicate fine and eventually get the project done. IUP really helps students get ready for finding a job. That is mostly what the programs cater to.

IUP academics are great. Most classes that you have to take have less then fifty people in them. Usually the freshman classes that almost everyone has to take has the most people in them. When you get to classes for your major then there are way less people in the class room.

The academics at IUP are awesome, at least in the crim. department. I have had maybe one professor that was a jack ass. They are fair, what more can you ask for, you get what you put in.

As with many schools, there are some good professors and some bad ones. IUP is split around the middle - there are teachers who did a poor job helping students or knowing their names, and there are some who are really caring and rigorous. My favorite teacher was Dr. Goebel (from the Honors College) who really cared for her students, but still assigned a good bit of work, really teaching us helping us to get interested in history. My least favorite was taught by Dr. Begres (she's left since) and the next worst were my language classes. Even though there are a variety of foreign language classes, they are not taught well or by professional teachers, which how I need to study. They're more like "You can learn the language by yourself, and we're here to help" kind of classes. Overall, the student population is very slack about its academics, however, the Honors College contains a good portion of the people dedicated to excellence (but there are still slackers). Since there is a large fraternity/sorority presence on campus, and a partying attitude, this means that there is also a significant amount of people who simply don't care about their classes. Class participation is usually limited to a core group (except at the Honors College). There are a fair amount of intellectual conversations outside of class that I have participated in, whether with teachers, Honors College students, or other students. I've heard that the business college is really competitive, but there's not that atmosphere elsewhere. The Political Science department is decent, working in conjunction with other classes to help produce International Studies. Asian Studies, my potential minor, is a new major that is still in the works. My current advisor is very poor - not knowing what she is doing, giving very little advice when approached. The mentality of the campus is more the "You can do it yourself," attitude, which tries to make students independent, but instead simply confuses. It's difficult to do everything oneself without any help.

The class sizes were mostly small. My largest class was 101 people and it was a very easy art history class. My other classes had no more than 40 and my smallest class, a french class had 14. All of my professors were great except one. In the smaller classes they pretty much knew everyone's name. The best part is that all professors have required office hours where they are always available if need be.