Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Top Questions

class sucks lets face it there is never anything good to say about them but with all the new buildings going up they are much more talerable to go to now and as in every university you will run into good and bad professors but i have no complaints on the good ones iv had and the bad ones i just get changed

Studying is a big part of being a student at IUP but isnt it that way with any college? If you want to get good grades you have to put in extra time.

It has been my experience that the classes typically have about 25 students. Biology and other pre-requisite courses have had classes with about 100, but other than 2 classes during my IUP career there have always been 25 students or less. The professors are the best. They have always known the names of everyone in my classes and can even recognize you years later out around town. This may or may not be a good thing. My favorite class I received through IUP was taken at St. Edmund hall, in Oxford, England. There is a wonderful abroad program offered by the school and it is my recommendation that incoming freshman should look into them. I took one class abroad, Shakespeare, which lasted 1 month. I found this the perfect amount of time due to it being my first experience overseas. My professor was an IUP professor who I had in a previous class on campus. It was her suggestion that I partake on the adventure, and I will forever be grateful.

It's hard for me to give a good opinion on the academics at IUP because I am a music major...Cogswell Hall is literally my home. I usually see my professors for more than just one class, so it's not uncommon for them to know you're name. Music students are always studying - usually in the form of practicing. Class participation is pretty common. Competition is a little less common, but it depends on what instrument you're studying. As a percussionist, we all learn just as much from each other as we do from our professors, so there really is no competitive atmosphere among us. The only thing I don't like about my major is that they have it all set up to finish in four years, but it is nearly impossible to do. The degree is a five year degree, hands down.

Most of my professor know my name depending upon the size of the class. My favorite classes at IUP are usually the ones where the professors are very enthusiastic about the subject they are teaching and allow for in class discussions. I usually consume the most from those types of classes. My least favorite classes usually have the mandatory attendance policies and have professors that don't care about what they are teaching, just assign busy work during the class, or they have no idea what they are talking about. Study wise, I would say when I was a freshmen I hardly needed to study. However, as a sophomore and junior I found myself studying about 2-5 hours depending upon the subject. There is definitely students outside of class having intellectual conversations. I, myself is one them. I always love to meet up with friends for coffee at starbucks or the commonplace for intellectual conversations. Also, students at IUP are very competitive academically. Especially when you get into the upper level classes, you see a lot of competition. The most unique classes I have taken was a history of the renaissance and the reformation, a comparative politics class on western countries, and American Foreign policy. I'm a double major, Spanish and International Relations. I use to have a french minor but it conflicted with my spanish major. I love my international relations major, the professors, and the classes. However, I have grown to hate my spanish major, because of the majority of the professors that teach in that dept. I am only sticking with the program to become fluent in the language. Other than that, I don't care for the program anymore. Some of my professors, I do meet up with during office hours just to have intellectual conversations with. I do not mind IUP's over academic requirments but I do hate the spanish dept's. requirements. That is because it is all based on Spain and their Spain study abroad program that is only offered in the Spring. I think the education at IUP is geared towards getting job, learning, and taking knowledge from the classroom and being able to apply it to your own life which I find very beneficial.

Some people complain about the Liberal Studies requirements because they don't see how those requirements relate to their major or to their future career. My response is that not everything you take necessarily needs to tie in with your professional life. After all, you won't be going to work 24 hours per day (Let's hope!). If you become curious about a certain subject but never take a course in it, you might wonder after you graduate whether or not you would have liked it and/or succeeded in it. IUP's professors truly take an interest in their students. They ask about their social lives and about their future plans in a friendly way. The professors let students know that the content they will learn in their classes will be useful no matter what their career goals are.

The academics at IUP are pretty challenging. You do have your occasional blow-off class/professor, but mostly you really have to study hard and attend class regularly to get good grades. Most professors i have had are very good, but i have also had a few awful ones. but the good outweighs the bad. Class sizes are dependant on if it is a class for your major or a class that everyone has to take. but most classes you will have will be small around 30 or 40. It seems that it is difficult to graduate in four years because of the requirements, but no one seems to mind because no one really wants to leave.

Professors, gotta love 'em. Mr Rogers, my radio production professor. The most eccentric professor i had during my stay at IUP. Great teacher, and a great motivated, easy to talk to whilst having a laugh. Another one, i forget hes name now. Looked a bit like the Doc off of Back To The Future, with a mild New York accent, also eccentric. I loved their personalities, very captivating, which is always made learning fun! I personally found IUP academics veryyyy easy and had no trouble in succeeding well in my grades. It is very linear, and set out in what you need to achieve with enough to time to aquire this. I do feel buying text books can be unessercery. In one case i achieved an A without even picking up a textbook which cost about 40 dollars!

The classes are smaller so most teachers get to know you and your name. It's nice to know your teachers and have them know you too. I am a journalism major and I love it. The professors are so nice and helpful and I've really learned a lot so far. The teachers are always willing to help in any way that they can. They really care about the students and you as an individual. That's something that you definitely don't get in a big school. The one thing I absolutely hate is the liberal studies requirements. That is required in a lot of colleges though. I think it is pointless and a waste of money. I should be able to take my journalism classes and be done with it, not have to have all of these other classes that I will never need.

My major, Sport Administration, is the best major at IUP. It has to deal with the business side of the sporting life. Which is the perfect choice for me, because I was an athlete in high school and I am a big sports advocate. It is part of the Health and Physical Education department so I get to take classes that have to do with our bodies also. And if I was a little bit smarter then I'd want to be a doctor and be a heart surgeon, so learning about how the body functions is a real treat for me. But the Sport Administration major is also and large male dominant major, very few females are in that department, so I feel that I am breaking the mold of the norm that is the sporting life and trying something that maybe someone else wanted to, but was too scared to do it.