Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Top Questions

Simply put, committed; while it is true, there are occasionally a group of students who just aren't ready for college--I find that is the case for all universities--by far the ones who are ready to prove that they are true Salukis, are also truely special and gifted indivuduals who aren't so far above themselves as to treat everyone at the university as family.

My classmates are very outgoing and accepting of everyone. They include everyone, never leaving out anyone.

I have met some awesome, unique, and intelligent students! I absolutely love being surrounded by the environment that is brought by the student body.

The students here are like any other student in every school. They seem very open and outgoing.

My classmates are motivated individuals that usually know what they want to do with their lives beyond college.

Most of my classmates are artists. They are driven and focused on their future without forgetting about being social. Life of the party and unique. I have not been exposed to the entire student body since I have just been taken major driven courses. From those that I do know, everyone is accepting of eachother and not afraid to help eachother.

My classmates are informative and open minded. My classmates contribute to my education because they help me learn new things I never knew. Having classmates that care about their education makes me care about mine too even more than I already do.

The students at SIU are generally pretty smart, although you will be amazed by how many (I hate to say it, but...) dumb people there are at universities all over the country. SIU is in a unique position in which they are owed lots of money by the state government, and the state doesn't have it, so they tend to admit anyone with a pulse and a check in their hand. Because of this, there are lots of incoming freshman who attend SIU who probably shouldn't be at college, or aren't ready for college, but the university takes a chance on them anyway because if they fail out, at least the university still has their money. That being said, the students who survive the temptations of college life and commit to their academic careers tend to be very intelligent and successful. There is a diverse atmosphere at Southern with several demographics of people represented. About half of the students are from the Chicagoland area, and a good percentage of those students are from the inner city. The other half of the student body is made up of kids from the middle and Southern parts of Illinois, as well as parts of Missouri and Kentucky. Obviously there going to be stark differences between people from such a wide range of backgrounds--both culturally and politically. Carbondale itself, because of the university, is a fairly progressive place, but I'll be clear, the entire region of Southern Illinois is vastly conservative, and that presence is definitely felt on the campus. Due to the wide array of political ideals present on campus, with no one side making up the majority, the political atmosphere of the campus is overwhelmingly apathetic. This is the case about most things at SIU. Saluki athletics are a running joking on campus. Attendance at football and basketball games is laughable, as are the results on the field in recent years. Women's volleyball has had kind of a cult following recently, but that's begun to subside due to their recent struggles as well. All in all, the students at SIU are mainly concerned about getting their degrees, drinking (this is not unique to Southern, drinking is simply a part of the culture on college campuses) and having a good time--not necessarily in that order. Generally everyone is pretty friendly, and if you don't close yourself, it's not hard to make friends. Being a college freshman is a really unique time, because you might not know anyone at your school, but neither does anyone else, and if you just talk to people and put forth the effort to find friends, you're going to be successful at it.

A big dividing factor at SIUC is the separation of West campus and East campus. A main road and all of the academic buildings separate these two living areas. East campus, which is known as "The towers" is predominately mixed, black people, minorities, and white people. West campus, known as Thompson's Point is predominately white people. Over the past few years, University housing has begun to attempt to change this by calling these areas West and East, but still to be they seem separated areas. West campus now incorporates the new and expensive apartments, Wall and Grand. So University housing is trying to change this segregation issue.

My classmates are friendly familar faces that are willing to help and encourage you.