Indiana University-Bloomington Top Questions

The largest stereotype of IUB is the drinking scene. There are always people who will want to go drinking every night because they want to really grasp hold of all the freedom there is when going to college. But this scene is prevalent at every college of America, and most likely world wide. Because IUB is so large and is such an amazing college town, you can do just about everything. The Indiana Memorial Union is home to free movies Thursday through Saturday nights, bowling, pool, and the always-needed Starbucks. Indiana and Kirkwood streets are home to amazing restaurants, coffee shops, and shopping centers, including Urban Outfitters and Steve and Barry's. There is so much stuff to do!!

I find that the best activities to do on weekends are watching movies with friends, and just hanging out around campus. Shopping, or going out to eat, even bowling keep me occupied.

Basketball is big. Everyone knows that. On my dorm floor about a third of the people leave their doors open, but it's a different third every night. It just depends on who has homework or whatever. Atheltics are really popular and there have been some guest speakers that the entire student body got excited about. I met my closest friends in high school and I still haven't found anyone here that I believe to be a very true friend. If I'm awake at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday I'm doing homework and wishing I had gotten my ass in gear sooner so I could have gone to bed. Depending on the person, people party once a day to once a year. Frats and sororities are pretty big here. Rush is a pretty crazy time. The Greek life is definitely very prevalent on campus.

Smoking hookah and playing frisbee are the two activities I see the most on campus. I used to live in the Collins Living and Learning Community and the kids on my floor weren't friendly, nor would they at least keep their doors open, so I moved to Wright, and everyone on my floor is super nice and their doors are always open. The basketball and football games are very popular, as are guest speakers, and theater attractions. I actually went to see STOMP a month or so ago and it was outstanding. The dating scene is pretty simple for most people. Go out, get trashed, "hook up", and, based on your personality, you either call the person back or you don't. The only thing to really do off campus is spend money on food, which I find myself doing way more than I should.

On my floor, in my dorm, most of us do leave our dorms open. We all know each other and expect one another to respect our stuff. Athletic events are very popular here. Guest speakers and Theaters are not as crowed, but they have enough of a turn-out to continue. The dating scene is very casual. There are less official relationships and more friendship and people that just want to have fun. I met my closest friends on my floor. I cannot even remember how we met. We are different than one another but get along great. If I am awake on a Tuesday at 2 am, I am either goofing off with friends, watching a movie, or trying to finish something due the next day. One tradition that happens each year is the Little 5. People party a lot here, but those same people would party just as much on any other campus. It is usually limited to Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights though. Fraternities and Sororities are very big here. A lot of people decided to go Greek. On Saturday nights you can watch a movie, go bowling, go to a themed party and not drink...etc. I do not really go off campus too much considering I do not have a car.

On campus in my dorm at least students tend to leave their doors open. Athletic events are very popular as well as events that are held at the Auditorium. I met most of my closest friends on my floor because we are neighbors and we all hang out together. On a Saturday night people can take a trip to Kirkwood where they can go to dinner or shop. people also go see free movies at the union.

The social life at IU is amazing. I have met so many people and made friendships far better than anything in high school. My floor gets along very well and we do everything together. On top of that, I joined a fraternity and met many great people through that as well. Attending athletic events are a must and are very fun. The dating scene...I do not know too many people that date. For the most part, you meet a girl at a party, hook up, and don't really do anything after that. My closest friends live next door to me. Although they live 5 hours away from my home, over breaks we travel to each others home towns to party and hang out. I am usually up at 2 am on weeknights either studying or hanging out on my floor. Partying usually occurs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Last weekend, I pregamed with jello shots on my floor, and went out to a house party. Saturday nights without drinking are rare. But when they do happen, I usually go out to eat, hang out with guys on my floor, and just chill.

The social life here is fantastic, from the dorm to the classroom. Students, at least on my floor, always have their doors open and walk around talking to each other and relaxing. There is always plenty to do- athletic events like basketball games and the Little 500 are especially popular- and it's not a big deal if you aren't into the party scene. Besides frat parties (the stereotypical IUB Saturday night activity) there are free movie showings at the union, every type of restaurant imaginable, and shopping at the College Mall and on Kirkwood Ave.

The dorms are a great place to live and learn, the doors are mostly kept open and meeting new friends is rarely a challenge. Athletic events and the IU Auditorium are the most visited venues at IU, as many people enjoy sports and theatre. My closest friends have came from living in the dorms for 3 years, I was a Resident Assistant for 2 and my freshman year was amazing. The "Greatest College Weekend" occurs every year, which is by far, the greatest thing to look forward to. However, other events, such as IU Sing and the IU Dance Marathon are also popular.

It's hard not to have a great social scene at a school as big and diverse as IU. Coming in as freshmen, everyone is excited to meet new people and start their new college life. People leave their doors open (except if it's hot and they want to keep their AC in the room) and are willing to meet new people. There is always something to do exciting to do and there are a lot of events on campus that don't involve drinking. The exciting thing about college is that it's ok to party any night of the week. If you're bored on a tuesday...or monday..you can find something. And thursday is included in the weekend too. The biggest week-Little 500-I have yet to experience since it comes in April, but from what I've heard it is a blast.

Athletics are extremely popular at IU, especially the men's basketball games. Basketball and Indiana are pretty much synonymous, and many of the students grew up on the tradition of IU Basketball. I was involved with 2 organizations on campus: Student Athletic Board and the IU Student Foundation. Student Athletic Board is a student run organization within the athletic department that helps with the marketing, promotions, and game-day operations for all of the varsity sports teams. I met a lot of my closest friends through SAB and was also able to get a behind the scenes look at our athletic department. The IU Student Foundation raises money for scholarships, and also puts on the largest amateur athletic event in the country, the Little 500. The Little 500 is the best weekend of the year. It is a bicycle race that is modeled after the Indiapolis 500. It is a huge party in the spring, and has been known to bring hundreds of thousands of people to Bloomington. At a school that has many traditions, this is the biggest and the best. IU is a big party school, so people are partying all the time. However, that doesn't mean everything fun involves drinking. There are always movie theatres, concert halls, and athletic events going on to keep you busy.

Men's basketball is easily the most popular sport at IU. Season ticket prices here are higher than almost anywhere in the country. The biggest intramural event is the Little 500 bike race. During the weekend of the race, IU imports almost every cop and excise policeman in southern Indiana, due to the size of it. Overall, athletic teams are very popular. Most fraternity intramural teams have a large turn-out to the events. The events at the theater are very popular as well. The dating scene at IU is, essentially, the best. I've heard a statistic floating around that about 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of IU girls are listed as in a relationship on facebook, but there are so many opportunities to date, it doesn't really matter. You can hook up with someone on your floor, at a game, in a bar, from a class, at the bus stop, at work, etc. I met my closest friends in college through the bike teams that I have ridden for, through work, and through my fraternity. Usually, we'll spend the weekend hanging out or going to parties, because half of us are still not 21. At IU, the party scene is huge. You can literally go out every single night of the week and find something. In some of the Northwestern neighborhoods, you can go from apartment to apartment, or room to room and find a party. Most people typically do house parties, but a lot of seniors go out to the bars fairly often. The parties really don't stop here until about 4am. Of course if you are not much of a partier, there are tons of options during the weekend. I lived in the honors college my freshman year, and about half of us didn't drink. During the spring, we got into DDR during the night. There are always events going on at the theater or movies showing close by. You can go on a date to a good restaurant and movie for $15 if you know how to do it. Off campus, there's the town of Bloomington to experience. When it's warm, you can swim in the quarries, go rock climbing, spelunking, or paintballing. The forests of Monroe and Brown county consistently draw huge numbers of tourists during the fall. If you like to go horseback riding, there are tons of places to do that.

Greek life is huge. I'm involved with the Hungarian Cultural Association and participate in Russian events. They're awesome, and the people that I've met in them are interesting and fun to be around. Students in dorms leave their doors open. Basketball is huge. Tickets are sold for about $50+ per game if you dont have season tickets. Football is not so big, but most people go to games. There are guest speakers from all over: Translating seminar, ex-KGB officer, authors, ex-CIA agents, NY times Crossword puzzle editor, etc. There is no dating scene whatsoever. I'm studying at 2am on a Tuesday. Some people are partying though. Some people party every day but Sunday. Most people party once a week on Friday or Saturday. Last weekend I went to a play, they went to a party, the next day I went to a calc study group, and then went a Tibetan restaurant for dinner,baked cookies and watched a movie with my room mates. On a Saturday night, you can go to a play, a show at the auditorium, a basketball game, a concert, go cosmic bowling in the union, see a movie, play board games in the lounge of your dorm.

There are about 85 bajillion groups on campus and I couldn't say what the most popular ones are, although the Greek community (if that counts as an organization) is pretty MASSIVE. People tend to be involved in service-related activities, like Habitat for Humanity. To be honest I think a lot of people are more in to partying than involvement. My main activity is Campus Girl Scouts which has a tiny but loyal following. Basically, we volunteer on weekends with Girl Scout programs in our community; some people work with troops. We have a lot of trouble recruiting new people and I'm not sure we have that big a presence on campus. It's actually kind of an extension of my life before and outside of college (like working at Girl Scout camp) and so I feel very at home with the group. In my dorm people always had their doors open. I lived in a building a couple blocks from the main quad and I'd come down all the time and just hang out in the hall. It was awesome! The dating scene sucks. I've dated, like, two people since I've been here. Then again I'm gay so maybe that's why--it's a smaller community and I don't have that much in common with most of the lesbians on campus (I'm kind of the earthy-crunchy-granola type and there's definitely a dearth of people like that in general--regardless of orientation--on our campus). Athletics are pretty huge. Even football, which can't sell out, has massive tailgating happening. There's some good theater and cultural stuff off campus almost all the time but to be honest I mostly just chill out with friends on weekends, or I have to work. There are free movies at the Union every weekend that are pretty awesome, not to mention some good theater. Drinking is still def. the most popular social activity.

The Greek system is very big on campus. A lot of kids rush, especially in the Northwest neighborhood. The Hutton Honors college provides a lot of extracurriculars for the more driven students. The IDS is a huge campus activity. It's one of the best college newspapers in the country, and everybody reads it daily. On a Saturday night, there's not a lot of things (at least in the dorms) to do that don't include partying. Kirkwood Ave, a strip just outside campus, has a ton of little shops and restaurants to visit. Sometimes that's an alternative to the drinking scene.