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.

My classmates are young and act carefree. Most of them have no idea what they will do with their lives.

The engineering students that I have as classmates can only be described as "one team". We at this time, come together to have a tutoring session that enables us to help each other with any problems that may arise. We are all in one dorm, Thompson Hall. This allows us to seek out other team members that might be able to help in an area that may be their expertise and not necessarily mine. We are one team!

Most everyone seems to be very kind and open to helping when you need it. All you need to do is open up and communicate and you are bound to make many friends.

My classmates are very diverse in culture and ethnicity.

My class mates help stimiluate my cognative ability.

My classmates are helpful and knowledgeable.

Classmates here are extremely friendly and helpful to each other; we all want to see each other do the best we can and not fail and so we will help each person get to that point.

My classmates are easy to ge along with and very helpful when it comes to planning a study group or sharing notes

My classmates are a wide variety of people. Most of them are from the south-side of Chicago and went to underfunded high schools where they learned poor study skills.

Kids who want to learn and better themselves, although sometimes they need a little extra encouragement.

Focused, hardworking, and determined.

The average classmate here is fun and friendly.

My classmates are all at this university for the same reason, and that is to graduate hoplefully within 4 years.

My classmates at SIUC are lively, hard-working, and quirky.

Sometimes they may be stupid drunks, but they are usually cool and everybody gets along a lot better when everybody has had something to drink.

In my experience students in this school are very interested in education and are willing to help one another as much as possibe.

Most of the people I've had as classmates are driven to get the grades they need to be able to move on to the careers of their choice.

Everyone here has very diverse cultures and interests.

Diverse, good sense of humor, focused and hard working, and always there if you need them for anything at all.

mostly men and most are black.

Mostly lazy and unprepared, as well as unwilling to do the necessary work to get the job done.

My classmates are easy going, we help each other, we do group study/reasearch. We socialize, (shopping, movies,etc.)

They are all very school orientated; with very similar future goals as my own.

My classmates are very helpful and friendly. Some go above and beyond to help others by copying notes and making sure every topic is covered. Study sessions are not uncommon and almost everyone is there to help.

My classmates are very diverse, but very dedicated to SIUC and the courses that they are taking.

I dont really know how to describe my classmates except everyone seems like there own person, they also seem like they know what they want and they will do anything to get it.

Most classmates are pretty laid back and work but don't over do.

Students at Southern Illinois University are a great, accepting, diverse bunch of people. They are from all walks of life, and very diffferent but accepting of others.

SIUC is an "ok" school. My major is pre- dent, I chould have gone to a school that caters to pre- medicine.