Allyssa
Illinois State University is one of the most popular public university's in Illinois for good reason. Illinois State has many different fields of study for students to be apart of. Within each individual field of study, there are numerous opportunities to get more involved and further your knowledge in the area. Many offer research opportunities for students to pair up with faculty and create their own research project of their choosing. Each faulty member is required to have specified office hours in which the students can meet with them to discuss issues with understanding course material, grades, etc. Many are very open about scheduling further meeting times outside of their office hours. Outside of the classroom, there are many opportunities to get involved on campus. The campus itself employs more ISU students during the academic year than students employed off-campus. There are endless amounts of organizations for each interest, hobby, and major for students to easily get involved in with varying levels of commitment. Our sports teams events are also ways to be apart of the ISU community. Furthermore, the Campus Recreation Center organizes club sports teams for students to make teams or join as a free agent. The dorms, along with the university board, offers weekly or monthly activities that are free for students to attend and participate in. For example, they have $1 double features in which students can view new movies, 2 for $1. This year they also offered a highly successful Glow Fest in which there was free food, a DJ, games, and free glow attire. As you can see ISU has a great communal atmosphere. The school size helps create this atmosphere because it is considered a "medium-sized" school. The student population isn't too large but it is too large for you to know everyone on campus. The campus itself is not too small but not too large either. It takes 10-15 minutes to walk across campus from one end to the other.
Allyssa
Illinois State University is one of the most popular public university's in Illinois for good reason. Illinois State has many different fields of study for students to be apart of. Within each individual field of study, there are numerous opportunities to get more involved and further your knowledge in the area. Many offer research opportunities for students to pair up with faculty and create their own research project of their choosing. Each faulty member is required to have specified office hours in which the students can meet with them to discuss issues with understanding course material, grades, etc. Many are very open about scheduling further meeting times outside of their office hours. Outside of the classroom, there are many opportunities to get involved on campus. The campus itself employs more ISU students during the academic year than students employed off-campus. There are endless amounts of organizations for each interest, hobby, and major for students to easily get involved in with varying levels of commitment. Our sports teams events are also ways to be apart of the ISU community. Furthermore, the Campus Recreation Center organizes club sports teams for students to make teams or join as a free agent. The dorms, along with the university board, offers weekly or monthly activities that are free for students to attend and participate in. For example, they have $1 double features in which students can view new movies, 2 for $1. This year they also offered a highly successful Glow Fest in which there was free food, a DJ, games, and free glow attire. As you can see ISU has a great communal atmosphere. The school size helps create this atmosphere because it is considered a "medium-sized" school. The student population isn't too large but it is too large for you to know everyone on campus. The campus itself is not too small but not too large either. It takes 10-15 minutes to walk across campus from one end to the other.
Courtney
My overall opinion of ISU, is this is one of the best universities to attend. ISU is a really diverse school. Faculty and staff really care about the success of the students, there is many resouces from free tutoring and writing assistance for students. ISU is realtively a large univeristy however, you get that small school feel, because the student to faculty ratio is great. The dorms, are really nice, most dorms are renovated or in the process of being, campus dining is AWESOME, so dont worry about eating nasty food, because the chefs know how to whip up some nice food. School pride is really big "Spread The Red" just wearing red makes you feel amped up.'Spread The Red" has also brached out to the town, and business even show school pride.
Kara
I love Illinois State. The faculty/staff seem to really care about their students success (well al least they act like it)! There are over 21,000 students, but because of the one centralized quad. Nothing is far, so it gives the school a small school feel, but with large school resources. You don't feel lost and don't have to leave out really early to get to classes, because it literally takes 10 minutes to walk from one end of the quad to the other. The food in the dining center is good and there are plenty of ways to get involved. One thing I don't love is the fact that their are so many girls. The school is about 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} Female and 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} male. So sometimes it feels like it is a shortage of guys. The town of Normal is nice. Its a very relaxing place. If you want to party hard, you can, but the partying does not really start until Thursday's. There is not a whole lot of school pride. We are a Division 1 school, but we are in the Missouri Valley Conference, so people are not really engaged in sports.
Angela
I love this school! It's in a community that is very friendly. There are two other colleges nearby, so some RSOs are connected with them also. Not a day goes by that I don't meet somebody new. The campus has a great "small" atmosphere. You can definitely get to know the "6 degrees of difference" here :)
There are always activities happening, whether sports related or research related. There is so much variety!
Jordan
Size is just right, people have given a lot credit to ISU in the last few years. College town for sure, love everything about the school!
Amanda
This is a big party school. Parties begin Wednesday nights (Wasted Wednesdays) and continue throughout the rest of the weekend. The school has a small town feel due to the location, but the shopping is still pretty awesome. Lot's of bars and PUB II and Brewha's have some of the best burger baskets in town.
Jesse
One great thing about ISU is that for a school with over 20,000 students, it does not feel like it at all. The quad is super compact and centralized, which is good becasue it does not take forever to get from building to building. You can walk the entire quad in 15 minutes. Professors are so, so. If you are under 21 you cna't get into the bars, but there are plenty of frats. But often you just find your self wandering from house party to frat house until you find a good which can be annoying.