Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Top Questions

When I tell people that I am a student at IUP they all have two reactions. One is oh so you go to a party school, and the other is that you must be an education major.

I think that the best thing about IUP is it's size and location. The university isn't too big or too small, I think that it is just right. I love how the class rooms don't have too many people in them and that makes IUP an easy learning environment because the teachers are always willing to spend some one-on-one time with you if you need help with anything. Another good feature about IUP is that it is a college town and it is never hard to find something to do.

I think the school has a reputation of being easy to get into, and inturn, for dumb people. By raising admission standards, they would up their respect

IUP is a great school, I enjoy it for the most part, you have tons of different types of people easy to make friends, and always something to do. Its a college town, for the most part the business try and help out the students as much as possible with specails and discounts on everything under the sun. The bars are amazing, thats all that can be said about that. We have a ton of school spirit, if they could just get back the name of the IUP Indians rather then the crimson hawks.

Just face it. IUP is a large college, which comes with strong downsides, mainly being merely a student in a large crowd to the professors. However, the Robert E. Cook Honors College was just perfect - you can get the classes of a large university with a smaller, more focused group and critical thinking set up. The Honors College has a freshman class of only 100 students, which means by the end of the year you know pretty much everybody. Besides the amazing critical skills you learn from the Core curriculum and the fun classes, the dorm is cheaper because it is now one of around two or three dorms left on campus in the traditional dorm format - two roommates, community bathroom. But trust me, it's better than living in the suites. The suites are a unique "living experience", but doesn't build a sense of community, and they were so hastily put up that after one year of use they are falling down. There's very little to do in town - there are some good food places, a library, and way out there there's some chain restaurants, Wal-Mart, and a "mall" with a movie theater. There is very poor parking on campus - so much so that it's hardly worth it to bring your own car. Your student card can get you on the buses around the town for free, and they even go to Walmart and the mall, as well as run late at night.

I went to IUP as a freshman. The school is very nice from the outside looking in. The dorms are not the best but deffinitely not the worst. Some of the classrooms are fortunate enough to have a/c which is a major plus! The best part about IUP for me was the amount of activities that go around all year. There is almost always something to do, and the school puts a lot of money into making more and more activities available to us. What made me not stay at IUP after my freshman year was a few things. The weather at IUP is awful. I don't know why, but it just is. Once November hit, we had snow/sleet/rain/ice every day until the end of April. This weather hit me hard and I became very depressed. I just couldn't deal with never seeing the sun, the gloomy weather got the best of me. Another reason I did not like IUP was that it just wasn't a challenging enough school. I had an english 101 teacher who couldn't spell! No wonder I got an A, I knew more than she did! Fortunately that was the only prof. I had that wasn't very good. All of the other profs I had at IUP were excellent, they would go out of their way for anyone who needed anything. IAnother thing I hated about IUP were the people in financial aid and in the other offices. Sometimes you would have to call 15 times and speak with 20 different people to get a simple answer. The people were not helpful and simply did not want to find what you were asking for. No one was ever rude about anything but you could tell they did not want to help you. My bill was at one point $12,415 and at the end of the year for some strange reason they tacked on an extra $874 and would not give us a reason why. This was very strange, especially since my mom had already paid the bill in full and was told we would not be charged for anything else. The last thing I didn't like about IUP was the food. Although there was a huge selection of different places to go and tons of different things to eat, it was all unhealthy. The vegetable stand was always full of veggies (and sometimes fruit) but it was never fresh! The lettuce was always brown and kind of soggy, and they all just looked so old so I never got to eat anything healthy. When I came home from school I had to take detox pills to get all of the bad stuff out of my system because it had screwed up my entire digestive system! They also, like many other schools, add laxatives to their food because of how badly the food is to digest and I was not comfortable with eating the food after hearing that!

It has a good size and there's always something to do

Best thing, I'd say, would be the Oak Grove and the landscape of Indiana. I love the fact that its an old town. Walking around looking at the old architecture is a good way to kill time. I would change all the construction. Yes, some of the older buildings needed renovated. It was necessary and they did a nice job restoring them for the most part; but the new suites are atrocious. Personally, I come from, what I thought was a small town, then I went to IUP. At first I thought the size was too small, but after staying there a few years I realized that the size was just right. A small town and yet still, a moderately large campus. Most were surprized I was going to IUP. I spend most of my time in the Oak Grove or Weyandt Hall. The town wouldn't be there without the college. Construction, or rather, the new suites are a posing problem on campus. Not much school pride. I've never been to a full sporting event. The most unusual thing about IUP is that people are only nice when it gets dark out. (beer friendly) The day after we moved in, and I realized I was in college... and went to IUP. Frequent complaints? --Fosters

Honestly, I love IUP. I grew up in a small town and there wasn't a lot to do. IUP has opened so many opportunities for me. I'm challenged academically. I'm envolved in campus activities. And I've grown as a person. I like being able to walk where ever I need to go. It's small city. People complain about how small the town is sometimes, but apparently they've never been to the country. Indiana's 10 times bigger than where I grew up. I think it's the perfect size. Even if Indiana isn't good enough for you, Pittsburg is only a half-hour away. I'm a music ed major, so most of my time is spent in cogswell, the music building. If you're not willing to work music is not the major for you. It is a demanding major, but I enjoy being busy and the people I get to work with. The cool thing is the you get to know you're professors well and the ensembles give you chances to meet other people. Being envolved is the ensembles gives you a chance to travel and inspire other young musicians. It's a challenge and a reward within itself. The experience that I will always remember happend my freshman year. I'm a member of the marching band. It's a lot of work and coming from a small school and learning how to march a whole new way was difficult. I wanted to quit. It seemed like they wanted more out of me than what I could give. I was overwhelmed. I stuck the season out and gradually each show got easier. Our last show of the season was at Giant Stadium. It was an awesome experience to being playing in a huge stadium infront of thousands of people. It made all of the struggles worth it. Looking back now, it's cool to see how far I've came. I definitely take pride in where I go to school. I believe I represent the best school in the state and I'm proud to go to IUP.

I love IUP so much! It is a tough transition when you are a freshman, but now I feel that one of the best decisions I made was to come here. The Oak Grove is a really nice place to relax with friends or even do homework. In the beginning of the fall semester and the middle to end of the spring semester, the rocking chairs on the porch of Sutton Hall are also a great place to relax and just enjoy being outside. The campus size is just right, its not too big, but yet not too small. The town of Indiana, PA ia small, but I come from a small town, so it definitely makes me feel at home. We have everything here a small town usually has like restaurants, a mall, Wal-Mart, movie theatre, etc. My favorite time at IUP is definitely the fall semester. Football games are crazy fun, especially when we play Slippery Rock and win! School pride came be seen everywhere and its just a great atmosphere! Towards the end of November, IUP always hold the annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree ceremony at Sutton Hall, which always puts me in the mood for Christmas!