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Do you think that Indiana University is getting better overall, and getting a tad harder to get into?

By Icemaker (Icemaker) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:11 am: Edit

no

By Barrons (Barrons) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 02:38 pm: Edit

I think the student quality from out of state is improving and will continue to improve for 2 reasons--lower cost out of state than most similar quality schools; and the high quality of the business program which is now a popular major as computer/engineering majors fall off in favor.

By Collegeparent (Collegeparent) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 09:55 am: Edit

Depends on the departments. Indiana's music school is very highly regarded; same for Kelly School of Business which is ranked in Top 10 for undergrads.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 10:51 am: Edit

Indiana is a very respected state university. It is not one of the top 10 state schools, but it is one of the top 15 or top 20 state schools, on par with the likes of UCSD, Maryland and Minnesoto

Indiana is located in Bloomington, a quaint and pleasant little college town. The campus has to be one of the 10 most beautiful I have ever seen. And school spirit is alive and well thanks to Hoosier Basketball.

Indiana has top 10 departments in the following fields:
Astrophysics
Business (undergraduate level)
Drama/Theater
East Asian Studies
French
German
Greek
Italian
Latin
Music
Near/Middle Easter Studies
Portuguese
Russian

Indiana has top 25 departments in the following fields:
Anthropology
Art
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Chinese
Classics
Comparative Literature
English
History
Japanese
Journalism
Mathematics
Philosophy
Spanish

In short, it is one great place to study.

By Icemaker (Icemaker) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 11:59 am: Edit

I agree that it is a great school -- I just don't think that it is getting harder to get into. It usually takes a long, long time for a large state school to change their admission profile in any appreciative way.

With regard to IU, according to the Indianapolis Star, their yield of accepted students dropped this year, giving them a smaller class than anticipated.

Quoting from the article, " Indiana University's Bloomington campus had the biggest loss -- 2 percent. That was followed by declines of 1 percent at Ball State University and Indiana State University and just less than 1 percent at Purdue University in West Lafayette. That all adds up to about 1,400 fewer students -- and less tuition. For IU Bloomington, the 768 fewer students on campus comes to a loss of $5.1 million in its operating budget of $600 million. "It's not a crisis by any means," said IU Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis. "It just means they (deans and department heads) are lowering their cash reserves."
While its systemwide enrollment decreased less than 1 percent, IU isn't pleased with the decline, mostly among freshmen in Bloomington."

Furthermore, I believe that I read an article pointing out that the number of applications to IU has dropped for the last couple of years.

IU has always been relatively easy to get into (at least for in-state applicants) and has had a fairly large number of out-of-state students (probably due to the cost). I simply see no evidence of their admissions standards increasing. Regardless of these facts, you can still get an excellent education at IU. Or, you can be like half of my high school class and flunk out after the first two semesters.