Indiana State University

I came to ISU because it is close to home and has a decent reputation. Terre Haute is mostly pretty gross but parts are really nice. I had an extremely hard first year. I am majoring in interior design, and the faculty are awful. The chair of the program is hostile, disorganized and the other professor is gone half the time. We had another professor who just left and didn't bother to explain why to anybody. Then we have an adjunct professor who is lousy, and another adjunct professor who is like 22 and literally just graduated from the program and she is teaching junior level classes! The grading is ridiculously hard. Put it this way: we had 26 freshman interior design majors in August, and now by the end of the year 22 of them have failed or dropped out. Yup, we have 4 design majors for the class of 2013, and it'll probably be less. There are only 9 of us sophomores (the rest transferred or changed majors), and we have to do a portfolio review to continue the program. Only 1 person out of 9 passed the portfolio review even though we had passed our classes. Now we have to redo all of our work from studio to be able to continue. Get the picture? I am going to stay because its too late to transfer and I have friends here, but I seriously think our program is going down the toilet and I just hope that we keep our CIDA accreditation because I would not have come here if the program didn't have it.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2013

Campus Maintenance: A, Education Quality: F

ISU is a very interesting school, and not in the good way. First and foremost it is in Terre Haute, Indiana which, although it is within an hour of Indianapolis, has nothing going on within its boundaries. Ever. The school itself is situated right downtown, which is kind of nice, but then you have the crime. Cars are broken into and stolen on a regular basis as well as assault reports filed. However, if you have even the slightest bit of street smarts, you'll be fine. My biggest problem with this school is its close-mindedness. The students are very conservative and many are very religious. This is a public school, but be sure that if you do not practice Christianity you WILL hear about it, from everyone. Also, democrats are looked down upon, and you will see NO acts of political activism on campus. I recently experienced one of these hillbillies running around the basement of one of the music buildings shouting about, in his words, "all of the 'N******' around campus" however, when some people tried to get him to stop, WE were asked to stop. That's ISU. You can get a great education here if YOU go for it. You can also get a degree here and not learn ONE thing, which is what most of these apathetic students do. If you know what you want and (excuse the colloquialism) have the balls to go and take it, then this is a good low-priced option. However, if you want a progressive school where new-thinking is encouraged, then please heed my advice and look elsewhere. A little about the music department, as that is my department. The staff is generally easy to work with and there is a phenomenal music ed and band program. If that is what you want you will have opportunities continually. Outside of that, performance is sketchy unless you are a pianist, cellist, guitarist, bassist, or saxophonist. Anything else, and you might look elsewhere, but it is a matter of preferene.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2010

Friendliness: A, Useful Schoolwork: F