Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

Date: Nov 19 2003
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
This is a great campus to party and also there are some very good programs. To be honest with you, "Southern Illinois University" should be called "Chicago Native University" because eighty percent of the students are from the city five hours north from here. We do have diversity here, but unlike Chicago where your polish, russian, bosnian, phillipino, mexican (most of the eastern european kids, hispanic, asian kids stay at the universities in chicago and their respected communities), siu is mostly just white or black. We might have some skirmishes with the locals with mullets, but the chicago area kids stick together for the most part in carbondale and do not create any havoc with them. We are their business and they like that.

The bar scene here at SIU is AWSOME!! We were ranked 17th in Playboy magazine last year in party school category. All students in any bar you go to on the strip or the other two bars located a couple blocks away. 19 to enter. In the start of September, Sports Illistrated on Campus voted us the worst sports town in the nation because we were more involved in "alcoholic spirits", not "team spirit" in the start of september where all couple thousand students stay out in the parking lot tailgaiting and not concerned about the game. But our football team always sucked until this past season, we are now 10-1.

Greeks are not that big here though, my theory is because this school is the second cheapest in state and we have a lot of blue collared kids, so fraternities are expensive and we do have a lot of hippies here I guess. But fraternities are around, as I am in one too, and are noticable.

We are the biggest party school in Illinois, no doubt about it. University of Illinois is very good and great fraternity parties, but Southern Illinois has better house parties are better than theirs and we have more bars and the ever popular strip.

On the academics side, it really depends on what your field is. Communications is more in depth here, my major is actually is radio and tv with a specialization in news. There are two other specializations. So, yea, my field is one of the best in the midwest if not in the nation. Other good programs are business and education. Good liberal arts school, don't come here if you want to be an engineer, but they too have an average program.

Great place to go, I recommend it if you like the stereotypical college scene like animal house.

Academics is good as you put your heart into it and meeting people and making friends is pretty easy. SIU has a great atmosphere.