The
comments on this site about Valpo are all over the
board, and I think this is indicative of the school.
There are lots of good things, but there are
some bad things too. First, the positives.
The education quality is pretty good; Valpo consistently ranks as
one of the best small universities in the Midwest.
The town isn't big and super exciting, but it has
everything you would need as a student as far as
stores and things like that, and it is actually a
really nice town. The campus is beautiful. I
personally chose not to join Christ College, but I have
friends who are in it who really like it and
get a lot out of it despite the heavy added
workload that goes along with it. The food at
the Union is great, as far as college food goes.
The study abroad program is excellent.
However, there are negative things. The social life is
a bit of an enigma. TONS of people go
Greek, which isn't bad if you're into that kind of
thing, but as a kid who does not partake in
drinking or drug use and enjoys being independent, it makes
it kind of hard to find things to do on
the weekends that don't involve frat parties. If you
don't go Greek or don't play a sport (I do
ultimate frisbee), you are gonna have a rough first few
weekends until you find a solid group of friends.
Valpo is small enough that a lot of kids seem
to try to perpetuate the whole “stuck in high school”
thing. Anyone who has been to college will know
what I'm talking about. They're caught up in being
popular, showing off their money, catching up on the latest
gossip, being seen with the “cool” crowd, and so on.
Not everyone is like this, but it is one
thing that I wish Valpo did not have. The
university claims to administer lots of individual attention, but this
is only really true within the individual academic programs.
For instance, your adviser and professors for your major will
really help you out a lot, but administration offices like
Residential Life or the Registrar don't care about you.
They will not help you unless you physically go to
talk to them and explain your problems to their faces.
Valpo is a tad overpriced (40 grand a year),
but they give out pretty good scholarships if you're a
good student. The student housing situation is an absolute
joke. With the exception of maybe two buildings, the
dorms are God-awful. Valpo's recently high acceptance rate has
kind of marred their otherwise glowing reputation, and a lot
of the kids here are either really smart and well-rounded
students or just plain stupid rich kids from the Chicago-Northern
Indiana area who didn't want to go to school far
away from home. Also, if you're looking for a
die-hard Christian school, look elsewhere. Valpo claims to be
a Christian school, but this really doesn't ring true, other
than if you look at the massive Chapel on campus,
the popular Wednesday night worship service, and the Theology class
requirements. There are a few small Christian organizations on
campus, but they don't put on any big events or
anything. The athletic facilities are terrible, much worse than
a lot of big high schools.
BOTTOM LINE: I love Valpo, really do. There are
things I would change about it, but I have met
some great people and professors, and I have received an
awesome education so far. I tried to be as unbiased
and transparent as possible in this review, because I know
that when I was looking at colleges to apply to,
it was annoying to have to weed through all the
overly-negative and overly-positive reviews. Hopefully this helps!