Ball State University

Date: Oct 30 2014
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Finishing my last semester as a junior at BSU in the creative writing concentration. I'm taking up minors in Ancient Greek (almost done with that) and if I have schedule time, I'll also grab another in Classical Culture.

I'd say my one complaint about the CW program here is that there isn't enough stuff to do! My main interest is in doing Narrative Design for videogames so I took screenwriting and fictionwriting, though we've also got nonfiction and poetry. Neither are my thing, so I can't comment about those classes. However the screenwriting and fiction courses are classes I would GLADLY take again!! Minor-wise: the classics profs I've met are really my favorite profs I've ever had, Dr. Shea in particular.

Outside of my interests, the core curriculum requirements are pretty unnecessary and I do feel like english majors particularly should be exempt from the writing proficiency exam. I'm in 400-level classes, how on earth is it unclear that I can write? I'm in ASTR124 right now, btw, and the class is basically an excuse for the prof to lecture about his opinions on climate change (he actually called Al Gore's book "propaganda"). On the upside, Dr. Prater's ART290 is one of the most fun electives I've taken (and I'll probably take it again for credit).

Anything I rated at around a C in the survey was mainly because there's no other way to quantify mixed results. Generally though, the more into your major/minor(s) you get the better the classes are. I've heard though that TCOM professors and teachers are really bad at the teaching part, so your mileage may vary. If you're interested in ancient greek or latin, definitely try to get classes with Dr. Shea or Dr. King. They're really friendly and great. Classes beyond the 200 level have 30 or fewer students, so that's a huge point in BSU's favor.

The one thing that I really, really hate about the atmosphere on campus are the "Greek Life" people. It's a huge contrast to the really friendly staff and faculty; a lot of students are in sororities or fraternities and the ones I've met tend to get really snobby. Rich white kid stereotypes to the max. There are a lot of parties if you're into that I guess. The worst of it is probably at the very beginning of the year (fun stories about students getting expelled for drug use before classes even start).

I've been in the dorms my entire time here (Woodworth mostly) and they're alright. If I'd had the extra ~$2K I would have been able to get a double-as-single room this year in particular, but my assigned roommate is pretty nice. I haven't decided if my last semester will be in the dorms or not (if so I will definitely make sure I take enough loans out to get the double as single room).

Muncie is pretty meh. The MITS bus system is really great. There's the standard array of midwestern stores and franchises. Walmart, Meijer, et al; also fast food. The Village is a good place to be if you can legally drink; there's also the cafe Damask restaurant on Bethel(IIRC) which I've heard really wonderful things about. Greek's pizza isn't bad either.

Fun fact: there are "multicultural advisors" and some dorm programs in place to help rich white kids overcome "culture shock" (of course, it's not explicity written that it's to help white people not be racist).

I mean it is really, genuinely nice to see a relatively high level of diversity in a pretty white part of IN!! I'm serious!

I only really do one extracurricular, playing in the ECICO, so I can't really comment on much about Student Orgs and the like but they seem very LGBTQA+ friendly. One of my fav things about BSU is definitely that I feel like I'm not being discriminated agianst for being a)bi and b)female.

Overall I'd say BSU is a really good choice if you're interested in these majors: Education, English, Classics, Music, Nursing, TCOM, Archaeology, Architecture, possibly Art, Theatre, Dance

Last but not least: the counseling center surprised me with how friendly the staff are, and how easy it was to talk to my counselor.

So overall BSU is like, a 4/5 for me personally.