Bradley University | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Christina

Class: Sophomore
Major: Nursing
Gender: F

High School: Carl Sandburg High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

After spending a year at Bradley I honestly could not see myself anywhere else. The campus is the prefect size. I would say there is a 7 minute maximum walk of getting to any class, and in the winter with the snow the small campus is a blessing!! The quad is awesome too, especially when it's nice out!! laying outside and playing catch or frisbee is the best. Also conveniently located across the street in Campus Town are a variety of places to eat of which the majority accept 'quick cash' which is on your id card. Campus Town also has a Blockbuster, CVS, Save-a-lot (which is a great cheap place for generic groceries,) Starbucks, Sallys Beauty Supply store, and a Salon and Tanning. Jimmy Johns, Papa Johns and McDonalds are all within walking distance as well. Outside campus, the city of Peoria has much to offer. Peoria is the second largest city in the state of Illinois. With a car there is plenty to do. It offers 2 malls, one indoor and a brand new outdoor mall. There are numerous Wal-marts and Buffalo Wild Wings and Culvers. There a many options when you are looking to catch a flick at the show. The riverfront is awesome too, there's plenty of good eats down there. Also downtown is fun, mostly if you're 21 though. The bars are all located downtown and it's only a 5 minute drive down Main street. When I'm on campus, i'm usually in my dorm. Living in the dorms was so fun!! If the weather is nice though there is no question you will find me outside on the quad somewhere.

Academic Life

Academics... Well, last I heard Bradley ranks number 6 in top schools in the mid-west. This doesn't surprise me. I could ham it up, but i'm not going to lie. Bradley was HARD!!!!!!! Not just hard, REALLY hard. I busted my***and barely managed C's. It's the complete and polar opposite of anything that my highschool was. Things are not handed to you on a silver platter. In highschool, your teachers have degrees in education, they know how to teach. In college, you're teachers have masters and doctorates in their fields of study, they have probably never taken an education course in their life. This holds true for many colleges and universities. The reality is, in college you will have to teach yourself. I learned this after first semester, unfortunately. I did have a few good professors, but I also had some of the worst. My Biology classes have been the largest with I would say a maximum of about 80 people. You will find that your general education classes are the largest because everyone is required to take them at some point. In my other classes though, my teachers do know my name, and that is partly because of class participation. As far as studying at Bradley, it's a wise choice. Although you may not always want to, when you are just sitting around watching TV or something, just keep in mind there is probably something that you could be studying for. Bradley is a very competitive school, a minimum GPA of a 2.0 is required by the University, and for specific departments such as nursing or business or engineering these usually have their own specific GPA requirments that tend to be above a 2.0. You may be thinking to yourself that a 2.0 is easy, not so much. My freshman year I took 17 credit hours and ended up with a 2.43. I graduated with a 3.5 from highschool and 26 on my ACT. A 2.43 for me was a shock. If I have any advice it's to never take more than 16 credit hours your freshman year and to take as many of your general education classes at a community college. Coming into school I thought I would be fine with 17 credit hours, but it was just too much. And what really brought my GPA down was general education courses that I did not do well in. If you take them at a community college they do not affect your GPA at Bradley, and they will generally cost you around a quarter of what you would pay at Bradley.

Student Body

Bradley has a great student body!!! We are diverse and yet accepting of eachother. Freshman year was great because I had met so many different people. At Bradley we have a wide variety of people, Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, Peurto Ricans, Asians, Indians, Arabians, Polish, Hawaiians, Catholics, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and so on. I had never been exposed to this much diversity in a school setting before and I had a blast getting to learn about new cultures and religions. I truly believe that anyone could come to Bradley and find their place within. Bradley students are your typical students. We are lazy and the majority of us dress like bums to class on a daily basis. Although you will see many of the upper classmen in suits and ties for interships and jobs, the nursing students in scrubs, on Tuesday many of the sororities and fraternities are required to dress up in buisness attire, and you can always tell a Bradley athlete because they are usualy wearing either Red or Grey. Over the past year I've come to find that the majority of students that attend bradley come from 3 major areas including Chicago, St. Louis, and The Quad cities (near Iowa). But Bradley is not limited to these areas. I've met people from Puerto Rico, California, Hawaii, Texas, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Tennesse, Alaska, and plenty of other states. I would say Bradley students are politically aware. Where you find educated people, I believe you find people that know about politics. I wouldn't say if Bradley sways a certain way on the political spectrum, but you will find that politics is always a topic of dicussion. I believe that Bradley is a great school today, and I am excited for its future as well. Our Student Senate is doing an awesome job on improving the campus. I've already seen a few changes including the remodeling of lounges and the replacment and addition of campus lighting and I have heard of future plans for a new student center and have taken numerous surveys on what the school can do to better it for students.