Just going to preface response that I was on campus from 1996-2001. I still go back very frequently as I stay involved as an alum through the sports programs and my fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order.
ACADEMICS
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Indiana State offers 100+ majors, notably education, business, criminology, finance, insurance and risk management, nursing, athletic training, and construction technology; the university's graduate education, financial services, nursing and clinical psychology programs are nationally recognized.
I graduated in 2001 with my Bachelors in Management Information Systems (School of Business). One of the things I loved, and probably the biggest reason I chose Indiana State, was the personal relationships you can have with professors due to the smaller class sizes. Rarely did any of my major classes have over 20-30 students aside from the freshman 101 courses. Lots of personal attention that really allowed me to have a good academic experience.
I believe all incoming students get laptops if they had a HS GPA of 3.0 or higher. That wasn't around when I was a student. The Princeton Review has given State the nod as "Best in the Midwest" for the last six or seven years. I'd recommend you check out the newest Master Plan that I linked below. Indiana State has really transformed the campus over the last 10 years and has some very exciting things on the horizon. Our new President is nothing short of amazing and has really re-energized the campus.
http://www.indstate.edu/strategic_plan/assets/pdf/masterplan.pdf
STUDENT LIFE
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I'd say ISU probably has 5,500-6,000 students that live on campus. If I had to guess, I'd say it's relatively diverse, probably 75-80% white, 15-20% black and 5% other ethnic origins. Altogether, enrollment is around 11,500 students with 9,000+ being undergraduates.
Outside of football, there are a ton of student organizations students could get involved in. When I was a student, I was a member of Kappa Alpha Order, served on the Student Governement Association and was involved in quite a few other organizations. If you want to get active, you can. They had every gambit imaginable from a sky diving club to rugby to student ministry... there is something for everyone.
TRADITIONS
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Keep in mind, my Sycamore traditions are shaped by the fact I was Greek. That said, Homecoming and Spring Week were always big although Spring Week seems to be fading a bit. During Homecoming, you have the annual Sycamore Tricycle Derby, Homecomign Parade, the Homecoming football game, all sorts of activities like comedians and concerts and the Walk, which is a pub crawl. During Spring Week, you had more Greek events and a Tandem race.
I'm sure I'll think of more stuff and tons of folks on here could recount what ISU meant to them, so feel free to ask more specific questions if you can think of them.
