Office of Admissions

As you are starting your college search, you are probably looking for a place that will feel like home. Everywhere you turn at Indiana University, you’ll find a new friend, a staff member who’s eager to help, or a professor who can teach you something new. That’s the beauty of IU: people from all over the state, country, and world come together to learn from and with each other.

Read the stories below to see how other students have succeeded at IU—and how you can too.

Student Stories

Janelle Williams

Year: Junior
Major: Marketing
Hometown: Gary, Indiana
High School: The Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities (Muncie, Indiana)

Ask Janelle what she’s involved with on campus, and she’ll smile and say, “Everything.” She's been a member of Union Board, the largest programming group on campus; the Student Alumni Association, which helps plan Homecoming; and 180 Degrees Counseling, which advises non-profit organizations. She's co-president of the Hudson and Holland Advisory Council and an usher at the IU Auditorium. (Her favorite shows so far: Legally Blonde and Blue Man Group.)

She’s explored IU’s vast academic offerings, taking courses in digital art and tourism. And she’s minoring in psychology.

IU’s academic and extracurricular options are a big reason Janelle chose IU. She also received an annual scholarship from the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program (HHSP), which helps students succeed in college and beyond.

Her IU activities—which have included an HHSP-sponsored trip to Ghana—have taught her valuable life lessons, like how to be a good leader. And they’ve introduced her to all kinds of people.

“I’ve learned so much from the people here, from how to work with others to what their culture is like,” she says. “They’ve helped me grow as a person.”

Christian Wellmann

Year: Senior
Major: Sports Marketing and Management
Hometown: East Chicago, Indiana
High School: East Chicago Central High School

Christian’s friends are always laughing because he can’t go anywhere on campus without seeing someone he knows. “They laugh,” he says, “because we will go to a movie at the IMU and five different people will come say ‘Hi’ to me, and my friends have no idea how I know all of them. With everything I have been involved in, I just meet people everywhere.”

At IU, it’s not only the social aspects of campus life that Christian enjoys. He also stays connected in the classroom by always making sure to sit up front and interact with the professors. “Not only does it make it harder to slack off,” he jokes, “but I have actually become friends with my professors.” In addition to his success as a 21^st Century Scholar, Christian also is a recipient of the Hudson and Holland Scholarship.

Christian also maximizes his life outside the classroom by taking part in a wide range of organizations and activities that support his interests. He is heavily involved in the intramural sports program on campus, where he is both a participant and an official. He also has participated in programs with the Multicultural Outreach Recruitment Educators, La Casa, and the Men of Color Leadership Institute.

Through all of his involvement, Christian has been able to meet and become friends with many different people. “I love that at IU, I have met people with different perspectives, from different backgrounds, and with different ethnicities. Most importantly, I have made lifelong friends."

Maria Alatorre

Year: Junior
Major: Biology
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
High School: Arsenal Technical High School

Maria chose IU for several reasons, including a Hudson and Holland scholarship, the Hutton Honors College, and the variety of courses she could explore. But most of all, she says, “IU is doing great things, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

So she’s volunteered for Camp Kesem, a free summer camp for kids whose parents have had cancer—she says the experience was “magical.” And through Timmy Global Health, she traveled to Guatemala to help doctors and nurses provide health care to children and adults in rural areas.

Maria aspires to be a doctor or nurse practitioner herself, and the staff at IU’s Health Professions and Prelaw Center advises her on the courses to take to prepare for medical school. She also spent a summer doing pharmacological research and making connections with scientists at the IU Simon Cancer Center. Now she’s researching Huntington’s disease in a lab run by Dr. Joel Ybe.

“He’s very encouraging and teaches me what I need to know, but he also steps back and lets me figure things out on my own,” Maria says. “That’s been crucial to my learning.”

Maria’s entire time at IU has been this way: she’s gotten support when she’s needed it, but she’s also had the freedom to pursue her interests (she’s minoring in psychology and Spanish). “I’m really happy that I’ve had all of these experiences at IU,” she says.