Dude, you should go travelling. Quit being the typical smug hooiser boy. I've studied in Boston, NYC, LA, Seattle, Houston, and yes, no matter where you go, tehre will be boring *** people. But Indiana and esp. the majority of the hoosier students in my class take the cake for being apathetic, emotionless and boring. Don't know how to say hi to you when they see you in the hallway. And my class tends to be segregated. Similar congregation with the other class groups. For example, the white students tend to form their own social/drinking/party groups. They also talk amongst themselves. Don't want to sit next to you because of your race.
Oh, I believe your assessment, I just try to look on the bright side of any situation. I went to Ball State University up in Muncie, Indiana, and remember having some "red-neck" dude in his huge pickup truck yell "You f---ing *****, get a life!" at me as he drove by me. The circumstances: I was walking to the library with my book-bag on a Saturday morning to study for the DAT! Yeah, I know the mentality you're talking about, but I also have a lot of good friends and family who defy this mentality. Having studied music, I was exposed to people from all of the world (yes, even in Indiana) and a lot of my friends were not American. The only way I survived so long in Indiana was by focusing on and actively seeking out the good.
The WASP cliques you describe are not surprising, and it's sad to see that even in professional school there are students who feel isolated because of his or here race or ethnicity. I'm sure there are a lot of people in Indiana (and other places, too, but we're talking about Indiana) that exclude other races from consideration for friendship without even realizing it. Of course, there are some who do realize what they're doing...either way, you don't expect this in dental school. It's sad to hear about that at IU.
The first time my wife, who is Japanese, flew into Indianapolis for graduate school she thought she had just landed in some kind of rural circle of Hell! And despite meeting many good friends (including me!) and having a lot of fun, I think she still regards her days at Ball State as some of the most dismal in her life (because of the location and close-mindedness of some of the people she encountered). We live in Fort Wayne, now, and it hasn't been bad. Kids of all stripes for our son to play with in our apartment complex (lots of students and section-8, the white families with even a bit of money have fled to the burbs for the "schools"), I have some great, very open-minded classmates of various hues and sexual preferences, and my family has managed to find a lot of Japanese-American families of like-nature to hang with.
Yes, GrumpyDDS, I've traveled quite a bit (Italy, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, and of course around N. America and will be going to Mexico in a few months and then France next year, can't wait!), lived in Japan for 4 years, and have a half-Japanese, half-white son with a very Japanese name. Please don't confuse optimism for smugness in my assessment of Indiana people; I'm just trying to look on the bright side of life.
Best of luck surviving what sounds like a difficult situation. I would have loved to have you over for sushi or something, but I'll be going to Colorado this summer. I bet there might be some of what you've described there, but hopefully a small class size will force integration upon even the most reluctant! I'm not surprised by anything you've said here, but I hope that your pessimism about the situation does prevent you from seeing those in your class who are interested in meeting more than just people who look and act like themselves. Thanks for sharing your experiences and good luck!
) since I have graduated when someone asks. It is just kind of odd that nobody I know from IU does so. However, I know there are people out there with positive experiences to share. Each individual within each school is different, I guess...
