1) yes, especially clinically
We have a stringent clinical "proficiency" system that leads up to a "competency" early in your 4th semester after which you are deemed ready for seeing patients. We have a near perfect NBEO pass rate for parts II and III.
2) We have 4 clinics now just in Indiana (and 1 in Mexico). The school clinic patients are a lot of professors and undergrads. Lots of myopia and presbyopia. Our "west side" (about 3 miles from the school) clinic is more medicaid based, and you see a lot more diseases and abnormal things there. It also houses the disease clinic. Then we have the Indy clinic which is a bit of everything, and the new Carmel clinic which is optometry/ophthalmology. Our 4th year rotations are VERY diverse, covering disease, VT/peds, PC, laser, etc.
3) Yes, the professors care about students. They actually just "went to bat" for the students (we were getting screwed) and won the battle for us. Even one of the less popular professors in the past was "prof of the year" this year.
4) The students are not extremely competitive with each other, and that's what I love about IU. Nearly everyone is unselfish and will help you out if needed. I can come out of the exam room and ask any of my classmates a question and they'll tell everything they can think of. I hang out with at least 60% of my classmates at some time or another, probably more than 60%. Senior students will be glad to help you out also. We have a big sib/little sib program too.
5) Bloomington is pretty diverse, IMO. A lot of this is due to the University (~38,000 students total) There are groups on campus for just about everything, and optometry students are free to join whichever. Im actually in the EMT club
The city is ridiculously beautiful in spring/summer/fall (im not a winter person).
Hope this helps, let me know otherwise