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Campus life in Bloomington consists of a traditional collegiate learning environment on a historic campus, in an affordable city with urban amenities.

Campus Life

Bloomington is a small-town city with urban amenities, including theatre productions, live music, art exhibits, Big Ten sports and a wide-range of culinary options, while still being located in the hilly, forested landscape of south-central Indiana. Students in Bloomington enjoy a traditional collegiate learning environment on a beautiful historical campus.

Regional Academic Health Center

The Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) is a state-of-the-art academic building for many of IU Bloomington's health sciences programs as well as a new hospital built for the future of health care in south central Indiana. With the opening of the Regional Academic Health Center in 2021, possibilities for interdisciplinary studies, research and clinical training are expanding even further for students at IU School of Medicine–Bloomington. The $557 million facility includes a hospital, a cancer center and other specialty centers, and cutting-edge simulation center. The RAHC also provides colocation of IU’s academic programs in medicine, nursing, social work, speech and hearing, and dentistry.

a hospital room in the simulation center in bloomington

History and Culture

Bloomington and its surrounding area offer outstanding cultural opportunities for students and their families. The University’s world-famous Jacobs School of Music provides an annual calendar of events which includes opera, chamber groups, ensembles and several orchestras, while the Union Board promotes many pop concerts. The University Theater offers year-round productions. The Eskenazi Museum of Art exhibits paintings, sculptures, and other art objects, and schedules frequent displays of visiting art collections.

Sports

Indiana University athletic teams are part of the Big Ten Conference and provide a wide variety of spectator sports, including soccer, swimming and diving, basketball, track, football, gymnastics and wrestling. The campus is the original home of the movie “Breaking Away” and the famous Little 500 bike race.

Personal Recreation

The School of Public Health operates exceptional recreational sports facilities on campus that offer indoor pools, tracks, fitness equipment, weight rooms and fitness classes. IU School of Medicine-Bloomington students have free access with their student ID. IU Recreational Sports also offers numerous intramural league opportunities.

Southern Indiana is covered by rolling hills and lush forests and boasts several lakes. Outdoor recreational facilities are abundant with three nearby state parks, including Brown County State Park and McCormick’s Creek State Park, two nearby state forests and the 180,000-acre Hoosier National Forest. Lake Monroe, five miles south of Bloomington, is the largest lake in the State of Indiana and along with other small lakes, provides opportunities for canoeing, sailing, water-skiing and fishing. Two winter ski resorts are nearby. Several large commercial caves are located in the area and numerous non-commercial limestone caves are explored annually by student and faculty spelunkers.

Explore this historical campus and community. Whether it’s time to study or blow off steam, the Bloomington campus and surrounding city offer exceptional facilities and experiences.

Virtual Campus Tour