- Freshmen are allowed to have cars on campus (parking is a nightmare, but most schools don't allow you to have cars at all)

- We have the most Guy/Girl floor visitation hours you will find on any Christian college campus. This gives you personal privacy when you want it, but it allows you to visit your friends too.
     - We get 6-10pm Mon, Tues, & Thurs.
     - Friday & Sat. are 2pm to midnight
     - Sunday is 2 to 10pm and there is no visitation on Wednesday.
     - If I added that up right, that is 40 hours a week. I visited 13 Christian schools between PA and Indiana and as far south as Virgina and many of them don't give you any visitation hours during the week, or maybe only a few on like one day or something. Anyways - enough about that

- We have reasonable size classes. Admissions will tell you that the ratio is like 1 prof for 13 students - thats a little low. The truth is you only one or two 100+ lecture style courses and those might have been eliminated this year in favor of smaller sections. I'm not really sure. Things have changed from my freshman year. The rest of the classes average around 30 students I guess. Its not to bad, and if you want individual attention, most professors have sufficient office hours so that you can sign up and stop in when you need to talk, or get extra info or help or just to be friendly or whatever.

- The campus is really pretty with lots of Trees, and three large ponds. We have a nature trail and plenty of places to sit and think. The only anoyance is the large population of Canadian Geese who live here.

- We have direct internet access in almost every room on campus so you can bring your computer, buy a network card, and have 24-7 access to email and web browing without the $20/month fee for using American Online. If you do have AOL, you can use TCP/IP access instead of your phone line which means everything on AOL is 10 times faster. (Assuming your computer is new enough to handel it and not running a 66 mhz processor like mine was my first year)

- They'll have the newist residence hall (North Campus Hall or NCH) built by the time you get here so most of the triples will be elimated and you will probably get a reasonable size room and only have to share it with one other person. If you want a homey dorm, request Doane Hall. If you want something modern with lots of space and climate controls request the NRH, Hainer West, or the New New Residence Hall over by Eagle and Heritage House that is being built. I live in Doane and will I will probably stay here for my last year and a half. We are Family in Doane. I really like It here.

- If your not into traditional sports, you can try our Ultimate Frisbee team. Everyone is welcome. There are no tryouts. You don't have to know anything about the game when you get here. We teach you everything you need to know. (that was my plug - I'm the coordinator and Webmaster for the team. http://esther.eastern.edu/~ultimate I kinda have to say something about it. I really enjoy playing - We just got back from a tournament and I had a lot of fun.)

That's what I know. if you have other questions let me know. I'm really busy, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Drew Cope
1st Semester Junior majoring in Youth Ministry.
Eastern College Ultimate
Coordinator & Web Master
Http://esther.eastern.edu/~ultimate

PS - The nice thing about talking to students on a campus instead of the admission's staff, is that admissions people get paid to say goodthings about the school. I don't. I just like it here.

PPS - Now that its the year 2000, classes have gotten a lot more crowded and its much harder to get into the classes you want to take.

If you submit yourself to others and you activily look for areas to be used by God, Eastern is a great place to grow your faith. However - we are in a bubble here. Most of the campus is saved and the rest don't let you know that they are not. There is not a lot of new salvations taking place each and every day here. What you find more of is the exspanding and depening of beleifs. We challeng each others theology so that we understand ourselves better and then we agree to disagree. There are plenty of local churches and outreach oppertunities to get involved with and I just never found anything that compared to what I was involved with at home and I let myself fall. It had nothing to do with EC.

>>>how have you grown @ eastern?<<<
I now know why I beleive most of what I believe. I can back most of it up with scripture and I can find the references for the rest if I need them. THat has been the biggest growth in my life. I have been challenged by other view points from students of other backgrounds. (I've learned a lot about youth ministry too - since that kinda is my major)

>>>what are the ppl like @ eastern?<<<
Some are snobby, Most are nice, There are a few gossip circles to look out for, The female to male ratio is grossly against you. Its like 4:1. If your mom wants to send you here to find a husband, this might be the wrong school. Many Ladies find the men of their dreams but some do not. Just FYI.

Bottom line - your not going to find an exceptional group of people here, just because it a christian school. You will find a group of people where it is almost safe to leave your dorm room unlocked. Where you always have a support group of friends around you when your going through something. There is never a shortage of people to stay up with you when your crying at 2 AM for whatever reason. People here do care. I think this is a great school as far as that goes. If you walk into a room upset, someone, (ussually someone you know) is going to come over and sit and talk with you and whatever.

Despite the rules - We do have about 150 students out of the 1000 undergrads who admit that they smoke - they just go off campus to do it. There are the occational drinking parties, but you will never hear or see them, unless you run in the wrong circles. I'm sure we have some drug use, although I have never seen it.

No College is perfect. I think i can honestly say that I feel that we are better than any state school you find, and most of the private colleges. I'm very happy here. It may not seem that way, but I wanna make sure your coming in with your eyes open. Thats whats up

     i want to thank you for your time and effort to type this stuff for me. it means a lot to know more of what the students feel instead of what the book says. so....... i thank you .. in Him.. bran

-- Drew C. --

aka Gopher
><>

jen b.

-- Drew Cope --

P.S. The Cafeteria Food is, well,... Cafeteria food. Its not especially good, but its not especially bad. :-) just thought you'd like to know.

P.P.S. - There is a 2:1 ratio of Women to Men on this campus. The last numbers I saw were like 650 : 350 women to men.

P.P.P.S. - Live in Doane - Its the tightest, most family oriented dorm on campus. We are tight over here. But we are also far away from the other dorms, but we are closer to the dinning hall, and the classrooms. The best part, is since freshman can't have cars in the resident hall lots and Doane is a 60% freshmen building, we never have a parking problem over here, like they do on the rest of campus. of my 7 semesters on campus and 1 to go, I have only spent 1 semester in another residtence hall, and that was my first semester on campus.

P.P.P.P.S. - Annoint and pray over any letters or documentation before mailing it to the Financial Aid, or Student Accounts office and make a photocopy of them for yourself. I know from personal experience and from the stories of my friends that with 1500 plus students to handle, things can get lost.

P.P.P.P.P.S. - this is the last one, i promise. Dispite all my post scripts... I really do like it here and its a great school, and if God has called you to come here, the pack your bags, and get on the plane. And tell the first Ultimate Frisbee player you meet on campus, that Drew sent you.

     Start with the admissions office. At Eastern, on occation, you can fast track your way somewhere by going straight to the top, but you gain more friends, and make less enemies, if you start at the bottom and work your way through the system. Also, It's important to talk with the head of the department that you plan to major in. You can find some of their contact information on each of the department web sites listed here.