Getting a master's from Ball State...good idea?

any particular reason why?

yes

I recall ball state as top exercise physiology program in the country! Unfortunately it does not get respect from people if they don't know the field

Best thing to ever come out of Ball State. (and yes, dude was a runner, 17 minute kind of 5k cc guy in HS)

Ball so hard muhf*ckas wanna fine me

man this thread is useless...thanks for the people that tried...to umm...help(?)

I went there to get an exercise physiology degree but that was many years ago so it's all different now. Got a great education but was not particularly fond of Muncie. I work in the health promotion field now and would strongly advise getting a degree in a different field unless you plan to get a PhD and teach. Jobs are tight and don't pay that well. MA trained in health promotion are a dime a dozen

its a little late, I already graduated with my bachelor's in health promotion, if its gonna be a sucky major, might as well get a master's in it, maybe go for a PhD.

Would you mind if I specifically ask what your doing with your health promotion degree?

Ball State is a decent little school. Some good programs, and the campus has seen a real infusion of money in the last 10-15 year. Lots of newer facilities, etc.

Muncie itself is a little bit depressed, much like a lot of other mid-sized rustbelt cities that depended heavily on the auto industry or other manufacturing. I don't know how important that is to you. It's maybe an hour from Indianapolis, which has a lot more going on.

It's an alright school, nothing spectacular but it's reasonably nice. Muncie itself is a shithole.

I've live in Indiana my whole life, and here's what I can tell you:

Muncie in a ho-hum city. Nobody that went to school there says "Yea, Muncie! What a great place!" What another guy said, Muncie has been hurt by the decline in the auto industry, like every decent-sized city north of Indianapolis in Indiana (except for Fort Wayne).

As for the school, I can't tell you anything about the program, but I've never been impressed with the students coming out of that university, and usually the brightest Indiana students go to Purdue, IU, or Notre Dame, unless Ball State has a particular program that the other schools don't match.

On a positive note, Ball State has the largest geothermal heating system in the country.

Ball State - about as good an idea as going bareback with Lil Sharisse from outside the 7-11.

My mom followed the Dead for 2 years after High School before going to Ball State for a year. She got a 4.0 and transferred to Purdue and became the only female Chemical Engineering MS in her class.

sxsw wrote: I'm not interested in running there as my eligibility is up, but I would like to continue running.

Good thing, as Ball State hasn't had men's cross country or track for years. Thank you Title IX!

(Disregard if you're a chick.)

yeah I saw that already, unfortunately I'm not a chick. So it seems as though Ball State would actually be on par with where I got my bachelor's from. Great. Maybe a change of scenery would be nice. What's the running community like? Trails, stores, run groups, etc.?

sxsw wrote:

yeah I saw that already, unfortunately I'm not a chick. So it seems as though Ball State would actually be on par with where I got my bachelor's from. Great. Maybe a change of scenery would be nice. What's the running community like? Trails, stores, run groups, etc.?

In all seriousness, Ball State is nice campus with an enrollment (I think) of about 20K students. My dad went to BSU and has done pretty well for himself, but that's my only connection to the university. I have several friends who earned graduate degrees in exercise physiology from BSU and they work in various jobs from professional/private coaching to cardiac rehab. Whatever you do, I think you can have confidence that you'll get a decent education.

Sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with Muncie to answer your other questions.

Thank you and everyone else for the great responses (and not so great)

I graduated from Ball State and had a wonderful experience there despite having the tail end of my career as a track and field athlete there ended by the disbanding of the mens track program. As far as academics go it is a great place to get an education. The university has made a commitment to maintaining small class sizes despite its growing enrollment that now exceeds 20k students. Its a very nice campus that has underwent a massive amount of improvement and renovation over the past few years. I was able to return there this summer for the first time in about 6 years and was very impressed with the improvements to campus (it almost seemed like a new place compared to when I left). Its a relatively small community but there is certainly enough there that you would not feel the need to leave town on a regular basis for anything.

As far as the running community goes I am not 100% sure what it is like now. To my knowledge there is not a running store there unless one has opened in the past couple years. There are a good number of places to run though. Specifically the Cardinal Greenway which is a bike and running path (paved) thats stretches 60 miles in total distance and access can be made to the greenway about 1/2 mile from campus. It stretches far out of town into the country in both directions. It is very well maintained. I included a link below. There are also several parks in the area that are good for running.

All in all the community of Muncie has greatly improved over the years. It was a city that took a lot of rebounding when the major industries left town (Auto, Manufacturing, etc..) But it is safe and the people in Muncie care a great deal about the university.

I hope this helps, feel free to email me if you have any specific questions!

Sorry left out the link, here it is.

http://www.cardinalgreenways.org/