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OK, I currently live in New Jersey, but I am very interested in attending the University of Idaho. I have some questions regarding student life on campus.
How many kids go home on the weekends, I do not feel like being there alone every weekend?
How many people live on campus?
Would I be bored not having family or anyone close to the school?
there are only a few that return home on the regular weekends, the bigger ones like labor day and others etc. will have more but there are still quite a few people up there. I would recommend joining a fraternity if you enjoy the social scene. It is a great university and has a great college feeling it is basically a college town. I went there for a year but studies took a backseat to parties. GO VANDALS!! Beat BSU on the 15th well at least i can hope.
My daughter is in her first semester there right now. It will also be her last, but I should preface that with some info. I feel and she would back me up on this...The school is excellent. She was born and raised in Southern California with everything you could ever imagine to do within a half hours drive. She is a very active person but does not party. Moscow is a very small town. Half the population of 20k is the school. Since there is not alot to do off campus, most of what there is to do is campus stuff and partying. I am sure it certain circumstances some people would be quit happy. Especially if you enjoy outdoor sporting activities, but that is not my daughter. She is into the arts. When the students need thier big city fix they head north to Spokane which is a beautiful city with lots to do, but it's a good two hours away. My daughter has told me on a couple of occassions that if the school was in Spokane she would be very happy with her choice of schools.
So..alot of the kids stay on campus but it can get pretty boring unless this sounds like your kind of atmosphere.
My daughter will be coming back to So Cal to attend our JC for her next semester and then transfer to a 4 year university probably also in So Cal. It was a good experience for her and it helped her to get a better idea of what she needs in a school as well as the surrounding community
Moscow, ID is a great area to enjoy college. Winter can get pretty cold, and will be more inland montane dryness than you get in NJ. Not only do most students stay on the weekends, but the town has a thriving youth culture through the entire summer. If you like outdoor recreation, then you'll be sold in your first year if you're sociable. The campus supports several dorms and a full-fledged Greek system (with all the trappings).
Commuting is easy as can be... just walk. I biked a lot and could cross town in 20 min. any direction (a conservative estimate due to lots of hills). Mostly, I could cross town in 10 min. with the slopes on my side. The town is small, but holds about 40,000 people, half of whom are students. Another nice factor is that Pullman, WA, home of WSU, is only nine miles away across the Washington border. They have cooperative curriculums with the U of I, and WSU is even larger. Thus, the whole area really has the benefit of a large school offered via a small school and a medium-sized school.
Oh... and quite frankly, with some of the "good times" I had up there, I'm glad my family didn't live close by. Between the Greeks and a thriving off-campus-residing underground that inter-mingles with the non-academic locals, you'll have plenty to distract you from your studies. You'll find no deficit of social indulgences in Moscow, from responsible/athletic to... ahem... free-spirited/leisurely.
Moscow may be a small town by relative standards, but it by no means feels small. A rugged outdoors enthusiast will enjoy it more than a shopaholic urbanite, though. Not many of those big city amenities, but plenty to do and plenty of people. That's for sure.
That was a good recommendation by another poster to look into the Greek system if you're out-going and want to immediately immerse yourself in the social scene. I'm easily distracted (if you couldn't tell), so I opted for dorm life after my dad relayed his SAE experiences to me from back in the '60s. Definitely look for something with roommates, though... just a must for a quick ice breaker and "lessons in cohabitation". My sister was Gamma Phi Beta and she definitely made friends a lot faster than I did, but my friendships were deeper and remain established to this day (yup, it's a competition... always). Still, the area's so friendly, if you interact you'll find a niche (I say niche 'cause there are few cliques... everyone mingles).
Also, if you can afford it, do summer school your freshman or sophomore year. That's the guaranteed way to fall in love with the region and get to know the local scenes, plus lots of the more responsible and hard-working students who can guide you to take your studies more seriously and have more fun on your downtime (what a balance indeed!). I had one Statistics class that resulted in a reluctant summer stay after my sophomore year, and looking back that summer changed my life, integrated me into the Moscow/Pullman community, and blew my perspective/paradigm wide open in so many ways, one could say that dastardly stat class was up there on the list of best things that ever happened to me (at least by association).
I attend the University of Idaho right now. At first, I was skeptical of it, since I grew up in Bellevue, which is a pretty big city.
Moscow is a very progressive town, and the people are really embracing of the university, although they don't totally rely on it (unlike Pullman, WA). It is also a very environmentally conscious town. It is mostly all very bike accesible. It is a very socially moderate-to even liberal area. The school is about 12k and the town is at about 23k. When you factor in the 20k from WSU and the 30k of Pullman, the whole area is a fairly large 80,000 people. With Pullman so near, it is nice to have the additional services.
The University itself is very interesting. It is on a beautiful, compact campus. The people are friendly, and whether you chose dorm life or the Greek system you'll make friends. The Greek system here (and probably at other NW universities) is very different than those of the Southeast and East Coasts; they are not elitist and they do not haze. I suppose this derives from the fact that Northwesterners are very indepedent. The Greek systems and Reslife are very much at peace with one another, with neither thinking too badly of eachother. There is always something going on on campus, and even Moscow as well. If you crave big city life, UI or WSU is not for you. If you want a fun, learned, traditional college experience, you'd love either university.
UI is a moderate campus, politically. It is not ultraliberal like some campuses, nor is it conservative, as you'd expect from an Idaho university. Our student government is very diverse, as is our campus. You'll hear people speaking any variety of languages on your way to class.
Hi I am considering playing football for Idaho. From all that you guys have said it sounds like a great school for me. I was wondering if any one knows where the freshman football players room. I'm just curious of how they look.All I need is the name of the building. Any help would be appreciated! Go Vandals!!
Ask the coaches recruiting you. Back in my day the freshman football players lived in Snow Hall, which is in Wallace Complex. I lived there as a freshman as well. As far as how they look, they're dorms, and not the newest ones at that. But they aren't bad as dorms go. There has been a ton of building since I was in school and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if the football players are housed in one of the newer facilities these days. Again, I'd ask the coaches who are recruiting you or contact the staff at the Housing Office.
Thanks for both of you're help I really appreciate it!
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). 
Between the Greeks and a thriving off-campus-residing underground that inter-mingles with the non-academic locals, you'll have plenty to distract you from your studies.
My sister was Gamma Phi Beta and she definitely made friends a lot faster than I did, but my friendships were deeper and remain established to this day (yup, it's a competition... always
). Still, the area's so friendly, if you interact you'll find a niche (I say niche 'cause there are few cliques... everyone mingles). 
). I had one Statistics class that resulted in a reluctant summer stay after my sophomore year, and looking back that summer changed my life, integrated me into the Moscow/Pullman community, and blew my perspective/paradigm wide open in so many ways, one could say that dastardly stat class was up there on the list of best things that ever happened to me (at least by association
Idaho dorms
