Living and going to school in Bloomsburg definitely has its perks. A beautiful campus, low staff to student ratio and competitive tuition costs are all at the top of the list of reasons students should choose Bloomsburg.
As a senior in my last semester I can confidently say that I’ve loved my experience here. The professors really care about your success and the town is lovely to walk through in the spring.
However, if it’s not spring here, there is almost nothing to do.
Living in a small town, the only town in Pennsylvania in fact, has had its drawbacks. One of the most problematic I’ve found would be the healthcare system.
The hospital was founded in 1915 and since then has won awards, been named one of the top 50 hospitals in the US and has employed many Pennsylvanians. For many in this area it is the primary medical center as there are really no other hospitals, at least in the Bloomsburg/Danville area, for patients to go to. This has created a problem.
It is difficult to do anything for your heath in this area. Appointments must me made months in advance, the walk-in clinics regularly have wait times of over an hour and countless phone calls can be made before any specialist responds.
The lack of competition for health care in Central Pennsylvania seems to have created this idea that the doctors will see ya when they see ya, where else are you gonna go?
The next annoying aspect of living in Bloomsburg is the lack of activities. During the summer this is mediated by the wonderful walking and hiking opportunities, but when it gets cold you’ll often find yourself sitting at home twiddling your thumbs; especially if you don’t have a lot of money or a car. The movie theater is fairly cheap; if you go on Tuesdays they have discounted tickets, but it’s far to walk. Skatetown is pretty fun but again, if you don’t have a car on campus it’s pointless to mention.
Main Street has more salons and tattoo parlors than is possibly needed but no entertainment.
Along with no entertainment, Bloomsburg lacks a variety of dining options. Sure, it’s got pizza and Italian and Chinese takeout. But it doesn’t have any very exciting, exotic, or intriguing dining venues. You can’t go get soba bowls or authentic Mexican tacos in Bloomsburg. This isn’t a big deal for your first couple of years here but after a while the mundane options become monotonous.
Another big issue is the lack of jobs available for students. There are more than 9,000 students attending Bloomsburg and most of the students I’ve met require a job while they are in school. With that many students applying to the very slim selection of employment opportunities the jobs tend to disappear fast. There simply aren’t enough jobs to go around, and heaven forbid you finally get one and it turns out to be an awful experience. The fear of not being able to find anything else keeps students in stressful jobs that they don’t enjoy. And the large demand for work compared to the few jobs available mean employers don’t really need to offer competitive pay.
These sides of Bloomsburg coupled with the frustrating trials of finding parking, actually neat shops being forced to close down, and the fact that you have to drive an hour and a half to get to a decent mall make living here tiresome.
I will never regret coming to Bloomsburg, but I’ll always wonder what it would have been like to go to school in a bustling city.
Maybe this will change someday. More and more freshmen are choosing Bloomsburg every year, prompting the university to update its features and become more comparable to universities like Penn State. Hopefully the town will also begin to grow and develop into a place where weekends aren’t filled with boredom.
Taylor is a senior Mass Communications major. She is an International Peer Mentor and the Editor-in-Chief for The Voice.
