The ORIGINAL CIA

Introduction
Our school is small. Very small. Out of the five years (though I know it's going down to four years for the next batch of freshmen) there's under 600 students. That's small even compared to your average high school, and it's a little hard to imagine what that's like until you really see it. It means that unless someone's work is really that unremarkable, everyone in the entire school knows who they are and what they do. I'm not saying this sort of notoriety isn't extremely nice, it's just takes a little getting used to.
Now, CIA (as we call it for short) is also one of the easiest high-ranking art schools to get into. Which means, essentially, that your freshman class is going to start out really big, with a huge range of talent (having it or not) and drive (again) and it's going to drop in size very rapidly. You really have to work hard, and while the administrators are pretty lenient about letting students stay in school even if they have low grades, they are not in the least lenient about letting you keep your scholarship if you fail to maintain the required GPA and amount of community service. It's estimated that only 30% of each incoming class remains until graduation. And I can vouch that it's not because the faculty is poor in quality.

Campus Life and Social Life
Well, we have no sports. One of the things they might tell you is that students can take intramural sports at nearby Case Western Reserve University, but really almost no one does. The clubs are pretty neat, though some of their runs are fairly short. Art students tend to be so self-involved that it's difficult to keep their interest away from their work long enough to do extracurriculars (other than gallery shows).
A nice thing is, the departments and the environs here in Cleveland tend to provide you quite a few opportunities to show your work. This is an especially rich area for comic book artists, it being the birthplace of Superman and the origins of Rob Crumb's own career (Harvey Pehkar lives in walking distance of the campus, and occasionally shows up at the more low-key events in his name).
As far as your social network goes, it will probably stay mostly within the school. As previously stated, you'll know everybody, and while Case and the Cleveland Institute of Music are nearby, they tend to mingle very little with CIA students. It's one of those things you realize about art school, by having to reinvent yourself nearly every day (your work will make you do that, this is where it gets serious) you take on a great deal more maturity than your average college student. If you think it's going to be like an extension of high school but with more alcohol, art school is not for you. That's part of why we seem to have so much trouble connecting with the students from Case and Cleveland State and Tri City College, all of which are nearby.
Oh, and there's absolutely no Greek life to speak of. Your depatment (major) will become your fraternity/sorority. You'll get that close. Academics
Once you get into your major, it's wonderful. But the workload is also phenomenal. Most studio teachers will expect you to do somewhere between 5 hours (the length of the average studio class) to 15 hours of work a week. For each class. You have certain liberal arts requirements too, but the workload there varies per instructor.
The departments each vary greatly. Industrial design, for example, issues a huge workload, whereas most of the other majors expect you to work a lot but let you be mostly self motivated. In illustration and T.I.M.E (technology and integrated media environment) you can either do a LOT of work or almost no work at all, it's entirely up to you. Something to consider before going in, because unfortunately a number of your peers might choose the 'almost no work at all' option, and that's hard to work with.

Student Body
There is no typical. We have goths, punks, preps, emo/indie, grunge, everything. Just don't try too hard to be an "art student" and people will accept you just fine. Don't buy or intentionally make the stereotypically torn and paint-splattered jeans. Don't think that you have to dress for every single day, or make your own clothes. Seriously, a lot of first years come in with a "look", but by the time they reach their major they realize they don't have the time, energy or money to maintain it. Just relax. People will like you.
As far as where people are from, the largest number of people are from Ohio, closely followed by New York, followed by everything else. I have friends from Texas, Washington State, Washington DC, Florida, Canada, England, North Carolina, Kentucky, Japan, etc. Don't think you'll be left out if you're from a specific area, you'll probably find someone to connect to. We're also fairly diverse, though I've yet to meet any Native Americans or Inuits. I think that's about all we're missing.
Oh, and the myth that all art students are here because they couldn't "make it" in ordinary college is false. There are a few like that, but they typically don't last past first year. Overall, there are some very intelligent, well-read and interesting people here.

In Closing...
About the campus. We don't really have one. We're sort of interspersed a bit through the East side of Cleveland, which is not really a bad thing. If you're used to the city, you'll be a little surprised by our area. It's almost more like a built-up suburb, with a good amount of open space and parkland. In fact, we're right next to the lakeside cemetary and arboretum, which makes central park look like a parking lot. There are points where you can stand on a ridge and look back and see nothing but trees all the way back until the mountains in there, and since Cleveland's in a river valley that's saying something.
The culture is good too, we're right up against Little Italy, which is filled with authentic Italian stores and restaurants, some over a hunfred years old. In fact, this is a great place for people interested in architecture, since the city was officially founded in the early 1800s and many of the buildings from that era are still around and in use today. My apartment is over 100 years old, and gorgeous.
Not to say it's perfect, there's a bit of a dead industrial wasteland downtown ( "the flats", as we affectionately call them, used to be a series of steel mills that flocked the river on either bank. Now only a few are operational, and the rest is untenanted and disused, sort of looks like a scene from Final Fantasy VII). And the weather is terrible, Canada sending all its weather down to us over lake Eerie, so that winter lasts from about October through April.
If you like snow, and lots of it, this is for you. And school never closes, ever. But on the bright side, that means great skiing and sledding.

Oh yeah, and we were founded before the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Culinary Institute of America, so we ARE the original CIA.