I've tried Eclipse for college and I really don't like it. It doesn't save my settings between projects, I can't change the color themes as easily, and the code advice in IntelliJ-IDEA seems much better.

That said, I don't know much about Java or IDEs yet.

Why is Eclipse the most popular IDE for Java Developers?

Intelli-J is much better.  There is a free community edition, and I believe that they also have student licenses if you sign up with a school email, so unless your coursework requires using Eclipse, you might as well make the switch.  It's a much more pleasant experience.  JetBrains does make some really excellent developer tools - for instance, Android Studio is now based on IntelliJ.

Generally, what you learn in college is 5-10 years behind the curve, particularly with regards to tooling.  At this point, I haven't seen Eclipse used professionally in some years.

Apparently its the bees-knees but from personal experience its proven unreliable.  Netbeans on the other hand has never failed me.

Eclipse once had some value being the IDE of choice for Android development but Android Studio has since taken over that role.

Unless its a project requirement with no other alternative, don't feel you have use it.

You answered your own question in saying you used it in school.

4 hours ago, ericrrichards22 said:

I believe that they also have student licenses if you sign up with a school email

I checked and they do! I just downloaded their "ultimate" edition, Thanks!!!

It is a horrible, horrible POS, IME. But it has tons of extensions (that make it even slower) and it is free, so universities tend to use it a lot. And people tend to stick with the thing they know.

Eclipse is a good platform for specialized IDE tools, thanks to general purpose foundation libraries that work well (e.g. EMF/GEF), its robust (although heavyweight) OSGI infrastructure, and its development tools for plugins and variants. It's extensible but it avoids the anarchy of Visual Studio and other less refined IDEs.