I am currently a 1st year student in the Farmer School of Business. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread.
My son is considering Miami for engineering. Do you know students in engineering? Do you know what their thoughts are on the program, in terms of quality of professors, facility, etc?
Also, do you have any recommendations for dorms freshman year? Do most students choose a living learning community? Do you know if the Men in Engineering LLC is chosen by many engineering students?
Many thanks!! 
@zpillers
I forgot to put you user ID in my comment above. Thank you for your help!
Sorry for the delay. I do know a few students who are in the engineering program. I do know they enjoy the rigorous work and the engineering program is definitely respected. As far as dorms go, you do not get to choose specifically what dorm you want. The different LLCs each have dorms that they are in. I do believe next year they are partially moving away from LLCs, where there will be an option of not having to be in one. Hope this helps!
My son applied to Farmer but was admitted to the University Studies program. He will need a 3.5 gpa by the end of freshman year to be admitted to Farmer, and is worried about being able to achieve that. Do you have any advice for him? Are the first year classes very rigorous? Do freshmen have a lot of faculty and academic support?
As a freshmen, many of the classes he would take would be requirements for Farmer, such as Calculus if he does not have AP credit, or Miami Plan. These classes would definitely make the 3.5 GPA achievable. My advise would be if he truly wants to get into Farmer that he needs to work hard first year.
Many thanks! I’ll pass this info along to my son.
Thanks for all of the great information! Do you know if freshmen are able to choose specific instructors/class times during class registration at orientation? Or do the advisors make your schedule for you?
My son has been accepted to the Farmer School of Business for Fall 2016. Reviewing the incoming class profile, he looks to fall right at the 50 percentile. 29 ACT, 4.0 GPA, 3 AP courses. OOS student from NY. Can you please provide some insight regarding the difficulty of the classes, typical grading policy (is there any firm bell curve grading), cut-throat nature of fellow classmates, tutoring resources etc. Trying to gauge if one can still have a balanced college life if in the Farmer school or if it will be all hard core studying just to keep afloat.
Also looking back, what would be some advice you wished you were told as an incoming Freshman at Miami?
bump
I am extremely worried about the “snobby student” vibe. How prevelant do you think it is? Are you greek, and how hard is it to NOT be greeK?
@BMPREMEDgirl - My son is a Miami freshman studying Engineering. He loves being at Miami, works hard, has a lot of friends, and keeps involved with activities. He has no interest at all in fraternities.
Since this is a small town how does one not feel pressured to go GREEK…Some forums post “day drinking” and not much else to do. Do you find this to be true?
@siennazoom. 78% of me and 69% of women are not in fraternities.
My D has been accepted into FBS also She really likes the business school, but is still deciding if Miami is the school for her. She is concerned about the rural location of Miami (her words exactly…“if Miami U was in Boston it would be a no brainer” lol). She is an international student but has lived in the US on & off for 6 years in both VA & TX.
We have visited campus ( & went to look at what was in Hamilton) & we’ve done lots of Google map searches to find out the closest malls, cinemas, Target etc, which all seem to be within a 30-40 min drive from school. Does that sound correct? Have we missed anything closer? I do recall that there was a TJMax & Walmart in Oxford. Thanks.
@zpillers can I also ask how large your classes have been for your Freshman year? What would be your largest & smallest? What are the sizes of most of your classes? Thanks.
My D has been accepted into the UASP for Pre-Law/Public Policy and we will be visiting campus in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, I have a question about campus culture. Specifically, I hear frequently that Miami is a very conservative campus. My politically active daughter respects all viewpoints, but says that she would be very sad and lonely if she was the only left-leaning person on campus. At the same time, she is quite social and would love to go Greek. At some schools, this would not be a disconnect - but we both wonder about the “fit” for her at Miami. Would love any thoughts - either from current students/parents or people who have spent time on campus.
Miami University, being an Ohio Public, draws a lot from the suburbs of Ohio. It’s students tend to be bright, relatively middle to upper middle class and it has a fairly strong Greek presence (please understand I’m generalizing). I wouldn’t call it conservative but it is perhaps less overtly liberal than schools which have strong upper class urban or coastal draws. She will find politically active students with predominantly progressive ideas but also some conservative activism. It will be nothing like strongly conservative schools such as Liberty University or Brigham Young but neither will you mistake it for Oberlin or UC Santa Cruz.
@Bubblewrap666 - FWIW, Miami’s OOS student percentage is 34%. This is more than twice that of Ohio State, it’s closest academic competitor among Ohio public universities. I can’t draw any conclusions about conservative vs. liberal leanings, but it is fair to say that your daughter will be exposed to a far more geographically diverse student body than its Ohio peers. My son is a freshman from Arizona, living in a designated triple. One roommate is from suburban San Francisco, the other from suburban Washington, DC. Continuing the diversity theme, Miami ranks second nationally among public universities in the percentage of students participating in study-abroad programs.
@OhioIllinois During orientation you will meet with a first year advisor and they will help you sign up for classes.