<p>I am hoping some current Miami students could chime in about the social life and classes at Miami. Does social life revolve heavily around the clubs in Miami? Are there parties at the fraternities or on campus? If you are a non-drinker, will you fit in? What is a normal weekend like? Also, any info on classes would be appreciated. Do you get to know your professors? How big are the classes? Any input on your Miami experience would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>I am also very curious to see what current students have to say.</p>
<p>I would say social life certainly doesn’t revolve heavily around clubs, especially as a freshman with limited transportation. Fraternities do throw parties, and since there’s 13 of them they’re fairly frequent. There’s plenty of non-drinkers so you should be able to find friends with a similar mindset if that’s important to you. I’m not sure if I have a ‘normal’ weekend, although they usually involve sleeping in and going out to some social function at night. Classes, at least for me, have been fairly small, maybe 20-35 students even for introductory ones. Professors are accessible and because the classes are small will learn your name fairly quickly for the most part. Overall, I’ve had a good experience thus far, especially academically. Hope at least some of that is helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks ajaku. That is very helpful. D received full ride Stamps scholarship, and she is seriously considering Miami. She is outgoing, friendly and loves to have fun, but she doesn’t drink. We had heard that the only social life was going to clubs, and she prefers more of a campus feel. Your insight was very helpful. Anyone else?</p>
<p>I am a parent , not a student, but I will tell you about my daughter’s experiences. </p>
<p>She is also a top student on scholarship and does not drink. </p>
<p>She has never had more friends or a more active social life. She is always doing something fun with friends (some of whom drink, while others don’t). She does not have a car and all the things she does are either on or just off campus. </p>
<p>As far as academics, she is hard to impress and has been very happy with the professors. The classes are small (15-25 for the most part) and the staff and professors really care about the students. </p>
<p>There are also tons of special interest and service clubs on campus. They have meetings, hold fundraisers, do services projects, and have parties. This is a great way to meet like minded people. </p>
<p>What is her major?</p>
<p>Thanks SVMMom, I appreciate your input. It sounds like your daughter is very happy. Academically, we feel Miami is a great fit. We just want to ensure socially there is more to do than go to the nightclubs, and it sounds like there is. We are going to go back and visit again in a couple of weeks, probably just stopping lots of students to get their input. Also, what is the housing situation after freshman year? Is campus housing available? What are the dorms like for upperclassmen? Thanks!</p>
<p>If it’s worth anything, I did not step foot in a club after the first semester of my freshman year and I had a very active social life. I do drink and did go to bars, but I had friends who didn’t drink and they would still come out with us and dance and hang out and have a good time. Also, Greek Life is a great way to make friends and get involved and contrary to popular belief, does not revolve around drinking. There were several girls in my sorority who did not drink and they never had a problem fitting in or having a good time.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that the majority of students are extremely superficial and snobby… Can someone confirm this? If yes, then how so?</p>
<p>When a school is 54,000 dollars a year, yes, people can be snobby. Yes, people can be superficial. Yes, you will see Gucci sunglasses, Louis Vuitton bags, BMWs, Porsches, Mercedes, Bentleys, etc on campus. Not everybody has them, but I’ve seen this not only at Miami, at Jesuit schools in the Northeast, schools in NY, and schools in the South.</p>
<p>Welcome to the world of private university education.</p>
<p>We need an FAQ sticky.</p>
<p>“In regards to being snobby, Ill be honest. There is definitely that crowd. A lot of superficial people from the northeast attend UM. They are definitely the minority, but they stand out, so you notice them more. However, there is definitely a yappy high maintenance sorority crowd at UF (all schools have something of the sort). I do wish that UM was a bit less superficial (prob my biggest complaint), but Ive made great genuine friends Im very happy with that.” - Banana321</p>
<p>“Miami has an extremely diverse student body (by one poll, the most diverse in the nation). Kids from almost all 50 state, foreign students, kids on scholarship and financial aid, rich kids that are snobby, rich kids that are great and down to earth, students involved in greek life, lots of different service clubs with kids who are dedicated to causes, music students, marine school students, etc…” - SVMMom</p>
<p>“The student body is very diverse, this is true. I hear so many different languages walking to and from class and it’s awesome. Many kids are wealthy, full-pay students, this is also true. Many can be snobby and many aren’t. I’ve seen Bentleys and Maseratis on campus so money here is prevalent. That said, I’ve met many cool people, both of the richer and less richer variety. At first I wasn’t too fond of the student body but I’ve come really to like them.” - Unoriginal</p>
<p>"I think SVMMom and Unoriginal summed it up very well. There are all types of kids at UM. Get involved in activities you love and you will find like-minded students.</p>
<p>“as a transfer and starting over freshman (cuz i’m in teh music school) I already am taken aback by the snottiness of the people here. It’s UNBELIEVABLE how superficial it is. Now, having said this, there are nice people who are superficial, but most are just vapid and drinking whores (or whores in general.)” - jeremybeach</p>
<p>"I never got the feeling that the kids were overly confident (negative), but confident (positive) is the word I have always used to describe UM students. They are confident in their ability to learn and succeed. UM is a work hard, play hard school. " - my-3-sons</p>
<p>"In a word…diverse. You will find snobs, down-to-earth types, partiers, abstainers, kids who graduated in the very top of their HS class, kids who didn’t, many ethnicities, religions, backgrounds. " -notan4me</p>
<p>“You get both, and a little in-between. I find that the down to earth type people tend to gravitate towards Stanford (dorm), and the flashy cars people tend to gravitate towards Hecht (dorm). But there are rich students who have the flashy clothes and cars that are also down to earth. I’ve only met one of the stereotypical “rich” people in my time here, but that’s OK because no one else in my class can stand her. Same as with the drunkenness, you can find it if you look for it, but it if you don’t want it, it’s easy to avoid.” - SVMMom</p>
<p>(just one thing I noticed while going through threads: "BTW–one day while studying, I figured out that many women like starbucks on campus, most of whom have a fresh latte in their hands with red painted nails… I don’t knwo why that is! If you visit, you’ll know what I mean lol. " - Jeremybeach. Just had to say - doesn’t everyone love starbucks everywhere? Lol. I’ve never lived in a town where they don’t!)</p>
<p>"Most Miami students are rich, and most of my friends at UM are wealthier than I am. But just because they’re rich doesn’t mean they’re snobs. I have some friends who are extremely nice and down-to-earth and you would never know they had money except for a nice apartment or a fancy car. I drive around in my 15-year-old car and live in a relatively cheap apartment and I’m not ashamed of it and none of my friends care that my car isn’t as nice as theirs. I’ve met rich snobby brats, yes, but you’ll find that at any private school. " - MiamiCane2010</p>
<p>"What I can tell you is this: yes, there are snobs. There are apathetic spoiled kids. There are people who flaunt their (parents) money all over the place and drive their Bentleys, Porches, and Benzs the entire half block from their dorm room to their class room buildings, then drive around for an hour and complain there is nowhere to park.</p>
<p>Then there’s (mostly) everyone else. Keep in mind, not every student from a wealthy family is going to be obnoxious. Often times, even rich people have far worse character flaws than having money. And don’t forget, the average Joe can be rude or worse. No matter where you end up, there’s going to be people you aren’t going to like.</p>
<p>But will these people add to your college experience? Absolutely. Are they all lost causes? Not even close. Eventually, it wears off. In the cases when it doesn’t, it’s just laughable. The good thing is that you’ll learn how to deal with these types of people (who you will encounter again and again in life, because they are everywhere). Maybe you’re one of them and haven’t realized it until you’re surrounded by them. Who knows? That’s the point of college - you experience and you learn. And that goes for every school. But you won’t know until you try. " - stillearning</p>
<p>“When it comes to money, not everyone is loaded. Yes there are those rich kids, but what I’ve found from my group of friends is that money is a complete non-issue. My view of this may be slightly scewed since I am currently living on a scholarship floor, so most of my friends in the dorms are on scholarships like me. However, even those people I’ve met outside of my dorm don’t seem snobbish in the least. If you are a down-to-earth person, you will be drawn to other down-to-earth people, of whom there are plenty. UM is fairly generous with scholarship money in comparison to other private universities, so if you are not overly wealthy don’t let the price tag or the fear of not fitting in with the wealthy kids turn you away. I do not come from a financially rich background I can honestly say that I have not once felt out of place at UM.” - ilak1551</p>
<p>"The student body is very diverse. I did the UM Summer Scholar Program and met a lot of current students. I met some really nice ones, but there were also some that were a bit snobby. I even ran into a girl that graduated from my HS… she was working security in Pearson, the dorm I was staying in. One of my professors said there is a large LGBT community and just by walking through the campus you will find so many different nationalities. Thats definitely one of the things I love about the school =] " - (forgot to get the persons username before I closed the tab)</p>
<p>“The “snobby” reputation: don’t worry about it one bit. I was kinda worried about it coming here, and it exists, but it’s so tiny, it’s not a worry one bit. You’ll find people that are cool and down to earth so fast. - It’s just a stupid thing people always bring up, but really, it’s not even worth mentioning. You’ll find that at any private university.” - JJ227</p>
<p>"
I think people assume that UM is snobby because they expect only kids that want to go clubbing attend. Basically, since Miami is admittedly a glitzy, flashy city, people assume that very superficial kids will be here. That is not true, in fact, most kids applied to really competitive schools but got rejected and came to Miami because of the strong academics and fun atmosphere. OF COURSE there will be the few that hang out of limos screaming “YEAH MIAMI” on their first visit to South Beach, but that is not the norm. "- november1991</p>
<p>“Sure, you do have snobby rich kids (what private college doesn’t?), but if you don’t want to associate with them, it’s easy to find other, down-to-earth friends. That said, it’s really important to go to a bunch of the free activities they have during orientation, because you meet SO many people. I met some of my really, really good friends in Miami at a s’more BBQ organized by Rho Rho Rho (marine science honor society) on the first day of classes. One of them is very wealthy (Darien, CT anyone?), but she’s totally cool and down to earth. What you have to remember is, while some people may come from rich families, they’re soon on their own money-wise, a poor college student just like the rest of us.” - bijou3owl</p>
<p>Oddly enough I can’t find any of my own posts. Funny.</p>
<p>But I side with most of these comments. Except in one factor. You see what you look for. And this applies to everything. If you’re looking for and expecting to find snobs, you’re going to see nothing but snobs. If you’re trying to find nice people, all of the sudden, everyone will be nice. So, I encourage you to try to look at the good side of people, because so far, every person whom I have befriended here has a very strong good side.</p>
<p>And actually, I do think I’ll start an FAQ post. Some time.</p>
<p>rankinr,</p>
<p>I am appalled by your last post, primarily because you didn’t quote me anywhere ;).</p>
<p>Thanks for the effort and good work.</p>
<p>Vinceh, LOL!!!</p>
<p>Rankinr</p>
<p>Brilliant! Great work as this is the MOST overdone topic on the UM forum. I do get tired of answering it repeatedly. So I vote for a “sticky” also!!!</p>
<p>@Vinceh, I realize you’re joking… but just so you know, the reason is that you have no posts in the UMiami forum which contain the word ‘snob’. And that’s the search I ran :P</p>
<p>And thank you :)</p>
<p>I’ll try to work on a sticky summarizing answers to past questions like this over the next few days…</p>
<p>I also wanted to let prospective students know about a great event Miami holds at the beginning of each year. It is called Canefest. Here is a description from their site:</p>
<p>“Canefest is the grand welcome event held at the beginning of every year for UMs freshman class and returning students. The festival type atmosphere includes an involvement fair of over 275 student organizations, University departments, and Canefest sponsors; free food; and student entertainment. This event gives students the opportunity to gain campus community information and learn of how to becoming involved on campus.”</p>
<p>I highly recommend going to this event as it is a great way to see all the clubs that UM has to offer in one place. Find a few that interest you and GET INVOLVED! This is a fantastic way to meet students of like minds and to form life long friendships.</p>