<p>dont know much about it</p>
<p>Yeah, one of the best undergrad business schools in the country (top 20)</p>
<p>Rated as the #3 for best schools for teaching undergraduates</p>
<p>Miami is a classic liberal arts college masquerading as a state/public university (plus it also has things like engineering and architecture that LACs don’t). I really has the feel of a private school, a beautiful campus, not overwhelmingly large but with State U level resources. What really made it a great fit for our S is as was said above - their focus is undergrad teaching. Our S has only had one class in his first 2 semesters larger than 30 students - his classes are all taught by professors, no palming it off on teaching assistants, and the professors are accessible. The school also has a lot of traditions - the land was appropriated by an act signed by President Washington - and also, again although it’s a state school, campus life isn’t dominate by athletics like at OSU or schools like Alabama or that other school with Miami in its name…</p>
<p>…yep, but hockey is big for all those hockey fans, also “other things” include great pre-med program with very accessible for pre-meds Med. Research lab. That is despite the fact that there is no Med. School at Miami. The rumor has it that Honors has 100% rate of acceptance to Med. School. Many might not be interested in this stats, but it shows how serious Miami is preparing students for their goals. </p>
<p>Agree with all that’s been said. I’m a huge believer in everything Miami has to offer. After all, MU got me to medical school; but I feel compelled to add a comment about matriculation to med school from Miami.
It may be very true that there is a 100% acceptance rate from the Honors program, I cannot dispute that, but the reality is a little more harsh. All pre-med students basically run a gauntlet which starts in their first semester with pre-med required courses and continues until he/she sits for the MCAT usually late in junior year or early in senior year.
The process is managed by a pre-med advisor, currently Mr. Balfour. I’m uncertain of his exact credentials.
During the process of completing coursework, there are numerous opportunities for feedback from the advisor. For a student struggling to keep a high GPA, especially in the pre-med reqs, there is a very direct “tough love” approach taken by the school. Underperforming students are frankly discouraged from continuing down a path to med school and are instead redirected toward other pursuits. The same thing happens to students with low MCAT scores.
If a student attempts to persist with suboptimal stats, the advisor, not so subtly, points out that the pre-medical recommendation committee will more than likely not be able to provide appropriate positive recommendations for the student to the med schools to which the student is desiring to matriculate.
It’s easy to see who has the power in this equation.
All of this leads to heavy attrition of pre-meds who are underperforming relative to their peers and subsequently boosts the Miami med school matriculation rate for honors or non-honors kiddos.
I’m not going to argue that this is a bad system. There should be more “come to Jesus” moments for young people who can be naive about the brutal competition for admittance to graduate or professional schools; or even the job market.
Just be cautious when someone quotes a statistic that seems too good to be true. It’s a bit misleading.</p>
<p>If one plans for Med. School, got to work hard, there is no doubt about it. Got to work hard at absolutely any place, Miami and Miami Honors included. I do not know who was D’s pre-med advisor, I know that he was amazing and comittee as a whole was also amazing. She was able to apply earlier than most here on CC. Yes, MU got her to Med. School (actually automatically, since she was part of DAP - bs/md that is no longer at Miami). It also got all of her friends to various Med. Schools. While working very hard is a huge pre-req, the opportunities for pre-med are all there at Miami, including all ECs. They were not hard to get into at all. We do not know much about experiences of not making it. If one tries hard, there is NO reason in a world that the student would not get very high college GPA and a very decent MCAT score…as long as they keep all in prospective and spend their time keeping priority straight. D. ended up applying OUT of her bs/md, she was the only one who did it. She got accepted to few more (in addition to her automatic spot at UC Col. of Med.), including top 20s and her pre-med friends were accepted also at few pretty selective Med. Schools. I am sure somebody did not make it, but they were not part of D’s crowd, so we simply did not hear about them.</p>
<p>I wonder how many students at Miami start out as pre-med and graduate with a different major. D is seriously considering Miami ( and BU and UM and UK, though there are a few others still lurking on the list). Any thoughts on grade deflation at Miami?</p>
<p>@MiamiDAP You are obviously blessed with a high achieving, bright kiddo. Many physicians can tell you a tale much different than that of your daughter.
Some of the best physicians I know struggled as undergrads, took the MCAT multiple times after multiple Kaplan prep courses to boost scores, attended grad school or entered the work force to bide time and took multiple med school admission cycles to finally achieve admission.
It doesn’t always happen the way it did for your family… even with proper drive, ambition, persistence and well placed priorities. That’s just keeping it real.
Struggling can often reveal a certain strength of character I find admirable in my colleagues who came to medicine by the tougher path.
The “algorithm” approach has some shortfalls.</p>
<p>@Forestlight I have no clue as to the Miami data on this but it is often quoted that one-half of self-identified pre-med freshman no longer identify themselves as such by the beginning of their third year of college. For what it’s worth, that seems about right based on my personal experience and the experience of my three Miami daughters.
Organic Chem and Physics cause the most problems. BMZ is not far behind.
Only so many students can get A’s and B’s. It stands to reason that the rest become part of the attrition.
It’s not at all unique to Miami. It’s everywhere. Check out the Malcolm Gladwell take on this. Very thought provoking:</p>
<p><a href=“Why Did I Say "Yes" to Speak Here? | Malcolm Gladwell | Google Zeitgeist - YouTube”>Why Did I Say "Yes" to Speak Here? | Malcolm Gladwell | Google Zeitgeist - YouTube;
<p>I agree with struggling being somewhat a “positive” experience. D. had hard time learning that not everything depends on her effort. Grades in clinical year at Med. School based primarily on evals. These evals are very subjective. Student can do everything well above and beoynd, come first every day, leave last, get extremely high score on exam, but if somebody simply having a bad day, the eval. they write might nor reflect any of it, it might actually say something that is completely not true at all. Not much Medical student can do, being at the end of the food chain, being screamed at by nurses and everybody else in a world. Those who have been treated like this in previous life are stronger, they take it. Others (like my kid) will struggle emotionally.<br>
" Any thoughts on grade deflation at Miami? " - not sure. I know that if kid works hard and uses ALL resources (many are available, my own D. was a Supplemental Instructor to Gen. Chem. prof. and sometime she had 40 kids in her sessions), there is no reason for not getting this A. I argue that even in classes that one has no natural talent, it is still very very possible. Hard work will prevail. No genius is required. Correct attitude, constant adjustment to higher standard, plan, ability to work under any circumstances (going over Orgo exam material while walking from one class to another, just as one example), and great time managements skills. Pre-meds have to juggle so much and being young they still want to have social life and pursue some of their personal interests (Greek, music, art, languages, going abroad,…etc.)
“Organic Chem and Physics cause the most problems. BMZ is not far behind.” - this is a fair assessment. I would just add that after BMZ, brain more or less is adjusted to a higher standards. I would also add that all higher level Bio classes were probably more challenging than Orgo and Physics, like Physiology, Genentics, but they were helpful for the MCAT. Out of all science, Gen. Chem was by far the easiest for my D., I guess that is how she ended up being offered an SI position, which she held for 3 years. </p>
<p>Anyone here have any insights into the English and/or History/PoliSci programs? With/without the Honors Program complement?</p>