<p>Miami is in fact in the original list of Public Ivies, as in the book of that name published in 1985. </p>
<pre><code>College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
University of California (campuses as of 1985)[6]
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Texas at Austin
University of Vermont (Burlington)
University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
</code></pre>
<p>Well since the op asked for our opinions I am certainly entitled to mine. I will put miami uon top with regards to grad school acceptances compared to the other two. Since I have a child in the honors program there and she asked about it, I.t you can do it sophomore year without any problems. No it is not diverse but since the op didn’t ask about diversity I didn’t mention it. Again if her son wants to eventually stay in the home tea, um probably is the best option, but miami is a great option as well</p>
<p>“Midwest Ivy” doesn’t make much sense either, in that case. Miami also made the 2001 list which included more schools (30) than the original 8. Indiana made that larger list :)</p>
<p>If you really want to pick apart that “public ivy” list, the only ones that belong there are Michigan, William and Mary, UVA, and possibly UNC. (Also, maybe Berkley). I consider UVM to be on par with Miami U…and neither as good as UMD (but UMD not as good as the first ones I mentioned). </p>
<p>Edited to add that Accounting is a whole other ball game. </p>
<p>Our daughter is graduating from Miami in May with a degree from the Farmer School of Business. She couldn’t possibly have had a better college experience. She will start her new job in June that resulted from an internship she found at a Miami job fair. She will wait a couple years before applying to grad school. As far as we are concerned, Miami is hard to beat for a great undergraduate education. </p>
<p>Some others have mentioned this, but it really is important to consider where your son might want to live after college – or what other plans he has after college. If he has any interest in living in the Midwest, then IU and Miami are smart choices. If not, they still are good choices</p>
<p>Miami and Indiana are definitely mid-western and share other similarities. However, there is little doubt that IU’s Kelley School of Business is better than Farmer (which is plenty good). Kelley is almost an elite business school. Among public universities it is really very hard to do better than IU-Kelley – Michigan, Berkeley, and U.Virginia are about the only ones better.</p>
<p>Having said that, overall Miami is generally better than UMD and IU. Miami really is more interested in undergraduate teaching than are IU and UMD which are organized more as typical research universities where, frankly, teaching is secondary.</p>
<p>I do not know about UMD, but IU is at least as big a party/drinking school as Miami. The other difference between Miami and Indiana is that Miami is more conservative – especially the students. If political and social concerns are an issue, then this should be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Honors programs are not worth much in my opinion. Some are pretty good, some are okay, and many are worthless. No honors program should be a “deal maker” unless merit aid comes with the honors admission.</p>
<p>Finally, in summary, I personally recommend Miami University because it almost certainly provides the most satisfying undergraduate experience (both academically and socially), plus Farmer is definitely very good. Hard to go wrong with any of these three schools, but Miami is much better than some people seem to think.</p>
<p>OP here. He picked Maryland/College Park. He started the journey saying he really wanted to go to UMD if he got accepted to business, but he would apply pretty much anywhere else I suggested. He really waffled when he got the huge merit offer from Miami. He took IU off the list because it was too expensive. I think he’s made a fine decision. Thanks to all for the advice, opinions, encouragement, etc. GO TERPS!!!</p>
<p>As a hoosier parent, and as a parent who was an IU grad, both schools are great and neither Miami or IU would be a bad choice. But around here in Indiana, the parents with the finances to do it tend to send their kids to Miami, and I am happy that we followed our gut. Miami is much smaller. More students graduate in 4 years. The numbers that IU uses to tout their graduation rates include the kids who bomb out and end up at a local campus, like IUPUI. Many of the kids my son went to HS with went to IU, and frankly, spent a lot of time drinking and gaming, ending up on academic probation after their freshman year. Miami has a decidedly more parent friendly vibe, and there is a decidedly stronger emphasis placed on undergrads. It shows. That #3 in teaching is well earned.</p>
<p>Andy by the way…my son had a phenomenal internship last year that resulted in an outstanding job offer. None of his Kelley friends have an offer in hand. He was a Kelley Direct Admit - maximum scholarship. Turned it down. It cost us more as Indiana residents, but we could not have been happier with his 4 years of outstanding education in classes taught by full professors at Miami.</p>
<p>Miami’s biz school has good rep, and the university is much smaller than the other 2. Miami is about as beautiful as a college can get, and if it doesn’t bug u that people will think you go to a college in Florida, and if.the price is right, I don’t see it outclassed by the other 2. People are making too big a deal out of minor differences in rankings.</p>