<p>In nearly all of the student reviews that i have read, it has been said that the University of Miami is just one big party school for rich kids. Ive heard from studentreviews.com that all the students are snobby rich kids who do not care about academics and just went to maimi for the location and to party</p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>Can i go there and get a solid business education?</p>
<p>Not really.</p>
<p>All schools have their intellectually curious students, party animials, rich students, poorer students, sports oriented students and nerds. Miami is no exception. Miami's endowment just got over 1 billion, which puts them in the top 50 most well endowed schools, which is better than Syracuse and Pepperdine. Miami is definitely on the move due to its wonderful location, fine programs, and great ability to attract money.</p>
<p>Don't forget: a lot of old, wealthy people live in Miami. Many of them leave money to the school. In addtion, Miami has one of the best and strongest Alumni base around.</p>
<p>I think it is untrue. You have many focused kids who attend. They are only able to attend b/c of scholarships which they earned by working hard in hs, and doing well on their standardized testing. </p>
<p>Taxguy, just curious, do you have a list comparing endowments, or where did you find this info?</p>
<p>Yes, Miami does have a lot of rich kids to the point that it seems that you are living in a paradise of exotic and expensive cars, beautiful people and amazing athletics. However, academically it is a good school and Miami gives great scholarship money to attract some very high caliber students. They have been increasing their practice in giving big money to highly talented students and therefore you can definetely find smart kids and also get a good education at the same time/</p>
<p>Northeastmom, here is a quote from the Chronicle of Higher Education:</p>
<hr>
<p>University of Miami, $1.011-billion as of December 31 (increase of $24.8-million in the last month); the goal was $1-billion by 2007 but has been increased to $1.25-billion by 2007. </p>
<p>Source: Chronicle of Higher Education 2/4/06</p>
<p>Actually, according to Univ of Miami, their endowment is now around 1.2 billion. See the following:</p>
<p>Here is how they expect to distribute the funds. </p>
<p>$ 15.0 million School of Architecture
$ 98.0 million College of Arts and Sciences
$ 31.5 million School of Business Administration
$ 19.2 million School of Communication
$ 18.5 million School of Education
$ 23.5 million College of Engineering
$ 16.0 million School of Law
$ 700.0 million School of Medicine
$ 31.0 million School of Music
$ 14.4 million School of Nursing
$ 54.0 million Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
$ 14.5 million Alumni Center
$ 63.0 million Athletics
$ 33.2 million Library
$ 21.0 million Student Affairs
$ 4.5 million Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
$ 14.0 million Ecosystem Science and Policy Center
$ 5.5 million Lowe Art Museum
$ 9.0 million Reserve Officers' Training Corps
$ 15.0 million The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies </p>
<p>$ 1.2 billion Total </p>
<p>A lot of info about the campaign can be found at <a href="http://www.miami.edu/campaign/home.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.miami.edu/campaign/home.html</a></p>
<p>They have been one of the most successful schools at fund raising in the last decade. In 10 years, they went from around 500 million to 1.2 billion. Not too shabby!</p>
<p>Average weighted GPA-4.1, midrange SATs 1210-1370, two-thirds of students graduated in the top 10% of their class (2 in 5 new freshmen in the top 5%)-doesn't sound like a bunch of slackers to me.</p>
<p>The University of Miami offers top-notch academics coupled with an oustanding social life in a tropical setting. Those students who come expecting easy academics are in for a rude awakening. It is the student that is disciplined enough to focus on academics first and the "beach party" second that will be most successful at UM. It is not a school where you can just slide by without much effort. UM really incorporates the best of all worlds, high quality academics, great location, outstanding school spirit and social opportunities. </p>
<p>I believe that one of the stats that has kept UM from climbing the ranks even faster is the freshman retention rate. It's the kids that expect UM to be one big beach party, who are the ones that don't return for their soph year. As UM continues to attract higher calibur, more focused students, I expect their retention rate to keep rising. People who have educated themselves about UM know that the old reputation of "Suntan U" is no longer true.</p>
<pre><code> At UM, students work hard, learn hard and play hard.
</code></pre>
<p>Miami is an up and coming school. The new Prez, Donna Shalala will have them breaking into the next decile in no time.</p>
<p>As University of Miami starts attracting even higher caliber students, the students will learn that the glamour of Miami comes second to academics. This will cause less people to come here thinking it is going to be Paradise University and not return for either academic or other reasons. As a result, the retention rate will rise and Miami will have yet another statistic that will help fuel its rise up the ranks into the top 50 within the next 3-4 years and one day in the not so distant future Miami will be in the 30's alongside names such a NYU and USC.</p>