Kelley (IU) vs Farmer (Miami OH)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Indiana University - Bloomington
1

I have been accepted to both of these schools and trying to decide between them. I was accepted into the Honors Program at IU, too. The costs (OOS- Northeast) are essentially the same with the scholarships. I think Miami might be like $1,000 cheaper.

I love both campuses and could see myself at both places. With that said, I like Miami’s size of about 15,000 undergrads much better than IU’s large school size, but I heard and noticed that IU does not feel that big at all. Plus, the Honors college would help in terms of class size. However, it still would not be like Miami’s class sizes.

I am a HUGE sports fan. Obviously, both schools have good sports and strong school spirit. However, I think IU has the edge here because it is a Big Ten school and college basketball trumps all sports. I do like hockey, though, and Miami seems to have a lot of school spirit as well, which is what is most important to me regarding the sports teams.

As a college student, I know that I am going to want to be able to have a nice big college town/ city where I could hang out for the weekend nights. Outside of their immediate area, I understand that these schools are both relatively isolated. Despite this, they both have nice college towns built around the universities. Bloomington seems to have more dining options and such, while Oxford has its nice, but fewer options.

Now, let’s get into the academics and business programs. Indiana has the higher ranked business school. It has established its name within the region, possibly throughout the country. Miami is not far behind in the rankings and has established a strong program. They both have incredible job placement rates in the mid-90%. I do not know where I would prefer to work after graduation between Chicago and New York. Would one school allow more opportunities to work in New York? I do not consider Indiana University as a whole to be the greatest institution. I think that Miami University clearly has the edge, considering the entirety of the university. However, IU seems to have the slightly better business program. This vast difference in academic quality between the university and business school brings up some concerns. It makes me question if the business school is as good as the numbers say.

I know that this you might not be able to help me perhaps to the extent of which I am looking for, but any advice on which school sounds like it is best for me or which school you would pick would go a long way. Thanks for reading through all of this and helping me decide between these two great schools.

2

I had the same decision and chose IU. IU was cheaper for me, but I would have paid slightly more to go here over Miami if necessary. Regarding sports, Miami does not have good teams at all in football or basketball. The football team went 3-9 playing an awful schedule and the basketball team went 13-20 again playing an awful schedule. IU went 6-6 playing a much better schedule and played a lot of good teams tough like Ohio State, Iowa, and Michigan. They should have won against Rutgers and Michigan as well. The basketball team went 27-8 and made the sweet 16. IU does not have a hockey team, but sports are not even comparable. People here really care about the basketball team, and it looks like the football team is finally improving.

I visited both schools and I preferred Bloomington to Oxford. There are plenty of restaurants downtown that are walkable and there are also buses to take you there.

Kelley is ranked higher than Farmer, and Kelley places more graduates in Chicago than any other city. Second is Indianapolis, and third is NYC, so you can definitely work in New York or Chicago if you go to IU.

Regarding IU as a whole, they have several other top-tier programs in the country such as the Jacobs School of Music, School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Folklore Department. Kelley is ranked higher than the university as a whole because it’s harder to get into than other majors. Also, I have taken 3 classes outside of Kelley so far, and all 3 have extremely qualified professors who clearly know what they are doing and are passionate about what they teach.

Lots of my family members went to IU, I grew up as an IU sports fan, I had friends going there, and it’s closer to home, so those things made my decision even easier. I still think that objectively, IU is the better choice and I still most likely would have chosen it anyway.

3

Yep, totally agree with @iubaccounting points.

I too am OOS and visited Farmer the day before my IU tour. I was also considering schools on both coasts. While Miami of Ohio was nice, the town was almost nonexistent and the opportunities on campus were just too limited. Bloomington actually attracts tourism, and the campus opportunities are unbelievable.

The Farmers business curriculum is also more limited and rigid than at Kelley. Kelley is more than “slightly” better. My only knock on Kelley is that it’s getting too big with over 5000 kids, but that leads to opportunities smaller schools just can’t offer.

Make no mistake about it, Kelley is also vastly superior to Farmers in terms of name recognition in the real world. (do you really want to spend the rest of your life explaining “no, not that Miami”?) I have yet to talk to a company or recruiter that didn’t already know about IU and Kelley.

IU is like any flagship state university in that the huge numbers drag down the averages so forget about the overall university rank. The individual colleges at IU are what’s important. SPEA is rated #1 over Harvard. Jacobs is one of the top 5 music programs in the country. Kelley grads are recruited by all the top consulting firms in addition to the Fortune 500.

Pick the school that makes you want to be there and leads to the places you want to go.

4

@anonymoussr0829 I forgot to address one of your points - class size. Miami does stress this, and I too was worried about giant classes.

Kelley classes are generally in the 30-40 person range and frequently much smaller. My largest class had 200 people with my smallest being less than 20.

Only a few 100/200-level courses at IU are big lectures, and they are almost always Arts and Sciences courses outside of Kelley. The big lecture courses almost always have required discussion sections each week that are 30 or less people. You’ll usually attend a lecture or 2 each week with 100+ people and then attend the small discussion section once a week led by an assistant. Even then, the big lecture professors with 1000+ kids to teach each semester still hold office hours where you can get to know them directly.

I am in Kelley Business Honors and it’s limited to around 150 new kids each year. I have met or been in class with just about all of them.

Check out the class sizes for the fall by browsing through the course registration database here:
http://registrar.indiana.edu/browser/soc4168/index.shtml

You’ll see smaller discussion sections listed below the big lecture sections.

5

I feel qualified to weigh in here - Miami has been on my radar my entire life. I grew up an hour away, then have lived in various places within an hour for 90% of my adult life. Three of my high school friends went there, two kids of friends recently graduated, two are currently attending, and so on. We’ve done a visit to IU and I worked in Bloomington years ago. I’ve hired and worked with grads of both.

I would pick IU.

One of my Ds is a rising junior. She has already eliminated Miami, but part of that is that it’s too close to home (30 minutes currently).

Oxford is quite small outside of the school, and it’s a pretty run down town, there’s not enough population to support a diverse range of businesses in town when school’s not in session. Whereas Bloomington has a decent population to be a decent place to live even outside of school. Both are roughly the same distance from a big city (Cincinnati or Indianapolis) when you need those amenities.

I like Miami’s campus slightly better, but IU’s is still great. Miami’s is more spread out. Miami’s social scene has a reputation of being clique ish. If you’re not in the right frat/sorority, or drive the right car, or wear the right clothes, you can feel shut out. IU’s big enough to overcome that - you’ll find a niche.

IU has it all over Miami in sports - better conference, more involvement - with the glaring exception of hockey, that OP mentioned. Miami is flat out great at hockey, with multiple Frozen Four appearances.

Finally, the most important aspect - the school. Farmer is good, but Kelley is great. Opportunities from Farmer are good, especially in Ohio, but if you’re tops at Kelley, they’re great.

Miami is in state for us, and if it wasn’t so close to home, it would be on D’s list. IU is high on her list. Admission shouldn’t be a problem for her, but net cost out of state might be - we’re in a spot where we can’t get need aid and are relying on merit aid if she wants anything except an in state public. If cost of attendance is similar, I’d pick IU and would hope D would do the same.

Good luck on your choice.