Several days ago we attended an admissions presentation and campus tour of Miami U and have to say that we were all very impressed. We had almost canceled the tour because it was the college my son knew the least about and none of us had ever been to Oxford or known much about Miami to encourage his interest. It just seemed to check off a lot of the boxes that he was looking for in a college. We all left there feeling like this might be where he’ll spend the next 4 years.
The one thing that is a red flag for us as parents is the lack of diversity on campus. It is by far the whitest campus he’s applying to. We visited during a school day and it was plain to see the lack of racial and ethnic diversity. Even their promotional videos during the presentation showed very few POC.
I can’t knock them for being true to themselves. At least they’re not planting POC in their promo materials for appearances. But as a Hispanic student, you hope to see more brown students among you—of any background. I haven’t read anything about racial incidents so it doesn’t seem to be that students are staying away because of that.
I did notice that the multi cultural center was prominently located in their student union which to me is a nice indication that a school cares about its students of color. If anyone has any experiences good or bad having to do with issues of diversity at Miami, I’d love to hear them. Or just any feedback on Miami. We really did love the school from the 3 or so hours we spent there.
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I wonder if you could speak to a couple of students from the multicultural center about their experiences as a student there?
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White students make up about 75% of undergraduates, according to College Navigator - Miami University-Oxford . However, most public universities in Ohio are similar, although The Ohio State University and Cleveland State University have somewhat lower percentages of White students (64-66%), and Central State University is 52% Black. That may reflect state population demographics to some extent (over 78% White, 13% Black, with few non-Black minorities), so probably not too surprising.
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But note that if you are coming from Indiana, the state universities in Indiana may be only a little more diverse. IU-B and Purdue are 64-69% White, for example. Indiana’s state population is also about 78% White.
That’s probably right, 75% when they count all ethnic groups. I usually go by the common data set info and look at numbers for the most recent class admitted. There were 5% Hispanic students and 3% African American students. But that’s not all. I just didn’t see many Asians or other groups.
We do live in Indiana but we’re in a metro area and my kids attend a very diverse school. But both of my kids have been looking at colleges in both coasts to try to experience life outside the Midwest, but the best college values are in the Midwest and the south. It’s so frustrating. And now we all genuinely like Miami so he may be here longer than he’d planned.
My husband and I both attended IU and know lots of kids who attend there now. I do think there’s a more diverse student body there. They’ve been making a huge push in that direction, especially for in-state URMs. But agree that overall it’s still pretty white.
PrdMomto1 that’s a good suggestion. Our friend’s daughter attends Miami so we’ll ask her for help in connecting with some students. She loves it there and is currently studying abroad.