My D just decided to commit to Miami. We are excited!
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Excited for her! My two oldest who are at Miami study opposite subjects, but both have had excellent professors, good classes/rigor and career support through Miami and are having the time of their lives â exactly what college should be!
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Iâm trying to decide between Miami and VTech for biology. If anyone has some insight that would be great. I have done pro/con charts but they come out very close. Miami is offering me a lot but I think that VTech might have a better biology program (possibly).
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Niche rates one #81 and the other #94 - I wonât tell you which is which because it doesnât matter. Biology is typically a major that ends in a low paid job or requires grad school. You need to go to the school that you feel most comfortable. While both are âruralâ, Miami is closer to the city and the campus is manageable. VA Tech is not near a city - Roanoke is not really a city but its immediate surroundings are much bigger than Miami. Itâs also in the mountains. For my money, thereâs not a nicer campus in the country but it is massive.
Assuming finances are similar, where do you feel a spark when you visited? Having a feel for the campus is what matters.
Iâd pick VA Tech - know why? Niche - #2 food in the entire country - so they must have good eats!!! Miami - not bad but #242.
Dont go to Miami over vatech . The town and drive to get there is awful. There is nothing to do but party if you care more abt that than academics.
The rankings mean nothing really. If you do well at either school you can do whatever you want. I assume you want to go to graduate school so take the cheaper alternative and save your money for grad school. As to @avaw21 comment its not like Blacksburg is NYC for goodness sake. Blacksburg is no easier to get to than Oxford. Both school have about 18K students. Plenty to do at each school and enough students to find your tribe.
Good luck with your decision.
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Having been to both Iâd say - and itâs all opinion:
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Burghdad is right - rank doesnât matter - people need to spend four years and should pick the right school but not that Niche is the source, but Va Tech was 81 in bio and Miami 94 - and frankly, thatâs insignificant. When people look at rank, they forget you have to spend four years there - so thatâs important.
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Both campuses are nice - but my personal belief is Duke and Va Tech are the nicest campuses in the country. My daughter disagreed - applied to neither. Va Tech is insanely big whereas Miami is manageable. Miami is less than an hour from Cincy but the town offers very little I saw. Blacksburg is not NYC - but there was more there for sure. Also, if you enjoy the âoutdoorsâ - you will be closer to nature in Blacksburg.
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Va Tech is bigger student wise
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If sports (football is your thing), both have but Va Tech will be big time vs. Miami mid-major.
If Miami made you a great offer, that means a lot. People act like - I went for $20K or $30K or just had to take $20K in loans.
It sounds great, but even if you spend $3K or $5K or $10K - itâs a lot of money - and took your parents a long time to make. So why unnecessarily waste?
Good luck.
Sorry I stand corrected VT is much larger at 29K undergraduates to Miamiâs 18K or so.
Also my D21 who chose Miami over VT thought that VT was the nicest campus of the 9 she applied too. That said she loves the Miami campus as well.
I will also acknowledge that with in about 2 miles of Miami you are in the middle of the corn fields. That said the little town of Oxford is nice and Hamilton, Dayton and Cincy are within 45 minutes.
However my D21 got 38K a year in merit money at Miami and 0 at VT. The decision was very easy between the two in that context.
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Thatâs a very easy decision indeed !!
Did you visit? My Dâs friend absolutely hate the VT campus - I was shocked. She loved the architecture and Blacksburg, but not how spread out the campus was. I purposely didnât take D to VT because I thought she would love it and we wouldnât get money.
Another thing I didnât like about VT is the crowding. Most move off campus sophomore year. My neighborâs son was looking for off campus housing the October of his freshman year.
Oxford is a small town, but my D felt it was the perfect size. Enough to do, focus on the kids, walkable campus with great academics and school spirit.
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I visited (drove around) Miami in the winter. I am trying to visit VTech before the May 1 deadline but itâs coming up very fast and my schedule is weird. Itâs a 6-hour drive from KY where I live. Miami is around 2 and a half hours away. Miami does seem like a good-sized campus and there is enough room to stay on campus.
Thank you! I think Miami is my best choice. They put me in Prodesse scholar and the Honors College and gave me $29k in scholarship (though money isnât my main concern, which Iâm thankful for). Miamiâs campus I have seen and I think itâs beautiful. Iâm really trying to go see VTech before the deadline. Itâs a far drive. But the campus looks nice. Sports is where Iâm going back and forth (not a big football/sports person but Iâm not against trying and want to during college). Even though the ranks donât really matter, both schools are close and in the top 100. I want to get my masterâs degree and Miami is offering me guaranteed admission to a combined BS/Masters degree in 4/5 yrs.
Sounds like Miami is for you - but if you have any doubt, hop in the car after school tomorrow, get to Blacksburg. You donât want to wonder for four years - did you make the right call.
If you go and you like, but donât love Blacksburg - then Miami was right. If you go and you fall in love, youâll be glad you went.
Miami has D1 football -not Va Tech level - but you said itâs not important, but youâll try it. So Miami is fine. Itâs close to home. Itâs way cheaper - and in the end, that should matter most.
It sounds like Miami is where you should and will end up - but if youâre going to have this gnawing at you for four years, go check at Blacksburg - the campus is stunningâŠbut massive.
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My FD loves watching sports and that has of course not been an option this year. On both our visits to Miami, pre-covid, we went to hockey games and they were so fun. They also have so many intramural and club sports too.
Canât say enough about how much she loves her campus and the community. As far as the size of the town, most honors students donât have lots of free time, but she has had no problem finding things to do when she does have down time. She is not into Greek Life or going to the clubs. There is plenty of that though if that is your thing.
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Think youâll be happy either way, good luck. My dad, uncles and cousins are all VT alums and love the school, have heard good things from multiple decades.
And we know many people who went to Miami 25 years ago and in the last 5 years, and theyâre also very satisfied alumni. Win/Win, keep thinking about whatâs the priority if everything else is equal. Youâll get there.
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As a parent of a student currently at Miami let me say overall the experience at Miami has been good. Sure covid has hampered some things, but we generally have been happy.
Honors is important for class registration as it gets you ahead of many people. Trust me that helps.
My D19 wanted to go to Pitt(urban) compared to Miami. But I think she realized that when you put 16-18K kids in a small area you donât need an urban setting to have stuff to do. The off campus housing is close to campus that is where the action is at.
Miami has been good for D19 in that she was in a lab and now just got published a couple of weeks ago. She also will be in a lab over this summer.
Donât let the rural area of Oxford scare you off.
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Mine too at the University right down the street from CMU! It was a beautiful offer and he ran with it! He was 2019 Valedictorian. Now a junior at Pitt.