<p>So Miami has offered me an amazing financial aid package but I'm not sure how I feel about the school. Unfortunately, I have never gotten a chance to visit and won't be able to before the May 1st deadline. I love the idea of a cool city like Miami, amazing weather, and an awesome social scene. Do all of these areas live up to the hype? The thing holding me back is that I don't know much about their academic programs and prestige. How is their business program? Engineering? Would I still get similar opportunities out of Miami as I would say from Notre Dame? </p>
<p>I love UMiami, but the other schools you were accepted to are much more prestigious. Notre Dame has an amazing network, the Air Force Academy will open ANY DOOR you want after graduation. UVA and Chapel Hill are amazing institutions. Do any of the other schools come close to the price of UMiami?</p>
<p>Where are you from? If you are looking for a cool city Miami is one end of the spectrum and ND is the other (unless we are talking temperature!) UVA and Chapel Hill are somewhere in the middle and have reputations as good (and maybe better…esp. UVA) as ND. I have to agree with @living61 that all your choices are more prestigious than Miami. Have you visited UVA and UNC? If not, you should if you get the chance. </p>
<p>UMiami seems out in left field in comparison to your other choices. (UMiami vs AF Academy especially). It depends how much money factors into things for you- although if it just about money you can’t beat the price of a service academy. All your choices are solid, but UMiami doesn’t have the same prestige or alumni network of the others.</p>
<p>Try to choose a School where you think you like to Work after Graduation. If you planning to work in Midwest or North East then Miami might not be the Choice. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong about UMiami. It is an academically solid university. Small classes, private school environment, great hands-on opportunities, involved professors, wonderful teaching hospital, school spirit, big sports, Greek life! It has it ALL! It’s just not quite on the same “prestige” level as the others. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies! I know my final list of schools is kind of comical because they all vary from each so much but I wanted a diverse group of options! I guess I’m wondering if the prestige gap is close enough that I could take Miami’s great financial offer but still experience some of the same opportunities/benefits. Also I want to use it to try and convince the other schools to match their offer. But I realized I didn’t know much about Miami in terms of its strength of different departments and internships</p>
<p>Consider that you can do ROTC at all of these schools (other than the Air Force Academy of course).</p>
<p>You will not get similar opportunities out of Miami compared to Notre Dame, unless you want to live in Florida after graduation.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is a much better university… generally speaking, although in some departments Miami might equal ND, or be slightly better.</p>
<p>Notre Dame has a truly national network of alumni who are totally devoted to ND, and those people can help you find work, or almost anything else. Only Harvard and a couple of other universities can boast the depth and breadth of the ND network.</p>
<p>Occasionally, you can leverage universities by telling them about your other options. Worth a try, but in this case they will probably shrug their shoulders and say something like “if you want to go there…”</p>
<p>Only consider Miami if money is a problem, in which case compare it solely to the Air Force Academy (which obviously has the best financial package out there, including a guaranteed job upon graduation).</p>