<p>Cincy is an awesome city - I mean, dude, where can you find Costco, IKEA, Jungle Jim, and Parts Express all in one continent ( optional). In terms of the above colleges, I’ve worked with people from Miami / Oxford, U Dayton, and Wright State (not in your list but…) All good schools with great reputation (esp. Miami). </p>
<p>For an off-the wall major suggestion, Experimental Psychology / Human Factors Engineering at U Dayton (or Wright State) as both schools are right where the field started at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the 50’s. And of course the USAF Museum in Wright-Pat, orders of magnitude better than the little place in DC :-)</p>
<p>Jungle Jim’s is the Mecca of foodies (for those who cook at home that is). Food from countries you never knew existed…</p>
<p>Before I start I have to explain Muppetson a bit. He is a “cup is overflowing” sort of kid. He is a happy, laid back, easy to get along with sort of kid. His teachers love him, his grades are Bs in Honors and APs. He loves his small private catholic school and the attention he gets from his teachers. He likes being a big fish in a small pond. He is a joy to be around.</p>
<p>John Carroll was the first college on our Ohio tour. We had toured Shippensburg, so it wasn’t the complete first one. He liked it “fine”. It didn’t bowl him over but he could see himself there. He liked that Einstein Bagels was in the Business school. I thought the school was really really pretty. Much prettier than I expected. I thought the neighborhood around it was lovely. He wanted to know why the football field was named “Shula”? Never did an answer for that. The weather was really weird. When we arrived for our tour at 8:50 in the morning it was sunny but cold. Fifteen minutes later (I kid you not) it was snowing. Intense snow and snow pellets(?). JCU said they use an unweighted GPA for admissions and merit scholarship purposes. This might take him out of the running as they said average GPA was 3.7.</p>
<p>Then, we toured Otterbein. Muppetson liked liked it better than John Carroll. I did not. I am not even sure why he liked it better. I guess that all important “fit” thing. I didn’t think it was a very pretty campus, but he liked it.</p>
<p>Saturday morning we visited Wittenberg. This is a lovely little campus with a beautiful chapel. One of the academic buildings had a lobby with staircases up 4 floors that kind of reminded me of a modern take on the Harry Potter Hogwart stairs. The only people we saw up were the football team (I think football…) all dressed in sweats and our guide. My son did not like Wittenberg and completely crossed it off of his list. Go figure. We liked the frisbee golf field through the center of campus.</p>
<p>Saturday afternoon we visited Miami on one of the event days. We arrived in time to drive around a bit and grab lunch at the bagel place not far from campus. It is a beautiful campus. I wish I could go here. Muppetson also loved the campus. He thought it was beautiful. He loved the kids lined up for ice hockey tickets (they had TVs and were camped out in the hall of the arena). He liked the big green spaces for playing pickup games. Even the parking garage matches the rest of the architecture. It is a very big school and the walking tour was thorough. My tootsies were getting sore. Apparently the girls there are supposed to wear tall boots and skinny jeans. I saw an awful lot of girls dressed like that (or maybe they were the same…lol). A good number of Moms were dressed like that too.</p>
<p>Miami has a reputation of being pretty preppy. Of course, not everyone, but I think being fair, MANY are. </p>
<p>Do you feel like all you really compared on this round of visits was campus “looks” and food? Did you do any investigating academics wise??? Looks of course are important, but be careful not to base decisions based solely on what appears to be “perks” or surroundings.</p>
<p>Make sure ( or, your son should make sure)that the school you choose has academics and activities that would suit your son. As someone who also had a son who was the “big fish” , even going to a small school was a BIG adjustment - no matter what, you generally start out as a “small fish” and that can be a real social adjustment.</p>
<p>Actually, we have heard of Don Shula as S and H are Green Bay Packers Fans. We just weren’t sure it was that Shula. Especially since it wasn’t mentioned in the tour.</p>
<p>Abasket, I know he needs to look at academics. He doesn’t really know what he wants to major in. He likes business, history, criminal justice, pre-law, sports managment, political science and public policy. He knows that the Farmer School of business is the best on the list of Ohio schools and maybe on the bigger list. He is just not ready to start parsing the academics yet. That said, Wittenberg is the one school that emphasized the liberal arts education that you get there. for some reason (unknown to me) he did NOT like this. I pointed out that all of the schools that we looked out have gen ed and/or liberal arts requirements. But, he still held it against Wittenberg. We were mostly doing the Ohio tour for him to decide what kind of school he was interested in big/small, public/private, catholic/not. I am not so sure we answered any of this. Luckily he is just a junior. We plan another long trip to Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota… over spring break.</p>
<p>Miami will stay in D’s heart forever. Loved it there. Exceeded all expectations for UG by far. It was originally her #2 choice and she is happy that it played out the way that she ended up there.<br>
OP, I am surprized not to see Case Western on your list.</p>
<p>…forgot to mention that Miami food is one of the best in the country as far as campus food goes. My personal favorite is colzone, I will crave it forever. We even had graduation dinner on campus during D’s graduation. It was very impressive in choices, service, place, everybody loved it and it was very convinient.</p>
<p>OP, it sounds like Miami will be a good fit for him. There are lots of kids from Cincinnati that go there, and Cincy has a large Catholic population. One thing to consider: Greek life is big there. If this is something he’s interested in, again - good fit. If not, it may not be his cup of tea. Just something to consider.</p>
<p>This brings us to Saturday night with one very tired and grumpy boy. We are a long way from home (a good 7 hours worth of driving) and 2 more schools to see. After a very long discussion, the decision was made to skip Xavier, sleep a little longer in the morning, and just see the University of Dayton. Note to self…don’t schedule 2 visits in one day if you can avoid it! </p>
<p>So, Sunday morning we arrive at Dayton in time for their early campus tour (although not in time for mass). It is a visit day so there are a lot of people there, about as many as at Miami the day before. This is a very pretty school. It was another one that I was prepared to not like. Muppetson loved it. He loved the discussion of Dayton being a “community”, much like his high school is a “family”. We went to the academic fair and he talked to the business school briefly and liked the ideas that they discussed with him. He talked to the music department who were excited to find out that he plays a very good electric bass and can play the stand up double bass. He talked to the prelaw people who gave him way to much information and kind of overwhelmed him in a good way. Every student he came in contact with wanted to help him. He loved it.</p>
<p>This brings us to last night. He talked about the trip and the colleges we had seen and kinda ranked them. If he gets in to the Farmer school of business, then it is his first choice (right now). Next is Dayton. Then, Miami without the business school. Then Otterbein and John Carroll. Still, NO to Wittenberg (fickle child). </p>
<p>After that announcement, he started talking about what he did like about Dayton’s school of business and how he felt he would be a bigger fish there than at Miami. And, he mentioned again how he liked the feeling of community and family that he felt there and that they emphasized. And, he talked about how in Dayton he really really liked the summer programs where the Dayton Profs go with you to study abroad. And, how much he loves having a close relationship with his high school teachers and is looking for that in his college. I think Dayton may be his number one for now, but it is closely related to Miami.</p>
<p>All in all, I think he learned a lot about all kinds of colleges. He has something to compare to now. It was a good trip all around. A little stressful in the middle, but definitely a good learning experience.</p>
<p>BTW, one more point in regard to music interest. D. graduted with Music Minor and had a ball with it, loved it, was great relaxation between her crazy difficult major classes. She knows people at Farmer also, they have great intern opportunities there.</p>
<p>Too bad about Wittenberg. I liked that school much more than Otterbein. I really did not care for Otterbein because at the time we toured (maybe 2.5 years ago) I really got a sense that they were not being accommodating to the out of state student. Also, at that time I believe I realized that my kiddo would get stuck in a transition of trimester to semester (if I remember correctly). I asked Qs about transferring community college credits from our cc to Otterbein, transportation to the airport, Qs about finals the day before Thanksgiving (I think that was on the trimester semester, but don’t recall for sure). Overall, admissions did not go out of their way to get answers to what they did not know, and the responses indicated that they were not really trying to get students from outside their geographical area even though I heard that they were trying to do just that. </p>
<p>By contrast, Wittenberg really rolled out the red carpet for my son. At the end of the day, despite merit aid, it was just too expensive for us.</p>
<p>So glad to hear your son liked UD. I am a proud graduate, many years ago but still have season tickets for basketball and make the trip sometimes 2-3x a week from Columbus. It did and still does have a sense of community. It is a good size in my estimation, around 8000. They offer so many opportunities, they are big on community service, if that is an interest to your son. I met my husband there first week of freshman year, he was a computer science major and we both had a wonderful experience, we are still both working in our respected fields. My husband was always hoping that our dgt would choose to go to UD but alas they do not have a dance major at Dayton. She is a freshman at Slippery Rock University. She too was a B student, is actually doing better than that her freshman year so far. The costs at SRU are wonderful, if you keep that B it is $21000 a year. And the dorms are incredible, wood floors, shower in the room, carpet. And her dorm has a dance studio in it so she can go practice anytime she wants. She is loving it there. Good luck as you look into more schools and narrow down all of those choices.</p>
<p>Miami University just got on my radar for DS (junior). Coincidentally, the OTHER Miami is his top choice right now, but we are looking for schools that are “safeties.” We’re from NY. There are a lot of MU people on this thread – any engineers? That’s what DS is interested in and MU is highly rated. Any perspectives to share for OOS students? I keep hearing that it’s a beautiful campus (like Delaware, where my DD is) and now I know that the food is good too! That is one of the three things DS is interested in (the others are class size and career opportunities)</p>
<p>Would love your insights (the MU thread doesn’t seem that active so I hope you don’t mind that I jumped in here). Thank you!</p>
<p>All the students I know who have gone to Miami of Ohio have been very happy there. Good amount of school spirit…football and hockey especially.
They have all been successful in post-graduation endeavors.
You might want to look in to any potential transportation hassles for out-of-staters…it is expensive to fly out of the Cincinnati airport (actually right across the river in Covington, Kentucky) so you might want to look at flights to Dayton, Columbus and/or Indianapolis as well. I understand that there are airport shuttles…but this is something you might want to check out.</p>
<p>MuppetMom, glad to hear your son loved UD! I’m a current student and will be going on a BreakOut over Christmas Break and going on a summer study abroad (well, outside the lower 48) to Hawaii. I plan to go to New Zealand and Ireland next year.
Dayton is a great school for business, 2 of my roommates are Bus majors and they love it. If you or MuppetSon has any questions about student life here, feel free to PM me! I’d love to help (as well as shamlessly plug my school)!</p>
optional). In terms of the above colleges, I’ve worked with people from Miami / Oxford, U Dayton, and Wright State (not in your list but…) All good schools with great reputation (esp. Miami). </p>