<p>I am a junior in highschool and the Univerity of Miami is my #1 choice. I just love everything about it. I want to know about things that I should do in order to make my chances of getting in better and about college life in Miami, such as dorm life and nightlife If anyone can answer some questions for me that goes to UM it would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Lon.....I'm the parent of a UM student. The following is a something I wrote earlier for a friend who asked about UM but I hope it helps you. </p>
<p>Social scene - Miami, need I say more? LOL. Son says that the social scene is what you make of it. You can party as much or as little as one would wish. Most of the kids go to Sunset Place (a few blocks from campus) an outdoor mall and entertainment complex which has restuarants, theater, shop's and a sports/bar/arcade called Gameworks. This is close and a shuttle runs here during the weekends. Next place is CoccoWalk in Cocconut Grove. Basic same principal except more party oriented (i.e. Hooter's, more bars). South Beach is 30 minutes from campus depending on traffic. He's been some but says it's such a big hassle getting there and expensive, but I'd say they'll do it some. He said the freshmen tend to stay on campus more on the weekend than the upperclassmen, because there's actually alot to do there. Free first run movies, sporting events (and this is a biggie at least to him) and club activities. Clubs number over 150. Everything from A to Z. Fraternities and Sororities. Academic clubs, honorary societies, scuba clubs, three kinds of sports (NCAA, club and intermural's), religious organizations, and on and on. </p>
<p>Academics - Rising all the time. almost 18,000 applicants this year for 2,000 freshman spots. Avg. SAT has gone up to about 1300 give or take, avg. weighted GPA going in 4.0. The professors he said were what he expected. Some first rate, some so-so. Accessibility was not a problem with any of them, they all seemed to be willing to teach. He only had TA's in his lab's. Best programs: Marine Science, Music and Sciences (Bio and chem), Architecture. Worst I'm hearing: computer science (very small department).</p>
<p>Dorm Life: AWESOME he says. Divided into three kinds, Stanford/Hecht are actually two buildings each with two towers. Normal dorm rooms, co-ed, single sex per floor, double and single rooms, hall baths. Very social, open-door policy on the floors, quiet floors available. These are the dorms that most freshman get, and he says this is a good thing. The best to make friends in. Stanford has music practice rooms in it and is close to the music buildings so most music kids live here. Mahoney/Pierson and Eaton are all suite style. 2 to a room, 2 rooms sharing a bath. Says the kids here tend to mingle with suite mates and not so much open door policy. Apartments for upper classmen. Two cafeteria's (one attached to Standford/Hecht; one to Mahoney/Pierson) Food court in the student center has everything imaginable from Burger King, Sbarro's, Chinese Food, Java Juice, World's Fare (think food court in a shopping mall), Subway, etc. Food plans are 7,14, and 21, but freshman must purchase at least a 14. Included with this is dining dollars which can be used at the food court.</p>
<p>When your student arrives on campus their given a CaneCard. This is your room key, your dorm building key, your athletic card, library card, food card, and you can even put more money on it (called Cane Express Dollars) and use it as a pre-paid debit card. </p>
<p>Size - 9,000 undergrads, 3 to 4 thousand grad/medical students. Although you don't notice them at all, because the biggest portion of them are at the Marine campus (5 miles away) or at Jackson Memorial Hospital (7 miles) medical campus. Quiet campus, but very lovely. About 4,000 live on campus with the rest living in frats or off campus housing. It's amazing, you drive down U.S. Hwy 1 (very busy you can tell your in the city!!) you turn under the MetroRail and your on Ponce de Leon Ave., and it's quiet and serene. Palm trees, green walkways, the lake with the fountain....beautiful! I would say a car isn't a necissity although freshman can have them. Parking can be a problem if you have to have your car real close. One very large parking garage over by Stanford/Hecht although it's a good walk or shuttle ride to dorm. Mahoney/Pierson has it's own parking garage. Parking is about 300.00 per year. Shuttle buses run to the Publix grocery, the Grove and Sunset on the weekends free and for I believe 1.00 you can go anywhere the Metro Rail goes. Southbound to Dadeland where there is a very large Target or North to the Orange Bowl and the football games, or downtown to transfer to the People Mover which goes through all downtown. You can get around, but Miami's public transportation system does lack in my opinion.</p>
<p>Cost of attendance - Well.....I'm not going to lie. It's expensive. Tuition runs roughly 24,000 per year with room and board running close to 9,000 per year. Add on books, transportation, and other expenditures it's close to 40,000 per year. However......they are also VERY generous with scholarship merit money. Believe me, if they hadn't been he wouldn't have been there, he'd probably have been at UIUC. LOL. I would question whether it was worth it if I was paying full freight, but under the circumstances for us it was a no brainer. He got to go where he wanted for just a little more than state school.</p>
<p>Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
<p>1tcm, wow, thank you so much for all that great information. I dont know if you could help me with all of my other questions because I want to audition for the music school, unless your son is in music. But thank you so much for everything else.</p>
<p>Lon......LOL.....although my son is a science major, I have a relative that has gone through UM's music school. And the student I was helping awhile back ask the same questions about UM's music school. The following is an e-mail she wrote me regarding the music department. Hopefully you'll find it helpful as well! :) </p>
<p>"As for UM's music school... they have quite a few different programs to choose from. There are all the various forms of performances majors: keyboard, vocal, instrumental, jazz, etc... Then there's music education, music therapy, music engineering, music business (my major), music composition, jazz composition, musical theater and musicology (I think that's a new one, because I don't remember them having it when I was there).</p>
<p>Depending on the major, the requirements vary. Performance majors have a little more required of them. They have to be in a certain minimum number of ensembles, take a certain number of hours of private lessons, stuff like that. So do education majors. Both also are required to be in the marching band for a semester or two (I forget the specifics). Non-performance majors like mine and music engineering still have those requirements, but the amount of hours are fewer. I only had to be in 2 ensembles a semester and take one hour a week of lessons, while I think performance and education majors had to take twice that. We were also required to attend a certain number of on-campus concerts/recitals each semester, but since there are at least one a night all year, it's not hard to make the quota. Unless you're really lazy, like me, and wait until the last 2 weeks of the semester to cram them all in. I don't recommend doing that. :)</p>
<p>The school itself is very nice, but you saw that much. It's a little older than other parts of UM, but it's sort of quaint and secluded, being off at the one end of campus like it is. Also, they're building that new music library, which should be pretty nice once it's done. And they built a new studio and recital hall when I was there (it's the one right on the lake). The teachers were all really great, there weren't any I can think of that I didn't like except for the one sight-singing teacher that failed me because I can't sing. lol They have an entire building of practice rooms so students don't have to practice in their dorms, as well as rentable lockers to keep their instruments in (so they don't have to lug them all over campus).</p>
<p>The course load is a bit more than a normal student, though, because a lot of the required classes are only 1 or 2 credits. Some were even 0 credits (the weekly forums, one for your principal instrument and one for your major, if it wasn't performance). Anyway, instead of having just 4 or 5 classes to juggle per semester, I often had nearly 10, even though my credit load was still 16 or 18 or whatever the norm is. The music theory labs were 1 credit (the classes themselves were 2), as were the lessons and ensembles. Most majors also had to take some piano and some conducting courses (usually just a semester or two). Mainly, it was a lot of classes to attend, but most of them didn't require too much work (the forums were just an hour of listening to the teacher talk about what was going on that week, or a guest lecturer talking about their personal experiences. No homework or tests, and if you didn't attend and got an F, it didn't affect your gpa since the course didn't count for any credit hours. But I probably shouldn't be pointing that out.) There's a lot of outside work, though, between individual practicing, ensemble rehearsals and performances. But that's music. :)</p>
<p>Everyone also had to do what they called a jury at the end of every semester as part of your grade for your private lessons. You'd rehearse a solo piece, then perform it in front of a panel (or jury, hence the name) of teachers, usually your principal instrument's teacher, your instructor, the dean of your instrument's department and one other teacher within that department. They'd grade you based on your performance, and that would go toward your final score. Their version of a final exam. It was nerve-wracking, but I'm pretty sure it's a standard thing for all music schools. Performance majors also had to do their own recitals from time to time. I think that was part of the graduation requirments. My major had to do an internship, they had to do a recital (maybe even more than one).</p>
<p>You have to do an audition before begin accepted as well, but again, that's standard. I didn't make it on my first try, but got in later, once I'd started the year. I think the fact that they switched clarinet professors over the summer did it. The new professor was much nicer. :) And I think they went easy on me since I wasn't looking to major in performance, just business. They also excused me from the piano classes without an audition when I told them I'd been taking lessons since I was 8. I suppose I should also mention that, no matter what major you choose, you have to play an instrument. I think engineering might have been the one exception, but I can't say for sure. Even business majors still had to do all the basic music school stuff, which meant playing something. So, if someone wanted to be a music business major but didn't actually play an instrument, they were out of luck. They could take some of the classes, but that was all.</p>
<p>In addition to all the music-related requirements, there are still the standard UM ones as well. The basic math, english, foreign language stuff everyone has to take. Luckily, I got out of those as well with my AP stuff. But even going into college with enough credits to start me as a sophomore, it took me all 4 years to finish due to the music school's curriculum.</p>
<p>I'll admit I sometimes got annoyed with all the performance-related requirements such as the lessons and the conducting, but no matter what the major, this is still a degree from the School of Music, so they had to make it well-rounded, I suppose. The requirement for performance and education majors were so much heavier, I was glad to be a business major.</p>
<p>Anyway, the web site has pretty much everything your friend would need to get a feel for it. They put up all the different required curriculae for each major, descriptions of the different programs and ensembles and information about all the teachers."</p>
<p>1tcm, this is a big coincidence. the major that i want to go to UM for is music buisness, which your relative went through. if there is any way you could give me some way to contact her it would be SO great because I have so many questions about the major. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Hi. I am applying to the Honors Program at UM for fall 2005 admission. I am pretty sure this is where I will go if I get in, but that all really depends on scholarship money. Ok so here are the questions I can think of for now. Hopefully 1tcm can help me out a bit. Thanks so much in advance.</p>
<p>First off, what can a student expect in the way of scholarship money? I would not be able to afford the full tuition. I have a 1450 SAT and a 96.45 GPA. Any ideas? Comparision would be great if anybody is currently receiving merit based aid. </p>
<p>Also, I will be a biology major. What is bio like there? Does UM have a good premed reputation? I know that they have their own med school associated with them. How hard are the bio classes? What are the professors like?</p>
<p>How hard is the actual school to do well in? About how long does a student need to work each day to succeed? Is there time to enjoy my life in miami? Would you say the work is easy, medium or hard?</p>
<p>I am from new york. Will this hurt my chances in any way to the college or the honors program? I know it will hurt slightly in the scholarship area. If anybody wants to talk privately, please let me know and I will contact you via email.</p>
<p>I can't wait to hear from you! Thanks soooooooooo much!</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to share the information on U of Miami. We visited the school and it looks like a great institution. I do have a question about your statement that the average SAT is 1300...give or take. Do you recall where you saw this statistic and is this really the average or the median? The reason I ask is that the University's web site notes (under "applying and admission") that the middle 50% range is from 1200-1360. if you go to the "fast facts" section under this title earlier statistics (presumably from the prior year) cite the midrange 50% as 1160-1340. This appears to reflect a staggering one-year increase in the low end of the middle range SAT 1 of 40 points (presumably from the class of '07 to the current freshman class ('08). If the average (or even the median) is now somewhere around 1300, this means that, in effect, the situation is even more dire for those scoring in the range of the low 1200's because most of the scores in the middle 50% range would necessarily have to be substantially higher than 1300. Anyhow, do you recall where this statistic comes from? Thank you.</p>
<p>Okay....I'll try to answer best I can...(whew the pressure) :) </p>
<p>Coin....If you look on the website under financial aid you will see the merit scholarships which are given by the U. The minimum qualifications for each level is also listed. Now, my understanding is the this is the minimum. No exceptions.....but no guarantee as well. Apparently there are some kids who actually qualify for say the 3/4's but only get the 1/2 due to the limited number of scholarships. These qualifications have risen quite substantially in the last two years. </p>
<p>About the bio ......son loves it! But he loved bio/chem/physics before he went there anyway.....He told me that the intro bio classes are large, but the lab and discussion sections were small, more personal. Also that as far as preparation it was so-so. We had no AP classes at our small rural high school, so he was worried his Jr. College level classes wouldn't be prep enough. Couldn't have been more wrong. He sailed through the intro courses, but said some of his friends struggled even after having had AP Bio. As far as the respectibility of their pre-med program, I hear that it is one of the top programs at the U. I guess we will find out next year when son's MCAT scores arrive huh? LOL He likes all his professor's, of course says some are better than others, but that's to be expected. UM has a student ratings system where the students can rate the professors by class, so if a teacher teaches one thing better than another you can see their individual by class rating which he says is helpful. </p>
<p>As far as difficulty, if you ask him he'll tell you that the science classes are easy, but the English classes are more difficult than he'd have dreamed. You know, I've got to believe that it's all in the opinion of the student. Most classes that you enjoy will be easier than those you don't. Obviously...he hates literature. LOL Yes he studies...alot....but does that mean he doesn't have fun. Nope! No Way.....he's done everything from attending the World Series to South Beach to Fantasy Fest at Key West. And I don't believe being from New York will hurt you one bit......Lots of Northeasterners down there.......Good luck!</p>
<p>Relax....We parents receive this pamphlet in the mail keeping us informed of news going on about the U every once in awhile. The info on the SAT was in it......It was just a few points short of 1300 if I remember correctly. I tend to believe that it is rising dramatically for a couple of reasons. It has increased it's USNEWS rating twice in the last two years (last year not as much) but year before jumping either 6 or 8 spots (can't remember exactly) and secondly by looking at the merit scholarships. I can't say about SAT scores, since we're from the midwest and son submitted ACT scores but the ACT scores have risen about 2 pts. from where they were 2 years ago.</p>