<p>Bluecker, it all depends on what a particular student is looking for. All other schools my son applied to were much bigger than Miami, and one of his worries may have been it might be a little too small. For someone who wants a small liberal arts school, for example, then 15K or more students may be too big. My son and I both really liked Miami. I do suggest a visit. </p>
<p>I loved miami, my son liked it. He applied to smaller schools like washington and lee ( 1800 students), vanderbilt (6000) and butler (4000). He received an awesome merit award from miami. After a second visit, he just felt it was too big. He is quiet, introverted, and the smaller LAC fit him better. He chose butler in the end. ( vandy and W&L were his first choices but gave no money ). Me, I would attend miami in a second. </p>
<p>To answer your question of why he felt it was too big : spread out campus , too many dorms, long walk to library and rec center if you get placed in a edge of campus dorm, he was also caught up on the number 15,000 students. </p>
<p>^For many, having spread out campus and walking from one class to another is a positive things. My D. used to go over exam material in her head while walking from one place to another. This happened to be a great skill to have while in Med. School. Most medical students are living closely and walking to school.<br>
Any way, campus is gorgeos and was one of the main attraction for my D. (the bigest was a strong pre-med program). The other advantages were the largest Merit offer out of all her acceptances (full tuition at Miami, only one other UG - small private came close), Honors college with priority registration. We never planned for her to be in Greek. At the end, her sorority experiences ended up having the major positive impact for the rest of her life, who would thought of that? She and her friend were the only 2 pre-meds in her sorority. Pre-meds simply do not have much of free time. Three years later, she is still very happy about her participation in sorority. Miami is very big on Greek.
If kid is planning on working hard (good idea at any place), you cannot go wrong choosing Miami. So many opportunities for UG students with the school specific focus on UG education. They fully deserve the 3rd spot in nation for teaching undergrads. </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP, I know there are a lot of Miami supporters on here, including yourself, as I’ve followed the Miami thread for a while now. My S is a very strong student and is considering Mech Engineering. He has a lot of various criteria he is considering for his school choice (not just prestige). His prospecitve list includes Notre Dame, UofWisconsin, Iowa State, UofIllinois, Purdue, Michigan State, and of course Miami,OH. As a long shot, he’ll also consider Cornell and Dartmouth (mainly to see if he can even get accepted there). As I said, prestige is not everything in a school, and Miami has a LOT to offer. Affordability will play a major role in his decision, and I am drooling at the Miami Merit award program. What do you know of Miami’s ME program?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of ME program as my D. was a Zoology major pre-med, way way too far from any engineering to be able to form any opinion. You need to check it out. We knew that Zoology department is strong at Miami, so, basically you will have to research how strong is their engineering department. Another thing that is crucial for pre-med is to fullfill Research requirement. Is thissomething that your S is planning to pursue? I said that Research internship is easy to obtain at Miami because of their focus on UG vs. Graduate students. Still another aspect that D. liked was that TAs were not giving lectures, only profs. Again, focus on the students, not on personal research. Profs were also available for assistance, but that might be more in Honors classes.<br>
Good luck to your S. My D. never applied to ANY prestigious place at all, she did not care for any. She wanted to be close from home and she said she will do fine at any place that fits her. She took a lot of time to research every UG under consideration. She spent numerous overnights, talked to current students, checked campuses, it was not just Merit award. She even considered sport participation, but she discovered quickly that pre-meds do not have much time for that. She quit her sport after freshman year. </p>
<p>bluecker – S is enrolling at Miami this fall, planning on electrical or mechanical engineering. Miami’s engineering program is ABET-accredited, but “smaller” and less renowned than other nearby schools. That’s largely because (like the rest of Miami) it focuses solely on educating undergraduates. Most schools’ reputations are built on their graduate research programs but largely ignore the undergrad experience. My S liked the professors he met (all of whom actually teach – no TAs giving lectures), he liked the brand-new facilities and options to intern, liked the idea of graduating in 4 years rather than having mandatory co-ops. Also, in the event he ends up hating engineering studies (it happens), I like that Miami has great places for him to land if he changes majors. I know that ME in particular is the largest of the engineering majors at Miami, and the department seems to have fun stuff going on. They compete in an extracurricular student-led “baha racer” build competition, among others. Many engineering students have non-engineering extra-curriculars (S’s roommate-to-be is planning on ChemE and marching band), which hopefully lets them get the full college experience despite tough academics. Check it out.</p>
<p>bluecker - I would second the comments above re two things; the access to profs and the focus on undergrads. Which gets to a couple of questions: a) does your child intend to get a graduate degree? b) is your child more of a tech-task focused person or more of a big picture/strategic person? If the feeling is that the undergrad is where they will stop and head to industry, while I don’t have direct experience with the ME program, we do with comp sci and I do with their architecture program. Both - in fact all of the Miami programs - have common focus, which is to deliver that degree within the context of what might otherwise be a liberal arts education. Also, there is a reason that Miami is ranked #3 most years in Undergraduate Teaching (after Dartmouth and Princeton) - it’s what they do, it’s Miami’s “brand,” if you will. Miami is a liberal arts school masquerading as a state university with technical disciplines like engineering, in the best sense of that. So if your child is a future prairie dog, then probably they’re better off going to a more overtly tech-focused school, like RIT or IIT for example. But if your child is tech-oriented but also more social, i.e. more likely to drift into management, then Miami will do very well by him. My S is a freshman and has four - four - advisors. They do a good job making sure the kids don’t get lost or fall through the cracks. Other than a first-semester one-credit “welcome to the engineering and computer science school” class, taught in an auditorium, all of his classes have been 30 kids or less - several less than 20 and that’s as a freshman - and zero taught by grad teaching assistants. So your son will get the personal attention while having the greater resources behind the programs that a State U offers. If he then wants to go on to grad school, that’s another Miami strength. They do ridiculously well getting their kids into grad schools, from med school to law school to biz school to doctoral programs in most every discipline. They do that because their kids can think and write and they’ve been getting advising to help them identify and focus on their goals. If it sounds like I’m an alum booster - I’m not. My wife is a Georgetown alum and I went to UVa - both do exceptionally well preparing well-rounded students for grad school - and we both are huge Miami fans. So again, unless your son is ready dive into the ME textbooks and labs and not mess with non-engineering courses as much as possible and not come up for air until graduation (and that works for some), then Miami would be an excellent choice. I mean, plus, as also noted, the campus is freakin’ gorgeous. “To have lived such a life in such a place” is an old Miami saying for a reason.</p>
<p>^Absolutely everything above is backed by my D’s experience as a pre-med. This group is also very challenged because of requirements to comlete various medically related ECs. While many have trouble looking for Medical Research opportunities, as I have metnioned, D. had an easy time getting internship on campus. She was looking for a great college experience and got more out of her 4 years at Miami than anticipated, including Greek, trip to New Zealand (organized group), 2 minors and absolutely FREE summers at home, she did not need to do any additional academic related activities outside of her school year. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your feedback. While Miami may not be my son’s first choice (his first choice is his reach school), We have Miami high on his list as his second choice. We plan to visit next Spring to confirm our opinions of the school to this point. It will come down to affordability as an OOS student.</p>
<p>^Miami was also my D’s second choice. Looking back and also being very familiar with her original first choice, she is very happy that she ended up at Miami. Going with the flow seems to be working for her so far. The deal breaking in decision making was that D. was accepted to the program at Miami that used to have only 10 spots. It has been cnacelled since then. The reason for her original #1 was that she wanted to go to Med. School there. Ironically, she eneded up at this Medical School anyway. She said that combination of Miami UG and her current Med. School was better for her than her original plan.<br>
You will not know until you actually attend, #2 might be a better choice after all.</p>