I have been accepted to both U Miami and OSU and am having a hard time decide between the two. I am from Cleveland , Ohio and am ready to get away from the cold but am uncertain if the enormous cost that goes along with Miami is worth it. I would be paying somewhere around 45k for Miami whereas only 25k for OSU. The campus at Miami was absolutely beautiful with their student center and whatnot but I certainly did not like the freshman housing. Of course, over at OSU the housing is just as bad, if not worse, but the school is so much cheaper and that has to be taken into consideration. Academically, it sounds as if the two are fairly similar in caliber. Personally, I plan on majoring in either accounting or finance and the two business schools are again comparable. If anyone could provide input as to which way I should lean towards, I would whole heartedly appreciate it. Thanks.
Both solid schools and your major is offered at both. Make the business decision to choose the lower cost school. Your travel cost should be much lower also. You can plan on visiting Miami on vacation with some of the savings.
Thanks so much for your response! Do you think four years down the road an employer will favor one school over the other and do you believe one of the schools will present better opportunities down the line?
I do not think an employer will favor one over the other. Strive to get the best GPA you can, particularly in you major courses. Finance and accounting are very employable majors. If accounting interests you, look at the CPA requirements and see if OSU offers a program that give you enough accounting credits to site for the exam sooner, possibly through a joint BBA/MBA. Pursue internships and related work experience while in college and make an positive impression on your professors.
My son is in the same boat although because of the scholarship, the cost differential is $9K more for U Miami. I felt like U Miami is a smaller private school so, you won’t be lost in the sea of students as in OSU. My personal opinion though. So, we are leaning toward U Miami.
The biggest difference between 2 School is the Size, one fall under a small size private school the other is a Big State school. Since your Major is Finance why not make a Financial decision and choose a school with less Debt when you graduate.
@CantbelieveNJ 9k per year or 9k total?
same thing for @uofmiami2021
is it the yearly difference or overall difference?
If it’s yearly then definitely go to OSU without a doubt
if overall, consider UM…is 20k worth it?
that’s a new car right there.
These two schools are very similar academically. However, as a UM parent, the schools has a very similar feel to a public university in many ways. I also think that you will be surrounded by smarter kids at OSU as you will have many of the best and brightest from a large state attending OSU. If you want to work in Finance, OSU would be much closer to major employer cities such as Chicago and NYC. Therefore, I think that OSU trumps UM all around.
I disagree with @londondad
We all know private school > public school.
(When comparing near ranked schools)
Like UF vs UM.
Both are really good schools and ranked similarly, but there has to be less competition at UM, less strain on institutional financial resources, smaller classes, etc.
This is ignoring the cost of education. Obviously UMIAMI isn’t worth 40k more/year.
But if costs are close, take a private over public.
OSU close to NYC?? Laughable.
Even chicago is over 5 hours away.
Miami is a huge, growing city. Finance would be amazing there.
Location of UM > Location of OSU for internships hands down.
Umiami is the perfect size imo. Not too small, not too big. Campus isn’t huge (a plus for me at least).
Anyways, as I said earlier, even 20k/year more for UM is not worth it, unless you are financially comfortable and really, really want to go to UM.
The point I was trying to make is that, as a UM parent, my son says that he feels that UM is more like a state school than a private school. UM is large for a private school (11,000 undergrads), is very Greek oriented, and does not have a strong campus culture in that most kids move off of campus after freshman year. Furthermore, as a large private school, class sizes are big. It is not a school with a strong intellectual vibe. Also, more importantly, the majority of UM students are in pre-professional programs, which in uncommon for a top-50 private university. At many top privates,say Georgetown or Duke (or even top public Unis such as UVA), the Arts and Sciences college is home to the majority of students and is the engine of the university academically. This is not the case at UM, nor is it in the same league academically as the above schools.
If you are looking for a top private university experience look elsewhere than UM. There are many other better academic options in the South if you are looking for warmer weather.
Lastly, Miami is neither a large city (c. 400,000 population) nor a finance capital. (The metro area is in the top 10 nationally, although much of the economy is lower paid and tourism/leisure based). Believe me, finance is not amazing there, although it is a center for Latin American cross-border business. While Columbus is not that close to Chicago or NYC, it is close enough to be able to find jobs or summer internships (you could easily drive to Chicago for an interview if you wanted to). Ironically, as a city, Columbus OH, is over twice as large at Miami (but the Miami metro area is larger). By comparison to NY, Chicago, or even Boston or Charlotte, Miami is a financial backwater.
Student faculty ratio is 12:1
I agree with your point that UMiami does not have a strict academic vibe (how can this be a bad thing, though? seems pretty chill). But, there are not too many better academic schools in the South. Duke, Wake Forest, Emory, maybe UNC.
Emory is more than 50% Pre-med.
I still think it would be better to be right in Miami than a 5 and a half hour drive from Chicago (excluding rest stops).
@uofmiami2021 I didn’t like the housing much either. My main issue with it was the lack of a communal kitchen in the freshman dorms.
^ The housing is awful as is the food! They are building a great new dorm complex but it won’t be ready until late 2019 or 2020.
The thing about UM is that is has some very strong majors and programs, just not enough of them. It’s also not a place that you would seek out if you wanted to major in the humanities or social sciences. The schools that you mentioned above are just going to be more consistently excellent across a wider range of majors. I would add UVA, W&M, URichmond, Davidson, GTech and Vandy to the list of Southern schools better than UM.
@londondad forgot about Vandy. As a South Florida guy, my idea of the south is not Virginia, but to each his own 
Still gets cold up there. GTech too is a specialized school only good for Engineering basically. I agree with you, though, those schools listed are all great schools.
UM food is bad? The cafeteria didn’t look too bad to me when I visited.
Interesting perspectives. The Miami metro area had 2.67 million people in 2014. (The actual city of Miami is small and the UM campus is of course in the city of Coral Gables, not Miami.) Yes, it is a place where people are coming to get professional skills. That is a good thing. OP wants to major in Acctt/Fin and will find a strong business school and connections. The campus has a relaxing effect but that doesn’t mean that learning is not taking place and that intellectually strong people aren’t being challenged. As a South Florida gal, my heart is always at the U, but since OP is already in Ohio, that is a plan too.
@TQfromtheU You make some good points. We both agree that OP would be better off at OSU due to the cost factor and that both programs are likely to be similar. However, just to clarify, some posters above made the point of highlighting the benefits of a private school such as Miami. Miami, however, has more in common with a large public university than a private university. If someone was looking to Miami for 'the best of both worlds" a strong business school combined with a solid liberal arts education, Miami is not that type of place (although the business school there seems okay). As you mentioned, Miami “is a place where people are coming to get professional skills”. For someone looking for that other type of school, they should be checking out Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgetown or even UVA (UVA, while bigger than UM, has a strong liberal arts tradition and makes the Business kids spend 2 years in A&S first).
Columbus is the largest city in Ohio and also the state capital. There are finance and accounting internships there.
OSU has an absolutely fanatical, huge base of alumni too.
Not saying choose it over UM but don’t for that reason.
@OHmomto2 Good point. The Columbus OH metro area population of 1.9 million is not insignificant!
I’ve been to Columbus. Columbus is not Miami. 
Ok, ok I’m teasing!
IDK But I’d rather be by the beaches and where you can still find plenty of jobs. Say no to snow!