<p>I've heard UMiami being mentioned on several other threads on this site & that captured my attention. What's this university known for academically? Why did you choose it? And if you aren't a student there, why did you consider it?</p>
<p>Although a good school overall, Umiami is best known for the city of Miami, and not the school</p>
<p>UM is well known, first and foremost, for being a very well rounded school. That is, it’s good in every respect, not just one or two. We have great academics, we have great sports, we live in a great city, and we have a ton of diversity. This is why I picked the school.</p>
<p>Since you asked about academics, though, specific programs that are well known include Marine Science (known as one of the top schools in the country), Music (Jazz program is #1 in the country), Philosophy (top 30), Communications (as much as everyone who isn’t in the program makes fun of it), Business, Architecture, and Engineering (100% job placement!). UM is also well known, in Florida at least, for its strong pre-med curriculum and its strong focus on sciences.</p>
<p>Do you have any ideas for what field you might want to go in to? If so, I could provide you with a bit more information on that area.</p>
<p>I plan to major in biology & do pre-med.</p>
<p>UM has a great pre-med program, but I’d advise that if you’re pre-med you at least consider other majors (regardless of where you go). Biology majors have the lowest acceptance rate to med schools; people who major in the humanities tend to have the highest acceptance rates (biochemistry is an exception to this rule, and is up there with the humanities). Med schools are looking for diversity in their incoming classes - they don’t want a class full of biology majors. But that’s up to you, and you have plenty of time to think about what you want to major in.</p>
<p>As far as the pre-med program at UM, it’s well known by med schools for being a great program, and according to our pre-med director is the only school in the state besides UF considered by Med Schools to be Tier 1 for admissions purposes. In our Biology dept. (about which I know alot because I’m getting a major in Biology) the Undergraduate Research office helps to connect students with research opportunities both on campus and at the Miller School of Medicine. In case you didn’t know, research makes you look excellent for medical school admissions. The pre-medical advising office also helps you to make sure you’re on track, doing what you need to do, and all the professors and advisors in the biology department are willing and able to advise you on your courses and what you should do to get in to med school.</p>
<p>Also, since the class sizes are so small (well, in the bio department they don’t get really small until you’re in the upper level classes, but they’re still many times smaller than those classes in giant schools like UF and Ohio State) you can get very close interaction with professors, which helps tremendously with getting recommendations from your profs. Best of all, med schools <em>know</em> that class sizes here are small, so they know they can trust what your professors are saying about you.</p>
<p>For those of us who live in Florida, if you’re doing pre-med, you either go to UM or UF (assuming you get in to one of the two). On a national level, UM is well known for its biology program and particularly its pre-med program. In fact, when I was in high school (a school in Colorado) I told my college advisor that I wanted to be premed, and asked her which schools she thought would be right for me based on that alone. On the top of her list was UM.</p>
<p>But, again, the great thing about being premed is that you can major in whatever you like. So if you don’t want to do biology, you can take your pick of any of the other great programs that UM has. Or, you can do what I’m doing, and just major in them all… lol…</p>
<p>Hi, i was wondering if you could tell me more about the school of communications and why " people make fun of it" ? 
you seem to know alot
Thank youuu</p>
<p>**Historically speaking<a href=“this%20is%20a%20necessary%20preface”>/b</a> the school of communication was known for being the easiest program to get in to at UM. One of my Professors (who shall not be named) told me a story about when he/she was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, when there was a really good football player that we wanted on our team, but he got rejected from the College of A&S (score stuff), and so the president came to him/her and asked him/her to the student in as a special case. The Professor of whom I’m speaking said ‘no,’ and told the president to tell the student he should apply to the school of communication.</p>
<p>People still occasionally joke about the school of communication, but really they’re nothing but jokes. Now, the communications school is really well ranked (so I’ve been told, anyway, but after a quick google search I can’t find any rankings of communication programs) and one of the programs that the school is known for. One of the main reasons is that there are a lot of internship opportunities at news sources here in South Florida, not only on campus (with The Hurricane, WVUM and UMTV) but also off campus, with news channels and sports channels.</p>
<p>No one made fun of the Comm School while I was there (at least not in front of me). No, it’s not the most rigorous academically, but it takes A LOT of time (depending on your major I guess) but I can’t count the number of nights I was in the computer lab til 4/5 AM editing video and such. Plus, you have to double major. And if you’re in the Comm School, you shouldn’t just be in school, you should be working at the newspaper/yearbook/magazine/tv station/radio station/etc and/or doing internships pretty much the whole time you’re in school. I’d say of all the majors, PR is talked about as being the easiest, but hey, if you wanna go into PR, there’s nothing wrong with being a PR major.</p>
<p>And who cares if it’s the easiest if that’s what you wanna do? I could have done anything - medicine, law, engineering, business, etc, but I CHOSE journalism, I didn’t pick it cause I was too stupid for everything else. The Miami Comm School is highly regarded in the industry, maybe not as much as Mizzou/Syracuse/NWestern, but it’s pretty high up there.</p>
<p>I think UMiami is highly respected and well known for its sciences and that is why communications gets a hard time. But take Missouri – super EASY school to get into EXCEPT the communications/journalism major. And yes, there are great opportunities for communications majors at UMiami. I didn’t know they MADE you double major though.</p>
<p>Thank you this makes me feel better !</p>
<p>i want to major in Journalism too Im thinking about doing the Magazine concentrated course… I would love to talk with more Journalism majors more because im deciding between UM and UF.</p>
<p>I have a friend who’s in the Comm school (don’t know if she’s a journalism major) that I could put you in touch with if you want. If you want to talk to her, PM me and I’ll give you her e-mail.</p>
<p>Academically, we are definitely known for our sciences. Many students here are science/Pre-med majors. The Frost School of Music is a great music school as well. The Comm school definitely has a great program with a lot of options in communication majors.</p>
<p>I’m a Comm student (PR Major) and I chose UM because they specifically offer a PR major. As a Comm student, yes you have to double but the reasoning behind this is so you’re more marketable/rounded in the area of comm. that you want to do (For example, double majoring in Broadcast Journalism and Sports Administration). I’d ignore the fact that the Comm school does get a hard time, because sometimes it does, but as someone pointed out it’s mostly because we’re definitely known for our Pre-med program, and the Pre-med program and the Comm school are just completely different areas altogether. Communications majors in general are more hands on projects/experience so you can focus on interning, etc. And my PR intro level class was actually one of my hardest classes this semester as far as amount of work and projects go.</p>
<p>Besides just choosing UM for the PR major, I wanted a school near a large city. Miami definitely is that, and there are so many benefits to living in Miami. There’s always something to do on weekends whether you like the beach, concerts, the popular nightlife scene, or art conventions, etc. There’s definitely many internship opportunities here as well. Another big factor in choosing UM is the diversity here. Honestly, I have met students from all over the U.S. - and the world. You walk through campus and hear students talking different languages every where you go. There’s definitely a reason why we’re the most diverse university. UM also offers a ton of great study abroad programs which I definitely plan on participating in.</p>
<p>Also, UM is private so we’re actually not that large of a school. It’s nice to be able to walk through campus and see a lot of your friends. I’d say the student population here is perfect, it’s not too small and not too big. </p>
<p>Overall, compared to all the other schools I was choosing between, UM turned out to be the most unique. We have amazing weather, a pretty campus (with palm trees), the city of Miami/South Beach to explore, the most diverse student body, and great opportunities/academics to top it off. I’ve been loving every minute since I got here and it’s so different from home and all my friend’s college experiences. You should definitely come visit and take a tour!</p>
<p>Ermine – what are the kids like there? Is there much Greek life? School spirit?</p>