Miami is an amazing campus as far as the beauty and consistency of building etc. None of those 1970’s monster buildings that dot most Midwestern campuses. I think it makes a real difference to some people - when you are on campus, you know you are on campus and it feels the way a college should.
Off campus is very limited. There is basically one street called “uptown”. It is made up of restaurants, bars and student hangouts for the most part. It is an extension of campus - literally steps from the gates off the diagonal walk. For some kids this also is a plus. The entire place is built around the student experience. For my current kid looking, it was a big negative. He just felt the school was a little on the small side and the town was way too small. And this is compared to Bloomington or Ann Arbor - so he still wants the college feel. One of his brothers felt the place was perfect.
I think the size issue is even a bigger deal because Oxford is so small and pretty far from anything else. Compare it to some college towns where there is access to a bigger town at least for weekends. Miami is 45 minutes from Cincinnati, but that does not offer a huge draw.
Again, this is a plus and a minus. If a kid really wants to be very campus focused, then that isolation works. I recently heard another parent say it is like the “Disney of colleges”. Everything looks the way it is supposed to, is managed well and easy to navigate. But also not exactly like the rest of the world and kept separate from it. They added in that it is almost all undergrads, so it is just very focused on that experience in the way Disney focuses on what it does. Some people love Disney, others hate it. But I think we all have to admit they do Disney like no one else.
If I were picking for myself, I would pick Miami over urban campuses like NYU, BU, etc. even though many rankings put those schools higher. I would pick it over an IU for myself also as I felt like Miami is sized to the undergrad experience. I think they have a rule that buildings can’t be more than 3 stories to keep the person in perspective (I heard that from several people, but maybe it is an urban myth). That does seem to fit the feel versus IU is beautiful, but feels to me like a sea of humanity where I would be drifting through buildings that are massive (our tour guide told us she had a class in the biggest building and she spends more than 15 minutes getting to and from the class once in the building). But my current student who is looking just felt it was too small for him and the town was part of it - and he loves IU.
I wouldn’t have posted this if people could still visit. I would just say it is very unique and you should visit to see if it fits or not. I feel like a little time on campus makes it pretty clear. But I am trying to figure out how to help people who did not get a chance to visit. More than many other schools, the Miami experience is tied to the campus and town.