@Nonamefits Very good and insightful summary. I would just add the following. Miami is a beautiful beautiful college campus. It has great facilities from a very recently built student union, great recreation facility, a hockey rink, etc. Of course as @Nonamefits pointed out because the little town is nothing more than a few restaurants and bars, the school needs to provide everything the students need on campus.
My D21 is concerned about the “middle of no where” issue. The nearest Target is like 30 minutes away. However it is only about 45 minutes from Cincinnati and an hour from Dayton.
I have a nephew and his wife who both went there. He is from Pittsburgh and she is from Chicago. They both loved it and have said they never had any problem with feeling isolated of like they were in the middle of no where.
With 20K students and the great facilities I would expect there is always a ton of things to do without being in or near an urban area.
D21 has agreed to apply but I believe I will have some convincing to do over the next year or so to get her to agree to go there. Of course if the merit is money is right she may not have much of a choice.
@imstacey good luck to your student as he/she makes this decision in these trying times…