<p>SVMMom, that’s not why there was a lottery for housing. There was a lottery for housing cause they knocked down the apartment area, therefore eliminating hundreds of housing spaces.</p>
<p>People live off campus cause on campus housing is terrible after freshman year (really, Mahoney/Pearson and Eaton are awful for upperclassmen). And generally it costs about the same because a meal plan is so damn expensive (averages out to about $8/meal). I lived off campus, about 7 minutes away, my junior and senior years, but I was always on campus and didn’t really feel disconnected at all. I’m actually glad I had the opportunity to live off campus. I lived with roommates and now I live alone for my job and know how to handle everything. My best friend lived on campus all four years at her school and we’ve been talking about moving in together and she knows nothing about having her own apartment or paying bills. Basically, living off campus is great and unless you go somewhere that has awesome apartments or townhouse for upperclassmen, move off campus.</p>
<p>I went on a tangent. But no, Miami is not a huge party school. You generally will not see kids wasted every night of the week or all hours of the day. Miami, as you know, is a very expensive school. 9.5/10 people I knew graduated in four years or less. It is simply too costly not to. The library is packed every night of the week (OK, maybe not Fridays and Saturdays, I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been). I’ve met people who went to huge state schools and they definitely partied way more than I did at Miami. Even though we have South Beach and the Grove, it just is not the same as a college town.</p>