<p>midmo,
Nothing to afraid about, unfortunately kids are flooding the states, applicant pools are increasing sometime by 30% from year to year. I wish it is rolled back, so more in-state kids get full advantages of Merit scholarships. My grandkids are still very young, I want have it available for them as it was for my D. So, from now on I will promote idea for going to Ivy/Elite.</p>
<p>It seems like on CC that the Miami-Ohio parents feel the need to justify the choice more than others. Is this because it isn’t a flagship? I thought the point of Miami was that it gave a “smaller school” experience for state school tuition? I agree that for a certain medical school track it doesn’t matter as much from a strictly academic standpoint WHERE you do your undergrad work. If you don’t care about having a higher concentration of like-minded peers, go ahead and do the pre-med courses, get a high GPA, do well on the MCAT and pick your med school. However, MOST students DO change their majors and minds, and may value learning from their peers and building relationships as much as they do having to grub for a GPA. It is no secret that I am not a big fan of Miami-Ohio, but I am glad it has worked out so well for MiamiDAP’s daughter. We don’t all love every school, and Miami is one that is not high on my list. And,yes, I am very familiar with the school. I guess that’s why all the promotion of it and the defensiveness about it bugs me. Sorry.</p>
<p>^I like your post a lot.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, I’m just curious about what you like about the post?</p>
<p>"I’m just curious about what you like about the post? " </p>
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<li>continued bashing of state schools.</li>
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<p>Again, MiamiDAP, you are choosing to use emotionally-charged language when it is not accurate. No one on this particular thread is “bashing.” Actually, I think midmo’s post #400 above is a good summary of what we are saying. Most, if not all, of us agree that it is quite possible to get a fine education at a state school. For some students, a state school will be the only one that offers their major. The student might just have to be more assertive, more persistant, more resistant to peer pressure, and perhaps participate in an honors college or a program that attracts like-minded peers (pre-med, pharmacy, etc.) in order to receive the same quality as an Ivy, however. Also, living in states like VA, MI, or CA vastly improves the chances of a top-notch state school education.</p>
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<p>MiamiDAP - that’s completely unfair. You would be well advised to read what is written before accusing people of writing things they didn’t write.
“I’m not a fan of Miami of Ohio” does not equal “bashing state schools.”</p>
<p>I said, I love it, nothing to worry about, I agree with everything and hope that at some point of time state schools applicants pool start diminishing.</p>
<p>Not worth arguing… BUT- note that I went to a large state flagship and clearly recognize the value of one. I really only tend to bash Kentucky and Miami-Ohio! :)</p>
<p>What’s wrong with Miami-Ohio? I’ve only heard good things about that school.</p>
<p>I don’t want to turn this into a Miami debate. They have very good PR and many people love it. It is an OK state university- not a flagship. It is extremly fratty and has a big drinking culture (nothing new there). It is very white-bread and tends to attract lesser students from neighboring states who want an alternative to a huge state university and might want to feel like they have “gone away to college”. It does have a focus on undergraduate teaching and has a nice campus. Nothing wrong with it, but I find it not deserving of all the praise it tends to get from those who choose it. Miami also tends to throw a lot of merit money at students to get some better stat kids. Again- it is a fine fit for many students, but I feel it lacks some of the advantages of the flagships and it seems to have rabid defenders. As I said, we don’t all “love” every school and this is one of the ones I think gets more hype than it deserves.</p>
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<p>Is that a problem? Getting “better stat kids” is pretty much the main reason for handing out merit money at any school. And it’s a key piece of the strategy for raising the academic stature of a school. “Buying talent,” both in students and in faculty, is what USC has successfully done over the past 30 years to raise itself from academic mediocrity to now be a top 25 university.</p>
<p>What is the attraction of Miami of Ohio, then? I’ve known a number of families happy to pay that OOS premium for their kids to go there. The kids were not what I considered slugs either. Why there, over other such schools?</p>
<p>It isn’t a problem at all, but it is one of the reasons people who choose it (perhaps following the money) tend to be defensive and pretend that the whole place is stocked with students who turned down highly-selective privates in order to get the superior education offered by Miami.</p>
<p>The attraction is the focus on undergraduate teaching (as opposed to the big state research universities), the smaller environment and the pretty, preppy campus. It’s a nice safe choice. Again, it isn’t a rip-off or a horrible place, but it’s just…meh…
The school sells itself very well.</p>
<p>Lots of schools offer merit to attract students these days,public and private. Miami does but so do private schools like the University of Richmond. I’m sure lots of families out there are happy to learn about merit aid opportunities. Lots of kids do need to follow the money. The fact that lots of full pay families have their kids go there too tells me it’s a pretty good school for lots of kids.</p>
<p>I love all the labels that MomofWildChild applied to my kid.
I strongly encourage that. Maybe the next generation of top caliber kids (including my grandkids) will have less competition for those full rides and full tuition Merit awards.</p>
<p>Historically, Miami of Ohio has been considered a “Public Ivy”. Though this doesn’t make sense to a lot of people today, I explained the rationale for this in my post#74 (and #57) in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/697411-public-ivy-leagues-5.html?highlight=public+ivy[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/697411-public-ivy-leagues-5.html?highlight=public+ivy</a></p>
<p>The former president of Miami, James Garland, advocated increasing tuition rates at public universities, but then discounting the cost to students via increased financial aid to those in need.
<a href=“https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/James_C._Garland[/url]”>https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/James_C._Garland</a></p>
<p>MiamiDAP- I did not say a thing about your daughter. She is obviously very bright, had a wonderful undergraduate experience and is sticking with her medical school aspirations. As I said, my son in law took a similar path to medical school and did not attend the most selective undergrad school to which he was admitted. He also doesn’t pretend Loyola of New Orleans is Dartmouth!</p>
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<p>Ditto. The kids I’ve known who have gone there seem to really like it, and while I don’t think they were turning down Harvard to go there, they were pretty bright kids.</p>