Miami University-Oxford Top Questions

Yes. MKT435. MGT302. Daily. Yes. Yes. Yes. Women's studies - understanding relationships. Marketing major - love the classes. Spend some time with professors outside the class. I HATE MIAMI PLAN! NOT NEEDED. If i am paying for an education, i should be able to choose the exact curriculum that I desire to have. A combination of both.

Most professors are very good and it is really easy to meet with them during their office hours. My favorite class is ECON 321 The Structure of American Industry. Miami is building a huge new business school building and has recently renovated its engineering facilities.

Of course professors know my name! Personally, I have never been in a class of more than 50 students and my average class size is probably 20-25 people. Students take studying pretty seriously but they also know how to balance their work with their play. The administration and faculty at Miami really has a vested interest in each student's educational and professional success. Everyone helps everyone else whether is be getting into a class or finding an internship or getting a job. One of the best departments within Miami is its Career Center.

Academics at Miami are definitely at a different level than other universities. This really is not to put them down, but more of a warning. This is a place where many of the top people from different schools all over the country come, and we are one of the Top Seven Public Ivys in the nation--so naturally, that comes with a bit more than the usual pressure. Luckily, I was kind of ready when I came here to work hard, but some of my friends had a tough transition from high school work to college. Miami is fast-paced, and its professors often expect a lot of you, but they push and get results. I have learned so much--and I really do feel that my "liberal arts education" is well-rounded. I started out a Mass Communications major and switched midway to English Literature--something I'm really passionate about, and many ask me what it will amount to after graduation. Honestly, I'm still not sure, but I love my classes--and I find that my friends who are in majors they love really learn so much and have so much passion for whatever they will do with it. That being said, we also have a really top-notch business school, and the pre-med program is pretty tough, but very good. I have had mostly great professors, some really amazing, and most of my classes have been small enough that I am able to get to know them. In fact, I have taken some professors a few times, because I liked them so much and learned so much from them. Most of the professors I have come into contact with are really willing to help students, and many actually want to get to know you. I haven't spent a ton of time with them outside of class, but the ones I have are really great people. It's cool because you feel more comfortable in classes where you like the professors, and tend to get more out of them. Even President Hodge seems pretty nice; I have actually been to his house, where he let Campus Crusade for Christ have a holiday party. He is also really interested in what students have to say, and when he came to visit us in Luxembourg, he told us to call him, email him and tell him what we want, what our concerns were, and he seemed really willing to listen and help. All of this being said, I have to say that everyone here, myself included, complain, seriously despise the "Miami Plan." This is the creation of the administration, in an attempt to give us all a well-rounded education. It's basic education requirements, only there are a lot of them, and it takes a long time to finish, so long in fact, that it can begin to interfere with the classes you want/need for your major(s) and/or minor(s). For instance, I am a junior, and I still have Miami Plan requirements that I will be fulfilling next year, as a senior. It, very simply, sucks. However, to be fair, every college has some form of basic education requirements, and many of your major/minor classes can fulfill some of these, and visa versa. However, it is still the bane of every Miami student's existence.

Yes all of my professors know my name. My favorite class was International Studies and Geography. My least favorite is Spanish. Students study a lot here. I think the girls might study more though but that is probably typical anywhere. Class participation is more common in the smaller classes that the larger ones. Yes I think that Miami students do have intellectual conversations outside of class. Students are competitive here. The most unique class that I have taken so far was International Studies. My major is International Studies in the Arts and Science Department. Yes I make sure to go talk to any of my teachers whenever I have a question or need help with the subject.

Miami's academics really are just more a testament to the quality of the school. For the two years I've been at Miami I can honestly say I am very pleased with most every class I've taken. There is a miami plan that every student has to take. It's a list of requirements you have to fufill, such as 4 hours of a math course, or 9 hours of humanities, etc. The requirements differ for students in the business school or the western program, but everyone is required to complete a few courses like this before graduation. At times it is tiring, people complain "I'm not doing anything with science, why am I taking microbiology." or they have to take spanish until their junior year to complete the language requirements, but really I personally don't mind it. I'm a nerd in the sense that I love knowledge, and it cools to learn about things that may not be your forte. Sure I struggled through math but it also helped me decide I wanted a minor in marketing--lo and behold I needed that math class as a pre req. The students are pretty 50/50 in the sense that some are 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} sure they're going to be pre-med (as so many do originally..) or a CEO, etc, and the other half are like "oh hell, I hope I even have a clue by junior year. I think the Miami plan helps you to explore this. Whether it's to make sure for certain that you want to forever have a scalpel in your hand or it gives you the chance to see hey, I really like music class. Maybe I should go into something with that. The Miami plan classes tend to be a larger lecture, but every teacher that I've had manages to make a class of 100 feel as though it is about 20. My favorite class as a freshman was PSYCHOLOGY 111-the introduction to psychology. It had about 100 students in it but the professor was so engaging, fun, and knowledgeable on the subject that even though attendance wasn't taken, I attended every class. He had me laughing, he had me studying to do well on his test, and he had me retaining what he taught. At the end of the semester he shared with us personal stories of his battle with Aids which he had recieved from a blood transfusion years before. It was so moving and so touching to see a professor letting us into his life like that that a year later when he passed away I wrote his wife a letter letting her know how he had affected me. Because of him and that class I decided to double major in psychology. I've had a lot of good-humored professors, in another Miami plan class about music my professor is short and bald. When he asked us what kind of music we thought he may like, someone shouted out "Phil collins!" He laughed it off and joked that he'd meet the kid after class outside. Not all the classes are large, in fact only a few of mine have been held in lecture halls. My spanish class feels like high school all over again in the sense that we all became friends because there was only about 20 of us. My journalism classes, as I begin to take more and more for my major are fun because there are a few people I consistently see in the classes and it's nice to have someone you can call when you sleep through that alarm. Even classes that I don't enjoy the subject, such as philosophy, I manage to pull through because the professor is still respectable as a professor and it makes the material a little easier. A downfall to Miami's academics is that bad news seems to come at once. At about four weeks in most students have 2-4 classes all with a test that week. Professors also really enjoy group projects, so you'll be studying for a chemistry midterm and trying to plan a time to meet with your marketing group to get you case study done. Life gets a little hectic. Our King Library is really great in terms of having a writing center in the middle of it, a starbucks cafe, and an abundance of printers, computers, helpful librarians and research material. For this reason it's usually utilized consistently throughout the year, but come test-week or finals time, it literally looks like a mall the day after Thanksgiving. I feel that Miami kids are good at getting their assignments done so that they can party for the night or weekend. They literally work hard and play hard. Class participation really depends on the class. Go to an 8 a.m. and it's doubtful you'll see many students raising their hand. But in smaller classes when questions asked by the teachers are more common, students are willing to offer their opinions. It's like highschool. You're going to have loud-mouths, shy kids, and sleepers. Students outside of the classroom have intelligent conversations or sometimes really really unintelligent conversations. There's a facebook group "overheard at Miami" where ridiculous things overheard (hence the name) are posted. Sure ditzy comments are said but also we have newspapers available to us everywhere. As the election draws near talk of politics reigns through the air. Professors make themselves really available. I am a huge fan of office hours. The personal attention and extra help is sometimes really needed. Every teacher has made a point to say "these are my hours, but let me know if they don't work for you and we'll set up another time." Whether it's through e-mail, a few of my professors have Facebooked me, one even handed out her cell phone, or just their office hours, the professors are great at being there for you. But YOU have to take the initiative and put in the effort. One of my teachers had two "spaghetti dinners" during the semester in which she invited all her students too. We recieved home cooked meals and just had a chance to relax outside the class setting with her. It was wonderful. I feel the workload is pretty fair. You probably have at LEAST an hour-2 of something to do every night but with more free hours in the day you can always find time to do it. Miami is great about subscribing to an abundance of websites needed for research, or having every copy of Time or Newsweek, or having their librarians on AIM to answer questions, they even have their own websites they made to help your create a resume or search for internships or find a book you're looking for. THey make sure everything is available and there for us. I think the academics are geared towards preparing you for the real world as well as the next test coming up. You are given real life experiences sometimes, but you learn about it by reading it from a book and discussing it in class. They do a pretty good balance between the both.

When it comes to academics, Miami has a great reputation especially in the Midwest area. The Richard T. Farmer School of Business is definitely a strong point for the campus and employers recruit kids from the program all the time. They have an excellent career fair that brings in the top accounting firms and companies like Proctor and Gamble. Because of this, the program is very competitive and requires a lot of hard work and long hours of studying. The reward is having a good chance of landing a job often before you ever graduate. The down side to this is that if you choose to go for another degree at Miami you can find yourself feeling a little ignored. The classes and professors are still great in other departments but the business school is by far the university's golden child. Other programs like architecture and engineering thrive at Miami, and a lot of development is going on around campus to renovate and build better academic facilities for the numerous other departments. Your curriculum at Miami is divided into two main parts: filling requirements for your major/college and completing what the school calls the "Miami plan." The "Miami plan" requires students to take a few classes from a variety of academic fields including science, math and English. This is meant to give students an opportunity to study a little bit of everything. It can at times be annoying to take such random classes that have nothing to do with what you are studying, but it can also be life changing when you take that art history class and discover your new life calling. And even though the classes are usually 100-level courses, they are often some of the largest and toughest. Requirements for your major will be spelled out for you by the college and will be pretty straightforward. These classes will tend to be smaller, and you will get to know both professors and other students in your major quickly. Take advantage of getting to know your professors — they are great for recommendations and are way more lenient with absences or late assignments, ect. if you are a familiar face. If you don't know what you want to study right away, don't panic. Start by knocking out your Miami plan classes first and hopefully those will provide you with a little direction. Don't be afraid to major in something other than business or a medically oriented field. No matter your major you WILL get a job after college, and chances are your GPA will be a lot better if you are taking classes you truly enjoy. Education at a college level is a whole new ballgame, and if you follow heart you will find yourself enjoying class, which will make life exponentially easier. In terms of studying you will quickly figure out what is crucial to being a good student. Your professors will tell you that for every hour in class you should study 2 or 3 outside of class. This may be true, but especially as a freshman, is not very feasible when everything is new and there is a lot going on. When the reading starts to pile up prioritize what needs to be read and what doesn't. Often time professors will tell you the important stuff in class, so going is essential and is like automatic studying. Also, Miami has an amazing study abroad program. You can go almost anywhere in the world. We even have a campus in Luxemborg. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and is usually more fun than academic. If you are worried about missing out on a semester with your friends, anyone that stayed in Oxford will tell you that you didn't miss anything and anyone that has gone abroad will tell you it is worth it!