Getting to Know: Miami University of Ohio-Again
In 1985, Miami University of Ohio was selected as one of America’s original eight Public Ivies. Forty years later, I would still consider Miami a Public Ivy based on costs, freshman retention and four-year graduation rates.
This school gets mention in the second edition of my college guide The Good College.. Miami University of Ohio is undeservedly confused with the University of Miami in Florida. However, you can buy a popular t-shirt in downtown Oxford, Ohio that proudly announces: We Were a College Before Florida Was A State. I hope that you will also check out my Pinterest page as well as the Miami University program on The College Tour
Miami has one of the most attractive py campuses in the country and the campus has interesting traditions.
Noted poet Robert Frost made many visits to Oxford and called Miami “The most beautiful campus that ever there was.” However, the campus and college town is at least an hour from a major city, in this case Cincinnati and Dayton, and there are no mass transit options to reach those cities. However, there are many study abroad and study in other US cities programs, including internships in Chicago and New York. The university also has its own campus in Luxembourg. I dropped two campus photos below.
Miami University is an undergraduate-focused state university.
Undergraduates represent nearly 90 percent of the student body. For comparison, undergraduates represent 75 percent of the student body at Ohio State in Columbus and at Indiana University-Bloomington.
There are approximately 17,000 undergraduates at Miami, just over 2,100 graduate students. The undergraduate student body is about the same size as the University of Delaware (UDel) and the University of Virginia. I realize that it’s been a while since I visited, but the vibe and students seemed quite similar to UDel. Those who wanted to get the most from the experience could get practically everything that they would get at a more selective university.
Greek life is a bit more important here than it is at some of the Big Ten schools.
It attracts about a fifth of the undergraduate men and 30 percent of the women. Miami has been labeled the Mother of Fraternities. Five,Beta Theta Pi (1839), Phi Delta Theta (1848), Sigma Chi (1855), Delta Zeta (1902), and Phi Kappa Tau (1906). were founded at the university. Maimi can house 45 percent of its undergraduate student body, high for a state university.
Interest in Miami University of Ohio has grown, but it is not an exceptionally selective school.
Applications rose from just under 28,000 in 2020 to nearly 40,000 in 2024. In 2020 ninety-two percent of all applicants were accepted. The yield, the percentage that deposited, was 15 percent. Four years later, the acceptance rate dropped to 75 percent. The yield was 14 percent. The yield rates are quite low for a state university. However, Miami is shopped vs. many public and private options, including the universities in the Big Ten. Forty percent of the undergraduate student body comes from outside Ohio. For Ohio State it’s 20 percent.
Miami does very well with the students it gets.
Miami retains 90 percent of a freshman class, though that number was slightly lower (89%) each year from 2018 to 2021. But Miami also graduated least 71 percent of each class that entered from 2013 to 2019 within four years. That’s better than any public university in Ohio, as well as Case Western Reserve, which is considered to be the best private research university in Ohio. Miami’s four-year graduation rate is also better than most state schools with stronger brand names, including Florida, Penn State, Rutgers and Wisconsin, among others.
Miami University of Ohio has a generous merit scholarship program, as well as one of the best honors programs in the country.
The university is more straightforward about available merit aid than most state universities. There is also scholarship aid for international students, rare for a public institution. Miami’s Tuition Promise freszes tuition and fees at the first-year level for four years. This helps make it easier for families to plan out the costs of a degree.
Due in part to the aid programs. nearly 60 percent of Miami students graduated in 2023 with no student loan debt. However, the average for those who had to borrow was, on average just over $29,000. The maximum that a student can borrow from the Federal Student Loan Program is $27,000.
The academic options are impressive.
Miami University has over 200 majors and many minors that you won’t find at other state schools. Being more undergraduate focused than flagship state universities, Miami tries quite hard to meet the students where they’re at in terms of academic and career opportunities. Some unique majors include Arts Administration, Emerging Technology in Business and Design, Engineering Management, Games + Simulation, Hospitality Management, Interior Design, Robotics Engineering and Smart Manufacturing Engineering.
The alumni community is large, even outside Ohio.
Outside of the major Ohio cities, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Miami of Ohio has large communities registered in LinkedIn.com in Chicago (nearly 15,000), New York City (over 6,000) and Washington DC (over 4,700). Marriages between two Miami alumni are called Miami Mergers.
Miami is also known as the Cradle of Coaches.
Many successful college and pro football coaches have passed through Oxford either as players, assistant coaches or head coaches. Super Bowl champion coaches who graduates from Miami include Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay. In 1959 Miami alumni won the NFL Championship (Weeb Ewbank, Baltimore Colt, who retired to Oxford) and the World Series (Walter Alston, Los Angeles Dodgers). Miami is also the alma mater of former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, a two-time Super Bowl champion.
But while Miami has produced high-profile coaches, the RedHawks play in the lower-profile Mid America Conference versus other Ohio, Indiana (Ball State), Michigan, New York (SUNY-Buffalo) and Massachusetts (UMass-Amherst). The football program has had its successes over the past ten years, but the ice hockey and synchronized swimming programs are also quite strong. .
Conclusions
I honestly wonder why Miami University does not get on more college lists. Outside of a high-profile athletic program and immediate access to a major city, Miami offers virtually anything that most students and parents could want from a state university. The high graduation rates show that those who chose to be RedHawks believe this to be true.
Report Card: Miami University of Ohio
- 4-Year/6-Year Graduation Rates: A/A
- Freshman Retention: A
- Costs: A
- Curriculum: A
- Community: B+
- Comforts: A
- Connections: A
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