What happened to Miami of Ohio?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was never that good of a school. People that went there tried to talk it up as top tier, but once they got out into the real world, they realized it it's a substandard school.

+1. I never heard of this school until I met someone at work who graduated from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Declining state funding.

In such a government environment, the only public universities that can survive and maintain a high reputation are large research universities.

Federal research funding brings them plenty of money (the schools take a cut out of research grants won by professors) and the large student population keeps the state government happy (they are educating more people on a lower budget due to fixed costs).

+1 Not coincidentally, Republicans have been in charge of the state legislature in Ohio since 1994.

Jesus Christ.

Does he not like Miami of Ohio?

He doesn't.

[Anonymous]

In the 80s, a lot of kids from our high school went there and it was not hard to get in at all. It was a great school and these were decent students (but not A students by a long shot, more the smart partier who got low grades due to effort not ability), but admissions was pretty much guaranteed, particularly if you were OOS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its rural location is a drawback as well. Agree though, gorgeous campus!

+1

[Anonymous]

There’s around 6~8 colleges in Ohio that I’d pick over Miami

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Declining state funding.

In such a government environment, the only public universities that can survive and maintain a high reputation are large research universities.

Federal research funding brings them plenty of money (the schools take a cut out of research grants won by professors) and the large student population keeps the state government happy (they are educating more people on a lower budget due to fixed costs).

+1 Not coincidentally, Republicans have been in charge of the state legislature in Ohio since 1994.

Jesus Christ.

It’s the truth. Republicans want to defund education from K-5 to colleges. Rid their states of those pesky “woke” values.

Former Ohioan here. They've ruined the state. Utterly and completely. I'm embarrassed to claim it, at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s around 6~8 colleges in Ohio that I’d pick over Miami

+1

[Anonymous]

It’s nothing special
A lot of kids from Chicago go there because of merit scholarships

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was a kid it was considered a fairly prestigious public university. Not on the level of Michigan or Berkeley, but certainly better than, for instance, Ohio State, which was practically open admission back then.

Now it has dropped out of the top 100 in USNWR (it used to hover on the bubble of the top 50), its acceptance rate has climbed to over 90 percent, and its incoming student stats are in steady decline.

I'm not quite sure what happened or why. The school has a ton to offer: a gorgeous, quintessential college town; a picturesque campus that borders a lively "uptown" district of restaurants and bars; a reputation for solid academics, particularly in the business program; and a robust social scene. Yet kids don't seem to want to go there anymore. Its yield last year was 15 percent - that's terrible for a fairly large state school.

Meanwhile, Ohio State has soared in the rankings and become more selective, as have several smaller schools in Ohio, most notably Kenyon and Denison. And then you have places like JMU which offer a similar vibe to M-OH. Those schools are also doing well. But Miami is floundering. Does anyone know why?

I graduated from Miami in 1993 and so I kind of understand what you're talking about. I think "floundering" is too strong a word, but there's no denying that back in the 1980s/1990s at the peak of the initial "Public Ivies" buzz. Miami is still a very good school for undergraduate teaching and frequently ranks highly for that category, which is actually an important one. The rise in Ohio State is really about it being a research institution -- most of the "Top 20" schools are research universities and their ranking is more about their graduate schools than their fit for undergraduates.

That said, Miami did make a number of strategic changes that I think affected its perceived exclusivity (or lack thereof). Chief among them was the convoluted tuition structure that a previous president put in place in the mid-to-late 1990s that tried to make Miami look and act more like a private school with basically a higher tuition rate but generous scholarship for in-state students (budget cuts by the legislature also had an effect). Then they got rid of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies (i.e. the Western College Program -- it's now just a program in Arts and Sciences instead of an academic division) which was a major driver in the the university's selection as a "Public Ivy" in Richard Moll's book. (I don't want to rehash that debate over Public Ivies, just suffice it to say back in the 1980s and 1990s, it was an effective label that had a major impact on rankings and perception). Miami then started to do weird things with academic scholarships guaranteed for certain stats, which drew a lot of applications from qualified students but then reduced yield as those students got into more selective institutions and chose not to go. Finally, there were some scandals about the student body that were Affluenza related -- several high profile incidents involving racism, rape, and alcohol abuse. That all hurt the university's image.

But it's still a fine school with a great emphasis on undergraduate teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The demand seems to be for big warm climate schools.

+1. Presumably rich preppy kids don't want to live in the isolated, cold, grey, and declining Rust Belt? It's not like you can keep it a secret how awesome the warm weather South and coasts are from sheltered Midwest kids anymore. They have snapchat, tiktok, youtube, and instagram.

For goodness sake, the South was never any kind of "secret." I grew up in suburban Chicago and did not know one kid who hadn't been to Florida at least once on vacation (most had gone many times). Granted, I didn't know anyone who had gone on vacation to Alabama or Mississippi, but then again, why the heck would they have? We knew how backwards they were.

Visiting grandma's retirement condo in Fort Myers is not the same as access to millions of first-person vlogs from attractive kids at SEC, ACC, and California schools. Kids are wiser than ever. Southern college kids are not seen as "backwards," they're attractive and soaking up the sun and distinct fun culture of their location and university. Backwards is willingly spending four years of the prime of your life in the depressing Rust Belt where you have to wear a $800 parka until April. If you're not going to live in Ohio (or Michigan or Indiana) after college, why in the hell would you go to college there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The demand seems to be for big warm climate schools.

+1. Presumably rich preppy kids don't want to live in the isolated, cold, grey, and declining Rust Belt? It's not like you can keep it a secret how awesome the warm weather South and coasts are from sheltered Midwest kids anymore. They have snapchat, tiktok, youtube, and instagram.

For goodness sake, the South was never any kind of "secret." I grew up in suburban Chicago and did not know one kid who hadn't been to Florida at least once on vacation (most had gone many times). Granted, I didn't know anyone who had gone on vacation to Alabama or Mississippi, but then again, why the heck would they have? We knew how backwards they were.

Visiting grandma's retirement condo in Fort Myers is not the same as access to millions of first-person vlogs from attractive kids at SEC, ACC, and California schools. Kids are wiser than ever. Southern college kids are not seen as "backwards," they're attractive and soaking up the sun and distinct fun culture of their location and university. Backwards is willingly spending four years of the prime of your life in the depressing Rust Belt where you have to wear a $800 parka until April. If [b]you're not going to live in Ohio (or Michigan or Indiana) after college, why in the hell would you go to college there[b]?

With urban housing prices these days, they might end up in one of those places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The demand seems to be for big warm climate schools.

+1. Presumably rich preppy kids don't want to live in the isolated, cold, grey, and declining Rust Belt? It's not like you can keep it a secret how awesome the warm weather South and coasts are from sheltered Midwest kids anymore. They have snapchat, tiktok, youtube, and instagram.

For goodness sake, the South was never any kind of "secret." I grew up in suburban Chicago and did not know one kid who hadn't been to Florida at least once on vacation (most had gone many times). Granted, I didn't know anyone who had gone on vacation to Alabama or Mississippi, but then again, why the heck would they have? We knew how backwards they were.

Visiting grandma's retirement condo in Fort Myers is not the same as access to millions of first-person vlogs from attractive kids at SEC, ACC, and California schools. Kids are wiser than ever. Southern college kids are not seen as "backwards," they're attractive and soaking up the sun and distinct fun culture of their location and university. Backwards is willingly spending four years of the prime of your life in the depressing Rust Belt where you have to wear a $800 parka until April. If you're not going to live in Ohio (or Michigan or Indiana) after college, why in the hell would you go to college there?

Well, I'm fair skinned and don't' want skin cancer for starters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The demand seems to be for big warm climate schools.

+1. Presumably rich preppy kids don't want to live in the isolated, cold, grey, and declining Rust Belt? It's not like you can keep it a secret how awesome the warm weather South and coasts are from sheltered Midwest kids anymore. They have snapchat, tiktok, youtube, and instagram.

For goodness sake, the South was never any kind of "secret." I grew up in suburban Chicago and did not know one kid who hadn't been to Florida at least once on vacation (most had gone many times). Granted, I didn't know anyone who had gone on vacation to Alabama or Mississippi, but then again, why the heck would they have? We knew how backwards they were.

Visiting grandma's retirement condo in Fort Myers is not the same as access to millions of first-person vlogs from attractive kids at SEC, ACC, and California schools. Kids are wiser than ever. Southern college kids are not seen as "backwards," they're attractive and soaking up the sun and distinct fun culture of their location and university. Backwards is willingly spending four years of the prime of your life in the depressing Rust Belt where you have to wear a $800 parka until April. If you're not going to live in Ohio (or Michigan or Indiana) after college, why in the hell would you go to college there?

Are you lady whose obsessed with Sasha Obama?

[Anonymous]

Echoing K-12 enrollment and declining population, most colleges in the Rust Belt aside from the Big Ten universities are declining in enrollment. Big Ten universities are growing undergrad enrollment for the cash grab. With declining K-12 enrollment, it's a zero sum landscape, so Miami is a school which loses when bigger and higher profile Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan expand seats.

[Anonymous]

Interesting question - that's my recollection of Miami (Oh) as well. I assume Ohio State rising in academic stature has to play a role in siphoning students away from Miami (Oh). The demographic trends in Ohio have not been good for decades and I am sure that has to have negatively affected the in state student population.

I went to a different public university that also once had a respectable academic standing and now seems to be in free fall. It is a minor bummer. Things change and if the underlying resource and student fundamentals are not strong - things can easily go into decline.