I was thinking of attending University of Miami....all opinions are welcome. i just want some feedback from people in Florida.

 

good school, very expensive compared to other state schools that are equal or probably higher academic requirements. good standing in the community for employers. good reputation. if you want to party and enjoy the miami scene, tough to beat.

personally, and no disrespect to UM, i would look to other state schools that will provide atleast as good if not better reputation for employers. it depends on what you are looking for in a school. the cost to benefit analysis is not in UM's favor.

on thing i have noticed, is there are a lot of UM fans, but not a lot of UM alum

 

Do you know what you are going to major in? I would do a state school first then transfer to UM if it still makes since for your major. You will save a lot of money by not going to a private school for all of your undergraduate studies. Plus by then you'll be less vulnerable to getting distracted by South Beach...
Oh yeah, and how's your aim?

 

well, i'm going to be doing computer engineering, seeing as UM is the only florida school i apllied to, other florida state schools are out of the question...From what they told me, they have 100% placement rate, and deal directly with like dell and microsoft and other companies. according to them, they are no longer a party school, and after looking it up, they are ranked 51(i think, maybe 52) in the nation.

 

No school will ever tell you they are a party school. Rankings are done by asking random students questions about how much they party, it's totally random year by year. My alma was way up on the list one year and we even got an email from the President of the Univ saying to tell them we don't party at all the next year. Sure enough, we dropped like 40 positions Good luck with your decision.

 

UM is just about the name. Not the education. It does have a rep... especially in Miami. If you have a Law degree then you are in. You pay for the networking, unfortunately that comes with a 2nd rate Law education. UF and FSU both beat the crap out of UM in Law standards. But that is my thing... in computer engineering I have no idea. But I would assume UF and FSU sure as hell hold their own against anyone.

 

Im going to have to +1 this. UM is all about the name for a lot of their programs. Medicine on the other hand is great from them, as they have Miami Jackson Hospital and such... but really, UF if I am not mistaken has a great Med School for cents on the dollar compared to UM.

But that is in Medicine, in Engineering I can only speak of FIU as that is the school I went to. My first year I was doing MechEng and it went great, I just lost passion for it and found my way into my present career. Obviously if you want a great school for ENGINEERING, I personally dont think UM has much of a name (in that field) against the likes of Cornell and MIT (and for the money, you MIGHT AS WELL go to Cornell or MIT who actually made their names in Engineering and are basically the standard for comparison among Engineering schools).

Why are the other state schools out of the question for you if I may ask? UF for example is a damn good university with great reputation for all its schools, (has a huge fan base for the Gators so networking wont be a problem LOL) at a fraction of the cost to have the pretty UM name on your diploma in a field which UM really doesnt stand out per say.

Im not trying to put down UM, it is a great NAME, but as far as Engineering is concerned, I've never really heard much of anything going on from there.

Also, press releases and polls mean nothing as far as party goes. Who CARES if UM is #50 or w/e on the list of party school? That just means no parties IN CAMPUS. Dude Coconut Grove is ALMOST walking distance from campus and that's a massive party spot in Miami. Go a bit further north into downtown and you have the likes of Nocturnal and Space. Then just go over the bridge and you're in South Beach (once in here, you wont leave- trust me I work here )!

I strongly suggest from personal experience that if you are not quite set, or you wish to explore other career paths, do NOT go to UM at first. Do like someone suggested here to go to a state school then transfer to UM if anything. I say this because I went in with MechEng in mind... trust me in the next THREE years I went from that, to Business Admin, to Accounting, to Hospitality Management. It is MUCH easier on you wallet (and mind) to know that maybe you wasted say 1 year (FIU for example- when I went was about ~$2800 for 2 semesters) at a state school, than at UM that you'd be paying almost ~$25k for that same amount of time (I dont know what UM's tuition is up to now, when I was a freshman I THINK it was $25k-$30k/ year).

 

I did my bachelor's degree in computer science at UM (and took several computer engineering courses). I then did a masters at FIT (Melbourne) while collaborating with a few UCF and UF people, and now I'm doing a PhD at FSU. So at least when it comes to computer science, I can definitely give you a good comparison between UM, UF, FIT, UCF, and FSU (yea, I've been in school WAY too long, I know!).

My first question to you would be, how would you be paying your tuition? If you are doing loans (or some other form of funding taht requires you to pay it back), then I say go elsewhere. My reason for saying this, when it comes to computer science at the undergrad level, UM is on par with most of the other universities in the state (I think UF and UCF are probably best here, but the difference is not huge). So there is really no point in paying such an exorbitant amount for tuition to get the same education you would at a state school. Unless of course, you have some other important reason for living in miami (family, etc).

If you start comparing at the graduate level, that is where UM begins to fall short, and fast! In my area, UF, UCF and FSU have a VERY large advantage over UM and FIT. VERY large! I can go into details, but I wont since I am talking about the computer science dept, not computer engineering.

I wouldn't worry too much about the job placement stuff they tell you. A lot of schools will make promises such as these, but at the end of the day that completely depends on the individual. Dell/microsoft/etc are not going to hire you because you went to X university, they will hire you only if you are good at what you do (and can sell yourself well to them!).

Don't get me wrong, UM is a great school! It definitely prepared me for all the work I've done in grad school. But as gator mentioned, the cost to benefit analysis is definitely NOT in its favor.

If you have any specific questions about UM feel free to ask (or pm me) and I'll help you any way I can.

 

Other Florida schools are out of the question, because their application would have to been LAST december-ish. I only applied to 1 florida schoold, UM. I got 20k from them, not counting loans. now turo, i hear what you are saying. I visited their school and heard the professors talk and saw the curriculum i would be taking, and it seemed great. If i do go there, i would do the 5 year program, then if i do more graduate work, i would probably go somewhere else. Thanks for the advice, and im not being sarcastic.