The College Campus Series is an opinion-based review of various college campuses visited by the author, Tommy Capobianco. The intent is to provide an unbiased review of various campuses through the eyes of a high school student. The author has no connection to any schools reviewed and will do his best to ensure each school is given an equally fair and honest review.

As a high school junior, it may seem a bit early to begin looking at colleges. However in the words of my wise mother, “It is never too early to start looking. Before you know it high school will be over; time flies by so quickly.” So, we made our third college visit of the year to the University of Miami. I will categorize my opinions between pros and cons:

Pros:

• Small Class Size- as with many private schools, the student-faculty ratio is much lower. This is great for pretty much everyone as you are in a classroom with a fewer amount of students and therefore have more interaction with the professor than usual.
• Faculty Live on Dorms- UMiami has an interesting program that considers their dorms “Residential Colleges.” Basically that means in each dorm there is a faculty member (usually a professor) who lives there with their family in a separate wing of the building. These faculty typically have an open-door policy for students who need help with something, want advice, or just wish to talk. Also, faculty often will invite entire floors over for dinner. While it may seem a bit odd, the school definitely wants students to feel as at-home as possible.
• Free Laundry- this is major. A lot of colleges will charge for laundry, and knowing our generation, we will procrastinate until a return trip home with numerous bags of dirty clothes. However, UMiami has free facilities for laundry, so there is no excuse not to have clean clothing.
• Beautiful Campus- the grounds are well-kept and the buildings relatively modern. At the center of campus by the student center, there is a medium-sized lake with a fountain where events such as fireworks shows are held. Additionally, there are canals running throughout the campus that add to the beautiful scenery.
• Near a Big City- this is key for me. While UMiami is not located in Downtown Miami as some would believe, it is located not too far in the suburb of Coral Gables. Not only are there numerous activities provided on campus, but transportation is available throughout Miami, allowing students the opportunity to take part in everything the world-class city has to offer.
• Tons of Ways to Get Around- not only does UMiami have their own bus service, but the City of Miami has rail service throughout the area. There is a rail stop just off campus that provides students transit to areas in Downtown Miami and Miami Beach to enjoy the city without having to drive anywhere.
• Food- this may or may not have been the most important part of the visit. The dining hall we ate at was amazing. There were pizza stations, pasta stations, dessert stations, salad bars, and pretty much everything else in between. There’s no way any student will go hungry while attending UMiami. In fact, the food there may have been the best out of all the college campuses visited so far.
• Beautiful Facilities- the gym was massive and had indoor racquetball courts. These facilities are free for UMiami students.

Cons:

• Expensive- UMiami is a private school which means that tuition is very expensive. While this may not be too important to some, cost is a major inhibitor for many incoming college students. Unless they offer a lot of scholarships, it is difficult to justify attending this University, especially when they do not offer in-state tuition.
• Far Away- while some students would like to be as far away from home as possible when attending college, UMiami is a little too far away. It takes more than four hours to drive from Tampa, making it hard to justify eight hours of driving just to stop home for a weekend.
• Football Stadium is WAY Off Campus- I think it is important that colleges have their football stadiums on campus as it adds to the character. However, many schools often have their stadiums off campus and bus students on game day. But UMiami’s football stadium isn’t just a little off campus, it is more like 45 MINUTES off campus. That is insane to me.
• Communal Bathrooms- while UMiami is working on upgrading their facilities so that communal bathrooms will no longer exist, it is a big minus for me to have to share bathrooms with the entire floor of your dorm. I can deal with sharing bathrooms with a few people, call me snobby, but 20+ just doesn’t sit too well with me.
• Can’t Really Have a Car- while UMiami isn’t located in Downtown Miami, Coral Gables is still an urban area and that makes it difficult to have a car. Parking anywhere in urban Miami is a problem and the roads aren’t that great either. You’re much better off leaving the car at home and utilizing public transportation. This ties back into the distance factor as well. Since UMiami is so far away and having a car is difficult, students may have to fly back and forth between school and home which can get expensive.

To be perfectly honest, I had a much different vision of the University of Miami in my head than what it turned out to be. While the campus and facilities were amazing, nothing really jumped out at me that grabbed my attention. Also, the campus is a lot smaller than I realized, there are less than 17,000 students enrolled. Even though UM’s campus was nice, the school just didn’t have any defining factors that justified the high cost of attending. While UM didn’t impress me that much, it is still definitely towards the top of my list and gives me something to consider during my search.

Don’t just take my word for it, check out the University of Miami for yourself! Information for tours can be found at http://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/get-started/visit/index.html