My time at Miami mainly consisted of positive experiences, so when considering “aspects to avoid” I was initially hard-pressed to come up with good insight. The parts that I (or my friends) encountered that should be avoided include parking, certain meal plans, certain classes/professors, long lectures, and bikes.
1. Parking
Like many small college towns, Oxford is not a great place to find parking, especially during alumni or parents weekend when street parking is particularly scarce. There is a city parking garage in the town center and some off-campus properties have their own parking area for the occupants, but most students should be advised to leave their cars at home or get the permits to park in the designated lots/garages on campus. There are two garages on campus, but in all the time I spent as a student I rarely used them. The campus is designed for walking, and even many students who live off-campus still walk or take the bus line which is free and often convenient.
2. Meal Plans
When I was a student there was a traditional meal plan, which basically meant you could get three meals per day – whether you actually got them or not was on you. There was also a debit card version of that plan called “Diplomat” which is what I had, and I loved it. Get the Diplomat plan, the food is excellent on campus and even if you do not live on campus, you will still want to eat at many of the dining halls. They do have an off-campus dining plan for restaurants located Uptown called “MU Bucks” but I would not recommend this. The advantage to this is that you can still use your ID card like a debit card at off-campus places whether it is for food or even books and supplies, but the problem is that it is mainly designed so that parents can keep track of expenses and since you can’t use it for alcohol, parents know it is going to just food or textbooks. These days with how debit and credit cards are, it is easy for parents to send money if they need to or even monitor expenses, but the student can still get a beer or other items this way, lord forbid.
3. Certain Classes and Professors
Nowadays you have review sites for everything, including for teachers such as “ratemyprofessors.com” and if I was a professor, I would probably visit the site to get a good laugh. When I was a student, I found online a way to see what the grade distributions were for certain classes, which gave you information on how easy (or tough) of a grader the teacher was. Some classes (like English) may also be more subjective in evaluation so that is when the instructor can make a significant difference. If one class has two different professors and there is one you prefer, speak to the professor to see if he or she will add you, I have gotten away with that just by chit-chatting in their office.
4. Long Lectures
If you are like me, you will tend to avoid the long lectures. With some exceptions, my most common schedules were either Tues/Thurs for 75 min or MWF for 50 min, and while this is personal preference, it seemed more beneficial to meet that extra time in the week plus, at 8am, it can be hard to stay awake for a 75 min lecture!
5. Bikes
Most people would recommend using a bike in a small town college setting, so why would I say you should avoid this? I loved biking when I was a student but it is not for everybody. Some towns, especially in the west coast where the weather is mild and warm most of the year, are designed for biking like UC Davis or Santa Barbara. Miami gets snowy in the winter and I definitely would bike when it was icy outside, but this was probably not the safest thing to do in the world! Plus, even when it was warm, I often found myself biking into people (by accident of course) and since the school is fairly compact, getting most anywhere is possible on foot.
Michael Bromberg is a 2005 graduate of Miami with a BA degree in psychology