Greetings!

Tomorrow is Halloween and you can definitely tell around here in Oxford! The weather has finally switched over to its typical autumn ways, and the fall colors are in place on our tree-studded campus. Autumn is my favorite time in Oxford!

On Sunday night, the students held Safe Trick or Treat, an early opportunity for the youngsters in the community to trick or treat in the residence halls. The weather was great, the costumes were clever and not only was this a time for the trick or treaters to dress up, but the Miami students donned costumes as well. The Miami students always seem to love Safe Trick or Treat. Not only do they get to dress up, but they get to interact with the local community as well.

The dining halls are usually pretty festive on a day like Halloween. The Housing and Dining staff does a wonderful job decorating and getting students in the mood for holidays, and the food offerings are often themed towards the holiday being celebrated. Since we have over 20 different dining locations on campus, you can get pretty much any type of food that you’re looking for on any day! My favorite theme days as an undergrad at Miami were the steak and shrimp days. I’m hoping to get a piece of pumpkin pie from one of our dining halls tomorrow!

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween and don’t scare your friends too much with your costume!

Happy haunting!

Chrissy

More tales from the road...

As you all can tell from our previous posts, travel has been a big part of our lives for the past few weeks! It has been an eventful fall, to say the least…

From our travels this fall, (with apologies to David Letterman), we present the Top 10 Road Faux Pas:

10. Putting magnetic name tag in the same pocket as a University Credit card.
9. Putting de-magnetized useless credit card in special envelope and then throwing said envelope away when cleaning out the car.
8. Driving over tree debris during Hurricane Ike and getting a flat tire .
7. Holding an evening reception in the dark because of power outage due to said Hurricane.
6. Ad-libbing a 1 hour PowerPoint presentation for 500 people after the laptop and projector “refused to communicate.”
5. Locking keys in the trunk of car at a college fair.
4. Getting wrong driver’s license returned to you from high school security.
3. Not eating breakfast before a high school visit.
2. Passing out in front of a group of high school students during a high school visit (see #3).
1. Waiting at Akron-Canton airport to pick up President Hodge who has just landed at Akron Fulton airport.

Hello!!!

Welcome to fall in Oxford, OH! At least it finally feels like fall here. This past week we received our first frost of the season and the temperature has been in the 50s and 60s during the day. Although it’s sad to see summer come to an end, a new season presents new opportunities! This past weekend, I was able to enjoy some of the fun things to do in Ohio during the fall season. My wife, Kathy, and I decided to go to Blooms and Berries (Check out their website: http://www.bloomsandberriesfarmmarket.com/) in Loveland, OH (about an hour away from Oxford). Blooms and Berries is a farm that opens its doors to the public each fall to enjoy hay rides, a corn maze, a petting zoo, games for the kids, and, of course, an opportunity to seek out the perfect pumpkin from their patch. It was a beautiful fall day and we had a blast! Check out some of the fun pictures from my trip to Blooms and Berries!

Since I’m new to Oxford and to Ohio, I’m always seeking out new adventures. In fact, I would love for some suggestions from you! Feel free to make comments to this post and let me know where I should go next! Happy fall!
-Brian

Tales from the Road

Hello!

My name is Chrissy Ormond and I am an Admission Counselor.

I am currently writing from my hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. I have been in Cleveland for the past two weeks visiting high schools and attending college fairs. The fall months mean “travel season” for all of us in the Admission Office, as we work hard to recruit the best and brightest students around the nation. This fall I will have traveled much more than I have in the past couple of years. When all is said and done, I will have been on the road for six weeks! I love travel season, though, as it allows me to see parts of the country that I might not otherwise see. In the past five weeks, I have spent time in Seattle, Denver, North central Ohio and Cleveland. Next week, I wrap up my travel with a week in Chicago. Whew! Here is a picture of my favorite destination this fall, Seattle.














Although travel season is among my favorite times of the year, I will look forward to my return to Oxford next weekend after my Chicago trip. I am excited about next weekend because it is Miami’s Homecoming weekend! This is a weekend with lots of activity and excitement around campus! I graduated from Miami in 2006, so many of my closest friends will make their way (some driving, some flying) back to Oxford for Homecoming. And since I live in town all of my college housemates come back and stay with me. It’s a great time to catch up with my best friends from Miami!

I will be going to the Homecoming football game next Saturday (we’re taking on Kent State), and you will definitely find me at the pep rally, parade and fireworks. The theme of Homecoming this year is, “Old Miami, New Miami, Your Miami”. One of my favorite things to do is walk around town and check out all the house decorations. Each year, the University holds a house decorating contest for off-campus student residences. The decorations typically coincide with the year’s theme. The students in these houses are so creative! They go all out and I can only imagine how many hours they spend decorating their houses, trying to win bragging rights for having the most impressive display. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain that day!

I hope you all have a super weekend!

Chrissy

Back from the North

Greetings!

I’m Meredith—another one of Miami’s Admission Counselors. I just returned from spending a little over a week in Northeast Ohio. I enjoy travel season because I get to travel in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. In addition to visiting high schools and participating in college fairs, I had the chance to visit my alma mater as well as to stop by my mom’s 4th grade class to talk to them about college. I also travel to Canton, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh.

I’m back on campus for a few days before heading out next week for Pittsburgh. This is my favorite time of the year in Oxford. The leaves are changing and the campus is beautiful! We’d love to have you visit and you can register online at www.muohio.edu/visit.

There is lots going on around Oxford this weekend. One of our sororities is hosting a philanthropy, “Strike Out Arthritis” featuring a softball tournament to benefit the Arthritis Foundation. The Hockey team is gearing up for their game against Ohio State on Saturday. There is also a Hike-a-Thon on Saturday. There’s always something going on at Miami!

I hope you all enjoy the upcoming weekend! If you live in the Pittsburgh area, I might see you next week!

Hello and welcome to the Miami University Admission Blog site! My name is Brian Jicinsky and I, along with a few other Admission Counselors, will be posting a couple of blogs a week. We encourage you to check back often, feel free to make comments, ask questions, and share topics you are interested to hear about.

What does Jay Leno, D1 MAC football, and Comedy with House and Vaughn have in common?? Well, all were part of this year’s Miami University Family Weekend held October 3-5. Each year, Miami invites families of students to come and enjoy a weekend on campus with opportunities to attend a wide variety of events. One of the feature events this year was an evening with the King of Late Night Comedy, Jay Leno. We also had other comedy acts, musical shows, and plenty of time to relax and catch-up with the family.

Building off of the theme, I too invited my uncle from Dayton to join my wife and me at the RedHawk football game. It was our first divisional opponent of the year against Temple, unfortunately we came up a few points short on the scoreboard. However, the team played hard and, as a fan, that's all you can ask for. The picture is of the University Marching Band from the halftime show of the football game. They were great!!!

Until next time,

Brian

Hello from Oxford and the Office of Admission. I am Ann Bader and I have been an admission counselor here for nearly 9 years and I love my job. I have a unique role on this blog team because not only am I the oldest member (by far!!!), but I also have the added expertise of being the mom of a current college junior and high school senior. So I can really identify with the parents out there. My Class of 2009 daughter is in the middle of application prep, tests taking this month, 4 AP courses and the general frenzy of her senior year. She just asked me to speak to her AP English class next week about the admission essay, brave of her! I have read 1000s of essays and I am here to tell you that there are a few key things to remember to write a successful college admission essay. First, pick a topic that makes you passionate when you write. It’s OK to be angry about something, elated, excited or frustrated, because the passion you feel will allow the next thing to occur - your personality will shine through. We want to get to know you and your essay is the best way for us to learn about how you think, what you hope to do, what has been important to you. Finally, we do not want to read about those other schools you are applying to, so be sure to proof read your essay before you send it out! It can be embarrassing to tell one school how much you love a different school. I am off, I have to read a stack of applications, attend a parent meeting tonight, and train this weekend to be a swim team official. Have a great weekend