Why We're Here

Our admission counselors are here to share with you the world of Miami admission. Learn a little about us and the process, plus all the fun and excitement happening on and off campus this year.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Snow Days--in college!

Hi Everyone!

Well, after a few very snowy and icy days in Oxford, we are back in business! Many of us in admission were very excited to have the University closed yesterday because of the weather. Some students enjoyed re-living their childhood by going sledding. Something that is really great is Miami’s emergency text messaging system. It’s nice that Faculty, staff and students can sign up to receive texts about whether or not there are classes, or if school’s even open for that day right from your phone! What’s the weather like where you are?

February 1 is right around the corner! (Where did January go? ) I’m sure you’ve heard it many times for our office, but just as a reminder, Early Action applicants will be able to find out their decisions online on Sunday beginning at midnight. Also, Regular Decision applicants—this is your application deadline. You all still have time to apply to Honors (that's anyone, no matter when you applied for admission) by February 1!

Some helpful websites:
To apply for Regular Decision: www.muohio.edu/apply
To apply for Honors: www.muohio.edu/honors
To check your application status:www.muohio.edu/appcheck
To find out if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow on Groundhog Day: http://www.groundhog.org/

‘Til next time,
Meredith

Monday, January 26, 2009

IT'S NOT TOO LATE!

Perhaps it is the stress, the pressure, or the adrenaline that leaves some students always waiting for the last minute to do homework, follow through with chores, and even APPLY TO MIAMI UNIVERSITY. If the above statement describes you and, for one reason or another, your application to Miami University hasn’t been sent or you have components missing, now is the time to finish your application. Our last deadline to apply is coming up on Sunday, February 1. Less than one week away! But don’t fret, as long as everything is postmarked or submitted electronically by February 1, your application will be reviewed for our Regular Decision deadline. Students who have applied by February 1 will get admission decision letters on March 15. For more information about applying, check out the following website:

www.muohio.edu/apply

Speaking of decision letters, for those who applied by our Early Action deadline of December 1, your admission decision letters will be mailed Friday, January 30. Decisions will also be posted online Sunday, February 1 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on the application status check website:

www.muohio.edu/appcheck



Additional deadline date:

Final Honors application deadline: February 1, 2009

www.muohio.edu/honors

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Big Super Bowl News for the RedHawks!




Hello!

For those of you that don’t watch football or the NFL, the NFL season is coming to a close. Next Sunday, February 1, Super Bowl XLIII will be taking place in Tampa Bay. The final showdown will feature the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. I know neither of these teams represent the great state of Ohio, but Miami has one big connection to the big game.

The Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, walked our beautiful campus not too long ago. Ben was a student at Miami from 2000 to 2004 and smashed multiple Miami records and MAC (Mid American Conference) records. I was a student at Miami during his last two seasons and I have some very vivid memories of the excitement and enthusiasm Ben brought to our field. How neat it was for the Miami community when Ben was drafted 11th overall to the Steelers in 2004! In 2006, Big Ben became the youngest Super Bowl-winning quarter back in NFL history at the age of 23.

It’s really neat to see Big Ben come back to campus for events like Homecoming. In 2006, Ben was the Grand Marshall of our Homecoming weekend and there was a lot of buzz about seeing him on the sidelines, cheering on his former teammates.




My favorite memory of Big Ben was seeing him in Martin Dining Hall and being amazed at how many trays of food he had! It seemed like he had ordered three of everything. But he couldn’t eat it quickly because he was constantly getting asked for his autograph during lunch or dinner.

Most students on campus seem pretty pumped up about the Super Bowl next Sunday and I can imagine there will be a very high percentage of the Miami community watching the game. We can hope for the best for our former RedHawk as we cheer him on! Go, Big Ben!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Today we will watch history be made...


These past two days were filled activities involving Miami University students, faculty and staff in both the Miami University and Oxford communities. Monday was our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day March from campus to the uptown community park. Not only were students marching in remembrance of this historical figure, but they were also celebrating the anticipated inauguration of our first African-American President, Barack Obama. Although temperatures were in the lower teens, this did not prevent students from participating in the march. They also volunteered their time afterwards. This year about 300 students, faculty, staff and community members joined the march.

Tuesday was a historical day and one that was watched throughout our campus. It was the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Not only did we have this playing on the big screen in our office auditorium, but several locations around campus had TVs on to give students the opportunity to see this event take place. Some even provided light snacks and punch!

What was your involvement these past two days?

For more information and pictures of this event please visit The Miami Student at:

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper776/documents/2q785db5.pdf



Upcoming dates:

Final fall 209 admission application deadline: 2-01-2009
www.muohio.edu/apply

Final Honors application deadline: 2-01-2009
www.muohio.edu/honors

Thursday, January 15, 2009

On Campus Living


Greetings!

I hope you are all doing well. It is a VERY cold day in Oxford—temperatures are down in the single digits and even below zero with the windchill! Chrissy’s mom even sent us some homemade tea to help keep us warm!

We’ve heard a lot of questions about Living Learning Communities. I hope I can provide some insight into our residence life. Our residence halls are themed—and we call them Living Learning Communities, or LLCs. Next fall, there will be 21 communities from which to choose. Instead of picking your actual location (for example, the exact residence hall you want to live in) you will pick the theme that interests you the most. The great thing about them is that there really is no right or wrong choice on where to live—it’s all about what your interests are! The LLCs range from language focused to interest in leadership to the environment to diversity to Miami school spirit, and many more. It’s also great that you will have something in common with everyone living in your residence hall. A big part of college is your classroom experience—but residence life is also a huge part, and Miami wants to create an environment that combines the living with the learning. Check out the residence life website to get more information:

www.muohio.edu/reslife
'Til next time,
Meredith

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Hi Everyone!

I am Natalie Pensyl, the newest blogger for the Office of Admission at Miami University. I recently graduated from Miami with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and History. I am currently in the process of applying to graduate schools, but in the interim, I am interning in the admission office. Though most of my duties are not counselor related (I don't read the applications), I assist the office anyway I can (which usually means a lot of filing).

I had a fantastic time during my three and a half years at Miami. I was able to pick from the over 300 student organizations offered. During my time as a student, I played an intramural sport (broomball), helped in community service projects, became involved in Greek Life and was able to interact with hundreds of perspective and incoming students through MUSA (Miami University Student Ambassadors). There are limitless opportunities for students, and an organization for any interest.

I was an out-0f-state student, graduating from high school in South Bend, Indiana. I still like to visit there, but Miami and Oxford have become my true home. Besides the beautiful campus, the small-town feel of Oxford makes Saturday afternoon walks around historic uptown absolutely wonderful. I honestly cannot say enough positive things about my experience at Miami and am happier than words can express that I can continue to live in Oxford post-graduation while helping at the Office of Admission.

If you ever have any questions about being a student here, just let me know! I love to talk about Miami!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Majors?

Where are you going to college? What are you going to major in? A few years ago I remember being asked these questions over and over again. Believe it or not, I remember what it was like to be a senior and trying to line my ducks in a row to make everyone, including myself, happy with the choice of college and, almost more importantly, the career that I was going to have for the rest of my life. It is a lot to ask of high school seniors to know exactly what they want to do for a career four or five years down the road!

However, as someone who once provided career counseling to many college students, let me provide you with a little advice. At this time, it is okay to be undecided about a career and even a major. It is great to start thinking of these topics, but the truth is you do not need be 100% committed to a major before coming to Miami. In fact we want you to explore and develop multiple areas of interest while you are a Miami student. We have many programs and offices in place that will allow you to do this type of exploring.

For starters, we have an excellent Career Exploration and Testing Center
www.muohio.edu/saf/scs which will help you discover majors and careers that center on your interest, skills, and values. We also have a program called the Exploring Majors Fair, which provides a centralized opportunity for students to ask questions and learn about a variety of majors at one event. For current Miami students this event is actually coming up soon: February 10, 2009. More information about the Exploring Majors Fair can be found at www.cas.muohio.edu/advising/majorsfair.html. It is important for you to know that Miami University offers Bachelors degrees in over 100 different fields of study www.muohio.edu/admission/majorsminors! So whether you know exactly want you want to do or perhaps you have multiple interests and need time and guidance to explore these interests, Miami University is committed to help you throughout this process. I’m interested in hearing from some of you about your areas of interest. If you would like to share majors, careers, or other interests, please leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog. Until next time!

Brian

Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Business building

Hi!

A new year always brings lots of new things. This year, Miami will be opening something big on campus. And it’s very exciting!

The entire Miami community is anxiously awaiting the completion of the new home for the Farmer School of Business. We have watched for over a year as the construction site has blossomed from simple concrete slabs to a beautiful structure that follows our campus’ theme of Georgian-style architecture. The building is slated to be finished this summer and open for classes at the start of school in August.
Roger L. Jenkins, Dean of the Farmer School of Business, realizes this new state of the art facility will be a tremendous addition to the students, as he states, “. . . we will be able to offer our undergraduates the kind of experience that is most often found at the graduate level.” According to the Farmer School of Business website, one of the highlights of the building will be the Chaifetz Trading Center, which will enhance the real-world learning of undergraduate and graduate students by allowing them to participate in simulated financial market activity as an integrated part of their finance curriculum. Simulated transactions will be based upon real-time electronic feeds from Bloomberg and Reuters on dozens of dual-monitor computer stations. The high-tech, 1,800-square-foot facility, will feature a “pit” surrounded by glass walls for viewing, scrolling stock market tickers and projection screens. Cool!
The building will also feature a café so students can grab a tasty snack or cup of joe as they head down the hall to class. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!

You can monitor the progress of the building from the website. Be sure to check out the pictures—it’s fun to imagine what the finished product will look like!

http://www.fsb.muohio.edu/new-building

Until next time…

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Welcome Back…

Today we are welcoming back our staff who have been either gone to visit their families or spent the holidays here in southwest Ohio! Our students actually get an additional week and will be back on campus sometime this weekend to begin their first day of the spring semester next Monday.

We are currently wrapping up evaluating the Early Action applications. We review each and every application individually and consider several variables before making a final decision. This is why it takes us a bit to go over a student’s application. For more information on this please take a look at:


A big question that I get from students is what to do while their application is in review. The answer to this is simply to wait and hear back from us. Because all the materials we needed have been submitted to us, there really isn’t anything additional a student can do until after a decision has been made.

Another question students are always asking is how to obtain additional monies to help finance their education, whether this would be through Miami University directly or outside resources. Our Office of Student Financial Assistance has wonderful resources that students are able to use in order to help with the process. The following link will take you directly to the site where you are able to find information on our specific scholarships that are available but, if you look in the tool bar to the left, information on outside scholarships and search strategies are available for you to use.

Not only did we recently ring the New Year and are celebrating our bicentennial but the 2009-2010 FAFSA is now available for those students who are going to be attending a university in the 2009-2010 school year. You can complete this online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. Miami’s federal school code is 003077. Our priority deadline to file the FAFSA for new first-year students is February 15, 2009. Keep in mind that the first step in the financial aid process is completing the FAFSA.
By completing it by our priority deadline, you are applying for all need-based financial aid which includes grants, scholarships, loans, and federal work-study.
I hope this information helps a bit while you are waiting to hear back from us, and do not hesitate to contact us for any additional questions!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009 is here!

Happy New Year! Is it hard for anyone else to believe that 2008 is over and 2009 is already here? What are some of your New Year’s Resolutions?

2009 is a very special year for Miami—one that as a university community have been excited about for many years--it is our bicentennial! That’s right, Miami University is turning 200 this year. You may have seen our bicentennial logo that was created by one of our very own students. In February, we will celebrate with our Charter Day Ball, commemorating when Miami signed its charter in 1809.

Below is a website that has all the happenings of our celebration for this special year.
www.muohio.edu/bicentennial

Well, I’m headed off to the beach (I’m still on winter vacation and am spending it in Florida with my family). I hope you all are enjoying a safe and fun break!

Best,Meredith