Current Student Panel

How about you all? Tell us why you chose Miami? Let's start with that question and see where the conversation takes us. And anybody can start this one out.

I can go.

Perfect. So I actually since I was an athlete, I got recruited to come to Miami. So my experience looks a little different than maybe the typical students. So I went on recruiting trips and got to see the campus through meeting the team and coaches. And I just absolutely loved the team. I felt so at home with everyone there. I pretty much knew exactly right when I went on campus in Miami is going to be where I ended up that I love the small town feel to being able to walk everywhere. And Oxford is just such a cool opportunity to live there for four years and have that experience.

Yeah, I think you wanted to chime in as well.

Yeah. So I actually chose Miami for partly because of the four year promise for the tuition. So that was really nice. For those of you that don't know what that is, that means law, Europe, Miami, it will always charge you the same price year to year for those four years. As well as when I was here on campus for the first time, I had an interaction with one of the professors. And so my sister actually went to Miami but was a ceramics major. So she was in the College of Arts but flopped around from all different majors and minors. And when I met with this professor, you know, he was like, Oh, your name sounds familiar. And I was like, Oh, I have an older sister the one here but like, probably never interacted with her. And he was like, Oh, yeah, Gracie. She became like a ceramics major. And like, How's she doing? How's everything going? And like? So I went home to my sister. And I was like, how many classes Did you have with him? And she goes, Gabby, I had one class within my first year on campus. And that was it. And like that, so that's what I was like, Okay, I'm going to Miami.

That's great. Gabby, thanks for sharing that. How about any of our other panelists why you chose Miami.

I can get I can get my schpeel

Funny enough, I actually Miami was not my number one school. The reason why was because my parents came here. So my parents remind me mergers and they were alumni of Miami. So I was kind of wanting to forge my own path. When I was doing my college search. And I went to a number of schools, I did so many college tours, but Miami. But Miami was my was the one school that I went to where it really felt the most like home to me. I think Megan kind of said it perfectly that it was the small town feel. And I could just imagine myself just living Miami for four years. And I remember after my tour, I had two meetings, one with an advisor and then one with a professor in K and H in Kinesiology and health and in education. So I got to speak to both of them. And they kind of really helped my decision to come to Miami because it made me realize that the faculty really did give a lot of effort to make sure that you were going to get the best education possible. And it just really helped my decision to come to Miami and follow my parents path even though that was not my initial attention.

Great, thank you, Rob. About drew Ariana, and,

um, I can hop off of that. It's kind of combination of both what Gabby and Rob said. So first, that tuition freeze is so important, really, just amazing. But also when I came for the makeup Miami day, which is the admitted students day, I was sitting on a bench and three students came up to me and were like, Hi, are you a prospective student? And I was like, yeah, and they're like, cool. And they sat down and talked to me for like 20 or 30 minutes. And it just felt like home and I didn't have that type of feeling anywhere else. I really liked other schools. But it didn't feel like somewhere I could just like assembly into

thanks. Sorry, Drew.

For me, so I was deciding between Miami and a larger sec school down south, as I mentioned, and I'm from Atlanta, and I visited both schools. And when I visited sec school, actually went into a classroom with one of my friends. And it was basically like, I was kind of like a number. It was probably like 400 students in the classroom. And the professor really didn't know who was there who was missing or who was honestly not supposed to be in that class. And that I visited Miami. And I'll never forget, I went into this management class and it was like 30 students, and the professor knew I was not typically in the section and he had my friend introduced myself and asked me to participate in any way that I can. It was that moment where I wanted to go to a school where the professor's fostered an environment where they really took an interest in their students. A beautiful campus did it over for me.

Yeah, that's that's usually big you want to you don't have such great stories that are all have some overlap, but are also so unique and different. So thanks for sharing and giving us some insight into your college search. We have a very interactive group who's putting lots of great questions in the q&a. So we're going to start tackling those right now. And Rob, there was actually a question that came in that I think you might be able to answer to get us started. Caleb asked that he's planning on doing the same major and minor issue. And he wants you to talk a bit more about the extracurricular group that you had mentioned for social studies, education students.

Yeah, I can talk about that. So um,

for Miami Council for social studies, social studies, there was actual it actually became more prevalent this past year, because usually, the advisor for that organization, Dr. misko, is going to be the professor that kind of oversees adolescent Young Adult Social Studies, education, he's going to be your advisor for you know, a wide social studies. So he really likes to, you know, kind of get the agenda forward and really wants us to get involved as much as we can. With regards to social studies. I know that last year, last fall, in particular, there was a conference down in Washington DC, that we had three or four members of mcss, extra go down and visited with Dr. misko, which was really cool. We were planning on going to something this this past spring, but obviously we couldn't. But there was supposed to be as well, a webinar that happened last weekend, which is really nice, where it kind of was the same thing as last year, where it was just multiple social studies, teachers and educators and administrators who were talking about what their schools were doing with regards to social studies, education. A lot of people tend to kind of have the idea that socialized education is primarily history education, which my professor completely disagrees with. Because we are not history teachers, we are social studies, teachers, and we are supposed to have reflective and critical inquiry rather than memorizing dates and people. So he really likes to push that agenda forward. And he likes to push that agenda for through Miami Council for social studies. And then there's also a lot of organizations in the history department as well, that you can be a part of, if you do care a lot about say specifically World War Two, where you care specifically about, I don't know, maybe say the French Revolution, I don't know, I'm just saying these random things. You could join these organizations that may be debate wise, or maybe I'd like to focus specifically on a specific topic topic. I just thought that way. But um, there's a lot of ways to get involved from the social studies side of things. But for mine, the council for social studies, we're really hoping that we can get more people involved this spring, especially when hopefully we can get back to in person. And we can actually start doing more stuff in person, depending on what happens in the next couple of months. But we had there were only six people as at the start of last year, and about half of my cohort joined last year. So we're up to about 20 people, because we all care so much. And as long as there's a lot of people who care a lot. That's what gets the agenda forward. Good. Thanks, Rob. That's very helpful and appreciate the context. And Caleb, thanks for getting us started with that question. Let's ask another question. This one came in from Isaac, what are in this is open to anybody? What are some of your favorite Miami traditions? We have lots of tradition, some that are pretty cool, some that are a little bit quirky. We've got lots of them, what what would you all say would be your favorite Miami tradition?

I can go. One of my favorite traditions is that in our academic quad, we actually have a seal. And it's tradition that if you step on the seal, you're destined to fail your next exam. And that's one of my favorite one because I'm a very superstitious person. So I try to walk as far away from it as possible. But every year come April and May, seniors will come out in their graduation robes and take their graduation pictures, celebrating all their hard work by stepping on the seal, which I think is really cool. So I got to experience that with the seniors last year that was close with and I can't believe that I'll be doing it come May this year. But it's one of my favorite things just to see and see all the seniors celebrate all the hard work that they did.

Pretty cool experience. Just make sure you're not planning to go to graduate school because then you gotta you gotta go through a whole other thing to make sure the bad luck goes away about other folks favorite Miami traditions.

I would say the fight song. Being an athlete we said the fight song all the time. It was kind of a ingrained memory. And when we won, we had all seen the fight song together. So yeah, that's probably my favorite Miami's tradition.

That's great. Megan, anybody else want to get in on the tradition? Question?

If you want to go on the food side, my favorite Miami tradition is to toasted roll.

Yes.

Tell tell them all about it. Yeah, maybe we can't just move on without mentioning what this thing is.

So I don't like I don't even know like what is actually made up. I just know it's sugary. And you put you have to get it all remote. You have to get ice cream on top when you do it. But it's like a sticky cinnamony toasted roll with ice cream on top. And it's just so delicious.

And you can't forget the butter that they used to slather the entire thing and grill it right. It's fantastic. Yeah, you gotta gotta try to roll with these. If you come to campus, for sure. It's a great question about traditions. Thanks for sharing your favorite traditions with the group. Let's try another question. This one came in from Barb and the questions regarding I think your transition to college is first year students. So we're going to have you dip back a little bit. And the question is, what kind of orientation programs Did you all experience? for first year students? How did you meet people? How did you get involved with the organization? So anybody can answer this, let's just talk about your transition to Miami as first year students.

Um, well, when you're admitted as a student, you get invited to come to Miami's official orientation program. So it will be led by a sole leader, which is a fellow student that will have you in a group and it's about a day and a half type of programs. And you're going to be meeting people doing activities, learning more about Miami, and you get to actually stay in a residence hall on campus, which is super cool, I think. And so that lasts pretty much like late spring and to all the way up to the first week of school. And it is convenient for students who are out of state and can't come to orientation before because that first week of school to make sure they get you in somehow. But I will say we also have this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing called mega fair, which if any of you have seen Pitch Perfect, it's pretty much at first scene where she's been like haggled by all these people to come sign up at tables and getting flyers and all that we actually have that. I mean, it's just as overwhelming. But it's amazing. There's always music going on, there's always free food, and you can sign up for anything you want. And so once you get involved in orders, or you don't have to get involved in the ones you are part of, that's just a great way to meet people in a good transition period into college.

Great, thank you Ariana, anybody else want to talk about transition to Miami orientation experiences? I can.

Um, so I knew no one going into Miami on the first one for my high school to go there and four years so literally no familiar faces whatsoever. Um, orientation, actually, you get assigned a random roommate and didn't know my shoes from Cleveland area. And we like talked a little bit but it was like you just meet a random person when nine seats in the same room. It's like oh, whatever. She actually lived across the hall from me my first year then coincidentally. And then we rushed the same sorority and our like best friends. So it's just super weird how things like that happen, like coincidences. And then you just start meeting familiar faces like that. Just you'll meet them randomly asleep in the same room with them and see them all the time. So you meet people so quick. It's a really fun experience.

Great, thank you, Megan, before we move on to the next question, anybody else want to talk about orientation or transition experiences? Everybody good. All right. I think we got some good answers on that. So thank you for that question. I know Gabby, I think we got them thinking about lunch with the toasted roll question because one of the most important questions came in, in my opinion. And this one's from Mason, what is the best place to get pizza in Oxford?

It's a good question. I like it.

I'll reserve my choice for later because I don't I don't want to. I don't want to influence any of your decisions.

My favorite is definitely Bruno's uptown. It's very it's a it's an underdog in Oxford, but they're Bruno balls and it's pizza is one of my favorite go to places uptown.

Bruno's is the underdog. I agree but a solid choice. Rob. I see you've got your mic. unmuted. We just had a place that open like three weeks ago that was called that's called series those. And so reserves is delicious. It is absolutely delicious. I've been there twice in the last three weeks. And it's been it's been to die for. It might compete with Bruno's I know what I'm having when I come back to campus this week for work about other folks best pizza choices.

If you're looking for something like super quick customizable rapid fires always like a go to I actually had it for dinner last night so

Ariana, Megan you're gonna weigh in on the pizza debate?

I can I've lived on South quad all of my years so sts which is like right there walking distance has to be a favorite.

All right Ariana, I think we'd get one vote like across the board. So you've got you've got a cast the deciding vote.

My favorite happens to be rapid fired, just because it is customizable. But I live right next door to SDS. So I'm a little more biased now. But I think rapidride still has it.

I was between rapid fire and SDS and I'm also a Cincinnati guy. So I have to go with fluorosis Of course, that's that's got to be in the mix. So good. Good. Rob. Rob, I see you shaking your head on the road. So so that's a

I'm a Cincinnati kid that does not like liquor.

Alright, you're one of one of the few. It's always a polarizing topic. We've got another question that came in that I think this is a good question about career opportunities and things after graduation, do you feel that you still have access to a variety of work and internship opportunities, even though the school has a small town feel? So can you all talk about what your career experiences and preparation have been like and how being an Oxford has has factored into that experience?

Oh, actually start with this one. Because I always get super excited about this one. So I've actually had two internship opportunities. Thankfully, like this past summer, mine didn't actually get cancelled, so I was able to still go through it, which is a whole nother story of moving to a different city and state in the middle of a pandemic, was really weird. Um, but I'll spare you the details on that one. So, um, but with it, like, honestly, having the small town feel almost makes it easier, because it's almost like you're a giant family, like anyone hears any Miami alumni that hears you go to Miami, they're instantly ready to hire you almost, um, and just get so excited about having other Miami alum with the prospect of them being there. So I've had two opportunities. One was with Dom tar. And that was in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania. And the other one this past summer was with a smaller chemical company for the paper industry. And I was it outside of Atlanta, Georgia. So we have people that get to travel everywhere for all of our internships within like the paper industry. And it's really cool to kind of like see all the opportunities you can have.

That's great. Thanks, Gabby, anybody else want to talk about their career experiences in preparation, Megan, go ahead.

I can hop on this one, too. So I actually switched my major from nutrition to Interactive Media Studies without really knowing much about Interactive Media Studies. My first year, really hit it off with one of the professors who was in the user experience design field. And we just got along really well. And he's like, Hey, I have this company that came to me and wants to do an internship for them, like, would you be interested? So I had an internship with a real life company outside of the school, my sophomore year, fell in love with user experience and have pursued multiple internships and that I'm actually living out in San Francisco right now to this semester doing the digital innovation program through Miami. So I'm working at a small medical device startup and getting school credit for it too. And I'm finishing up my school experience this way. And I actually got a full time job offer last night. So that's a win.

Megan, congratulations. That's exciting and so timely, wonderful. All right, other folks want to chime in career experiences drew Go ahead.

So when I was a sophomore, I started interviewing for my internship and my full time offer how it leads to and for sophomores, it's pretty early to be interviewing for your junior year internship. And as a sophomore, I had little to no interviewing experience. But Miami has this place in our sensor called the Career Service Center. And this is a place where you can go to to help find a career or they will help you get the career that you want, and land that job that you need. So I made a point with it. I made an appointment with them and told them what I was interviewing for. And I just show up in my suit. They videoed me we did a mock interview. And they asked me industry specific questions that might be students have been asked and these specific type of interviews, which already put me ahead of the game when I walked into my interviews the next week, so they told me what I did well, what I needed to work on and they got me ready to go kill the interview. And it turned out I got the interview, which was I mean, I got the internship offer which was awesome. But now I'm actually a Campus Ambassador for Fortune 500 company and the former school business. So I know for at least for former that we have recruiters coming in weekly, wanting to talk to my new students and wanting to recruit to Miami students, especially a career fair we have like 200 Plus, employees come and show up They're companies to Miami students. And when I was going through my interviewing process to, and I was interviewing in Atlanta, the Atlanta partner actually reached out to me that was a Miami alum and talk to me and really wanted to get to know me, and just gave me advice for the interviewing process and what it was like to go through the interviewing. So it's just like that, just like you said, like, we're one big happy family Miami alumni look out for its Miami students. And it really goes a long way. And it made my interviewing process a lot more comfortable and a lot more easier. And less stressful.

Job and Internship offers all over I feel like Oprah you get a job, you get a job, you get a job, everybody's getting them. How about anybody else want to weigh in on career experiences? Ariana, go ahead.

From, like health sciences perspective, it is slightly different. Because we do have career fair. That's like happens. But it's not always the same like kind of careers if you're trying to go into like, medical school or master's program or something like that. But the university is just amazing. They really try to help you in any way they can. We have a lot of research opportunities that kind of turned into internships are based on faculty, you can do research with the send you with a colleague that works somewhere. So I work in a research lab that focuses on like digital literacy for oral health. But based on that my grad advisor, she knew someone that worked at this company called med wish international and had an internship within the summer based on just that. So Miami again, it really, as long as you know, people as long as you're making connections, they really just want to pour back into you and connect you with whoever they can.

That's great. Well, thanks, everybody for sharing those experiences. Gaby, I had a question come in specifically for you similar to the question that was asked to rob earlier. Could you elaborate a little bit on the women in engineering group that you talked about? We we have a student here who is would like to pursue mechanical engineering and is interested in what that group is and how it supports students?

Yeah, absolutely. So um, but so it's called Society of engineers, at our society of women and engineering. And so with that, like, it changes year to year depending on who's running it. But the main things that we always have are at the end of all of our meetings, we do study tables, where you can either get with other people that are in your classes, or find maybe upperclassmen that already took that class. And just this week, like yesterday, or sorry, on Thursday, the class schedule got released for next semester. And we had a meeting later on in the night over zoom to meet with any buddy in the club that was unsure of like, oh, which professors Should I get different things like that to really like look out for each other and help each other out? as well as we've done different trips to go to visit like a different company. Obviously, that's a little bit not as much right now. And last year, we actually sent a group of five students to our like, National Society woman engineering conference that was funded by the university.

That's great, Gabby, thanks for sharing that. It's very, very helpful. And I know I've interacted with lots of students who have been a part of that group. And it seems like something that really resonates with their student experience. So thank you for sharing yours, had a very timely question come in, and one that you are all going to be able to respond to and probably have a lot to talk about. And it's from Caleb. And the question is, how is the adaptation of learning during COVID? affected your school life? Are you doing a lot of online classes? Are you doing things in person? So talk about what that transition to the pandemic and the COVID learning environment has been like for for each of you.

I would say it was a pretty seamless transition from pre COVID to now. I know, especially last semester, or professors were put in a pretty difficult decision where they had a week to transition from completely in person they completely online. And I think that every one of my professors did a phenomenal job in terms of getting us the education that we are pursuing, especially this semester, I am taking mostly online classes. I have one hybrid class where I meet once a week and the rest is online. I'm also taking ice skating, which is completely in person. So we meet twice a week. I'm trying to get those 150 credit hours for the CPA. But I've I have not had a hard transition in terms of my professors not meeting me halfway. It's definitely different in terms of not walking to class and I'd see everyone on campus. I definitely have a lot more free time that I Not hanging out and like the business school, or walking to class and whatnot. But I would definitely say the professors are doing a phenomenal job in terms of offering us the full experience that we would be getting in class in an in person class. And, yeah, it's been, I think it's been pretty great. So

that's great. Drew, thanks for sharing. How about other folks.

So I'll personally say that the transition was not the greatest for me personally, I definitely struggle with online classes, there's a lot more accountability that's on you as the student. Rather than having like the professor's remind you, and I can do perfectly well with that, but trying to sit myself down and do assignments sometimes just like, does not work out. Um, and so with that, like, I found a couple things that I have to do like, for one of mine, when I'm watching like videos, for the class, like maybe reviewing material, I'll actually set up to like, fold my laundry at the same time. Because then like, I can still pay attention. But I'm also like doing something and there's less chance of me just like zoning off and being like, Oh, I screwed this thing, because I'm also getting done some chores that I need around the house.

Thanks, Gavin, hope you continue to find those little strategies. I know even in even taking my own classes, I've had to find different ways to adapt and take notes and things. So it definitely is a learning process for sure. How about other folks, Rob, go ahead. Kind of slightly on the same boat with Gabby, in just the sense that I am someone who loves to walk around, it's someone who loves to talk a lot. And my classes this semester are pretty much asynchronous, which means we're not meeting at the assigned time. And all of my classes are pretty much online except for one class similar to Drew, where we meet on Thursday at 1140. So I'm only in class one day a week for about an hour. The rest of it is pretty much me being online, beaming in my apartment, me doing my work. But also from an educational perspective. It worries me slightly because I am student teaching this spring. And I don't really know what that's going to look like. I've had friends who are student teaching this fall, who have been told that they can't go back into their school because of COVID. So they're doing their student teaching online. And I'm supposed to get my student teaching placement at the beginning of November. And I don't really know what that's going to look like the teacher that I was with last year told me that he would be my supervising teacher and then he now he can't because his school is no longer allowing students teachers to come in, at least for this semester. So for me with COVID, it's more I'm more concerned about the future rather than the presence, if that makes sense. Does Yeah, thanks for sharing that perspective. That's good. Anybody else? Before we move on to our next question?

I'll add one more thing. And just to clarify for people listening, that asynchronous is like pre pre recorded lectures. And then synchronous is like you still meet online, I would say all my online classes are still synchronous. However, if you are having difficulties dealing with the transition of online learning the to my professors are readily available in terms of office hours, you can easily schedule, email them and be like, hey, I'd love to catch up with you and see what I'm missing just to go over what everything that's going on. And they already have pre designated time within the week that you can also meet with them, which is really awesome.

That's great. Thanks, Drew. We're getting lots of questions about Oxford. So let's talk about Oxford as a college town. And I'll just kind of put all those questions together. But but we're asking like, what is the impact that the Oxford community has on life at Miami? What makes Oxford special, maybe any favorite events that are hosted in Oxford or at Miami? You can talk about those so so let's just talk all things Oxford? What what's it like living in Oxford, Ohio.

So I'll start I'm a it's a lot of walking. So make sure you have some good shoes. I'm definitely like, one of the things that you should get into as well as make sure you have a heavy jacket. I learned that like I love the cold weather, but and I'm from Pittsburgh, so I always had a winter jacket. It's there's a difference between being outside for like two minutes getting to your car and being outside for 15 minutes while you're walking to class. And so like, by all means, but my favorite activity is actually on Saturdays hosted by the Oxford community and it's the farmers market. So there's so many local businesses that come out and write an uptown. They take one of the parking lots, we have a They're and it's just a small little market where you can get fresh vegetables. Fresh Fruit flowers, like there's even some people do like breakfast sandwiches. So I've been there like three weeks in a row. Just because it's always fun like, especially right now I can meet up with some of my friends there and we can like walk around and get food. And it's just really cool to kind of like see the community and Miami being together.

Yep, farmers markets always a popular popular event on Saturday mornings. How about other folks? Let's talk all things Oxford. Megan, go.

Hop in. I'm a want to be Oxford townie. Um, so I have stayed every j term I stayed the summer I just like never wanted to leave Oxford. So I'm like halfway Tommy at this point. I feel like I love being in this little town, the seniors so I got really close to my freshman year, so that you totally take the proximity for granted the fact that you can walk to literally anyone's house at all times. Like, people leave their doors unlocked. A lot of the times soldiers walk in my friend's house sit on the couch, like what are you doing? 3pm on Tuesday, like, let's have some fun. Like, I just absolutely love the culture of Oxford. It's so fun, saying the summer too. They actually have concerts every two years. And the little clothing shops, we would stay open for the concert. And it was definitely like a hardly working situation where you just like sit outside and watch the concert. So yeah, I've absolutely loved my time in the city.

That's great. Anybody else want to chime in on Oxford?

Okay, let's move on. Let's talk to another question that's kind of related to that and transition to living on campus. So can you talk about your on campus living experience for that first and second year? What were the residence halls? Like? So anybody can get us started on that question.

Um, so I can get started. I'm living on campus, I actually loved my time on campus. I lived on North Quad. And so that's near our football stadium and basketball slash volleyball arena. And I love love watching the basketball and volleyball teams like is just my favorite thing. So that was really nice. Having that really close proximity. Also living on campus, you're just so close to food at all times. Um, that is really important for me. I stress eat. So it's just really nice having option to go to a dining hall and like staying there and do work while I'm like stressed out or just go to one of the markets pick something up or any of our our cart option, just pick something up and eat or just stay in eat. That was just really important for me. And I'm because of the way campuses, it's pretty close to all of your friends. Or the friends you make are usually like on your quad. At least second year, you're usually with all your friends because you plan to live with them. But it's just amazing time on campus living was awesome. I really like living off campus now too. It's a little bit more freedom but loved first and second year.

Thanks, Ariana. That was good. Anybody else want to talk about on campus living experiences.

I had an incredible on campus living experience only had to live on campus for my freshman year because I got to live in my fraternity house my sophomore year, which was nice. However, if you were like if you decide to come to Miami and you're like me, and you didn't really care, what your roommate what or who your roommate is or you don't know anyone going so I didn't know anyone going. So I just went random. And Miami paired me with one of my good friends and it actually turned out perfect. We never had any issues. And it all is one of those like miraculous stories because sometimes it doesn't always work out but mine worked out. But the residence halls are I've never had an issue with the residence halls being dirty. I'm pretty sure that bathrooms get cleaned twice a day. So our cleaning crew did a phenomenal job. And I would say most of our residence halls are renovated. So it has that old school look with the new school feel, I guess in a way that I kind of made my freshman year experience to since I didn't really know anybody, I would always make sure to do homework in the main common area with a lot of other students. And it appears on my hallway too. So it's a great way for me to get to know more peers in my community, which is really, really awesome.

And

yeah, that was great. I miss it. I was also in North Quad. So heparin was my whole role bias. I think it's the best one.

That's great. Drew. Thank you as we are getting close to the end of our time together. So I've got a couple more questions that I'd like to get to One of those questions came in about Greek life. So Can any of you who are involved in fraternities and sororities at Miami talk about that experience and what that's been like?

Yeah, I can go and I can answer some other questions as well. So school spirit in Miami. I absolutely love it. And athletics are like the biggest thing in Miami. I know that's kind of like a stigma stereotype. But we have some really great athletic teams like our football team one Max, last year field hockey team is killing it. They always make it to the NCAA tournament, they are so good. So it definitely is what you make of it. The games are so fun if you do have an opportunity and like have free time just come out. All the games are free. So yeah, it is super fun. Totally just what you make of it. And then what was your job? Greek life? Yeah, so we rush second semester, or go through recruitment second semester for both sororities and fraternities, which personally I liked. Because you're not like forced into it right? When you get on campus, and you have an opportunity to like, meet other people. And everyone's in the same situation. So you don't have like some people in sororities and fraternities right when you get there. Everyone's in the same boat, like just trying to make so many new friends. So I love that about our Greek life system of Miami. And then I just had a great experience. I've met some of my best friends through it, but you definitely don't have to do it. I think it's like 30% or so are in all different types of sororities and fraternities, whether that's business or service. So there's opportunities for everyone.

Thank you, Megan. Anybody else want to talk about Greek life experiences? All set there. Okay, let's do one quick, rapid fire question. And then we're going to wrap up and Megan kind of got us started talking about all the different teams we had a question come in favorite sport to play or watch at Miami and this can be a division one sport or it can also be a club sport and intramural league any anything that you like to participate in and let's go one by one. Megan, why don't you get us started? I

guess by default, I have to say diving because I was on the diving team. So I guess that's mine.

The good choice your coach is going to be happy that you chose that one right Ariana, how about you?

Um, I would say the volleyball team I just love watching them so played in high school. So I'm biased but the girls are incredible. We always win the mat conference also for volleyball, so it's just so cool.

They are very talented. Rob.

I default it'd be bowling because I'm the president but I would say that hockey for me I'm usually standing right behind the goal. So I'm usually yelling which is always fun. Almost as exciting as bowling in terms of like watching competitive

here hockey.

Like that. Good. Drew, how about you?

I would say my favorite team to watch on campus is our football team. I love our Mac action. Wednesday Night games. I think they're a lot of fun to attend and also watch on TV. But my favorite intramural display on campus is definitely Bruin ball actually tore my ACL freshman year playing, which brings back bad memories. But brim ball is like a mixture. I don't know if everyone knows what that is. It's like a mixture of like soccer, lacrosse, but hockey. It's like a combination of multiple sports since a lot a lot of fun.

Yeah, that's that's probably one of the other traditions that I'm surprised that can come up earlier. So thanks for bringing it up there, Gabby, how about you.

So he kind of took my favorite to watch and play his broom ball because honestly, like it's one of the funniest sports in the world to watch, especially the intramural level, like people are just kind of sliding all over the place, bumping into each other. And you can tell that everyone has a lot of fun and is laughing.

That's great. Well, thanks to everybody for sharing that. We are going to wrap up our panel and I'm going to ask you one final question. As I mentioned at the outset, we have lots of students and families out there trying to make a decision trying to see if Miami is a good fit for them and you all were in their shoes not too long ago. So I'm going to ask each of you for your like 10 to 15 seconds, words of wisdom or piece of advice to the high school students and potential students who are out there listening to today's panel. So anybody can get a start up at 10 to 15 seconds words of wisdom.

I would just say don't be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. I know as a senior in high school, I still consider myself a homebody. So going seven hours away was a big step for me, but it pushed me and helps me grow as a person and learn more about myself, which I'll be forever thankful for. So don't be afraid to push your boundaries because it's worth it.

That's great advice. Drew. Thank you. Who's next? Rob, go ahead. This is gonna sound absolutely crazy. But um, enjoy this process of finding your school, because while you might be applying Maybe five or six universities, you may be incredibly stressed at the moment. But you'll look back on this probably six months later and just say to yourself, holy crap, I just applied to five or six universities. That's impressive. And I was still able to find my future home. Which leads me into the second part, which is finding the school that makes you feel at home, whether that's going to be, you know, just the small town feel, or finding people that you're going to relate to, or maybe you're a homebody, it just, if you can find that place that you just can imagine yourself living at, you're going to, I think those four years are going to be pretty memorable. And third piece of advice, join the bowling squad, right? Well, of course, no one goes on to say, you don't have to say, Megan, I saw you unmute your mic.

Hop on that too. So I think the biggest advice would be just to remember that everyone's in your same shoes, too. I mean, some people know a couple people when they go to college, but don't be afraid to put yourself out there and just go up to a random person and be like, hey, do you want to be friends? Like, do you wanna eat together? Like, everyone is in the same boat trying to make new friends? So I think it can be intimidating. But yeah, definitely just put yourself in a situation to make a lot of new connections.

Thank you, Megan. That's great words of wisdom. Ariana, how about you?

Um, I would definitely say just ask as many questions as you can to as many people as you can. So seriously, stop people. Like if you see students walking, when you're visiting the school, stop them and ask them a question. And just like, if you talk to any faculty, or an admissions person or anything, ask as much as you can, because it really is going to make a world of difference when you're not just thinking about academics, but you're thinking about, like, how do I do laundry at this place, where we'll be like walking home, just stuff like that.

The great tip Ariana, thank you and Gabby, how about you?

Mine is, uh, have fun. Like, as I said, Have fun with the process. Have fun after the process. And like, honestly, just like when you get to the campus, wherever you end up, just make new experiences. And even it's like, one of your friends takes you out of the blue at like 1am and says, Hey, do you want to go get food, like, go get food, you know, like, you might be tired The next morning, but like, that might be an experience that like you wish you would have gone to.

That's great, Gabby, thank you. And I want to take a moment to just thank Megan and Ariana rock Drew, and Gabby for sharing their experiences and their unique stories here during our student panel. They did a tremendous job. And I want to thank all of you out there who attended the panel because you did a great job interacting and asking us phenomenal questions and keeping this entire thing conversational. We hope that this was helpful as you think about what these next four years may look like. And we've got lots more programming coming your way throughout the virtual open house. I'll see some of you at the two o'clock information session that I'll be presenting at. Again, thank you to our panelists for being here. And Amy's going to wrap things up with just some instructions as we head to our next portion of the program. Thanks again, everybody.

Thank you, Tyler. Thank you. That was awesome. And Megan drew Rob gavi andreatta perfect. This, this is wonderful. This is kind of information, this real life information that these students and their parents do need in making these decisions. So we really appreciate you taking time out of your Saturday. So for the next things will begin at one o'clock and we do have a wonderful guided campus tour. So if you can join Tyler's virtual back resume background that he has in mind, the fall color is amazing in Oxford right now. We're just kind of coming down off the peak. So these live student tours that they're going to campus tours that they're going to take you on will take you actually it is basically think about it, a student tour guide, kind of walking with it with their phone showing you everything so you will actually get to see a live tour. So just go back to the regular platform, and you can log in for that at one o'clock. Or I'm sorry at two o'clock. So

thank you all very much.

Thanks again, everybody. Have a great day.