Life at the U

When I first toured the University of Miami campus in early 2016, I absolutely fell in love. It was everything that I was looking for in a college: great academics, friendly people, a diverse student body, warm weather, a beautiful campus, and endless opportunities. Funny enough, the University of Miami was the last school I toured during my college decision process. But almost immediately after I toured, I made my final decision: I couldn't wait to start my first semester at the U!

Academics

Coming into college, I had my heart set on Business Marketing as a major. Although I started and will graduate college with a degree in Marketing, the University of Miami gave me many opportunities to explore other interests by taking cognate courses and electives.

Unlike many other universities, UM doesn't have general requirements (AKA "Gen-Eds"). Instead we have cognates. A cognate is a group of at least three classes that must fall under one of these categories: Arts & Humanities, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), or People & Society. You must satisfy all three of these categories in order to satisfy the necessary requirements for graduation (in addition to many other requirements within your major). This may sound like a lot on the surface, but fortunately UM lets you "double-dip" with your majors/minors and cognates! For example, I satisfied my STEM cognate by taking Marine Science course. I enjoyed these courses so much, I decided to add it as a minor (in order to do this, you need to take more than three classes depending on the department).

I can not express how happy I am that we have cognates and not general requirements! Why take a class that you don't find interesting and may not need at any point in your life? Believe it not, many universities do this. Without cognates, I wouldn't be able to dip into many departments and see what I am actually interested in.

On and Off-Campus Living

I remember when I was leaving for college everyone told me how terrible the dorms would be. "Gross bathrooms, annoying roommates, small room." To be completely honest, I was scared. But little did I know that I would get randomly assigned to one of nicest dorms on campus (Eaton Residential Hall) and find the perfect roommate. In fact, my roommate and I will be living together every single semester of college (#goals, I know). Paige, if you're reading this, I'm SO grateful for you!

My suggestion to incoming freshmen (regardless of what school you end up attending): do not try to find a roommate who is exactly like you. Sometimes, too many similarities can result in a terrible living situation. My roommate and I have very little in common in terms of interests, majors, clubs, etc. But we do have very complementary personalities which makes living together awesome!

After our Freshman year, my roommate and I decided to move off-campus and get our own apartment. I am very happy we did this, but there are some downsides (waking up for an 8am and giving yourself enough time to get to class when you're not already on-campus is the #struggle). Fortunately, we lived in a complex pretty close to campus so it wasn't too long of a walk to class. Living in our own apartment (with a clean kitchen!) was a very maturing thing that happened throughout my college experience. Not only do I feel more independent, but more responsible as well!