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Admissions prove hopeful for fall 2010

Catherine Couretas, Editor in Chief

Miami University received a record number of first-year applications for fall 2010 and interest from accepted students shows with a 33 percent increase in the number registered for "Make it Miami!," special accepted student days offered throughout the spring.

Miami received 16,887 applications from both domestic and international first-year students and accepted just over 13,000 according to Ann Bader, senior admission counselor.

Make it Miami! is offered every Friday beginning in February and every Monday and Friday following spring break.

Last year, about 1200 students registered to attend these events. As of April 5, there were 4000 registered participants, 1600 of which were students with the rest being parents and other accompanying visitors.

"We've just had an incredible response," Bader said.

Make it Miami! includes time for accepted students to meet with faculty and current students, lunch at a dining hall and one-on-one meetings with professors, among other activities.

When it came to professors, Bader said J. Elliott, of architecture and interior design, had attended every day to meet with potential students.

Elliott said Miami's architecture and interior design programs compete against high-powered schools, which is why he wanted to talk to each student one-on-one.

"Despite our small size relative to a lot of other architecture and interior design programs, we compete against a lot of really heavy hitters and other programs that have a higher profile than we do," Elliott said.

Elliott said many of their program's potential students do not visit until they are accepted because they might have a long way to travel.

"Today we had a couple students from California, one from Virginia," Elliott said Monday.

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Travel time was something taken into consideration when revamping accepted student programs.

Bader said various accepted student programs have been offered in the 10 years she has been at Miami, including large open houses at Millett with 1000 visitors that were only offered three or four times during the spring semester.

"Those seemed to be limited because a lot of families couldn't come to those specific days," Bader said. "We never struck a balance with a good program and a lot of flexibility."

Elliott said the programs have gotten much better.

"They way Miami's doing the accepted student thing this year has evolved from the way they did it in the past," Elliott said. "They organized it a little bit better for the families so they're going to get more out of the experience."

Elliott said although it could be hectic, it has been a good opportunity to talk to accepted students.

"Despite the fact it's a bit of a headache for us because it's every Monday (and) Friday it's a little easier for us to plug in," Elliott said.

Make it Miami! will continue every Monday and Friday through the end of April. Bader encourages current students to wear Miami colors and logos, club shirts or fraternity and sorority apparel on Mondays and Fridays. For more information, visit http://www.muohio.edu/accepted.