A first-year student moves into Morris Hall with help from her family, Aug. 19 (image by Scott Kissell).
Miami University welcomed 19,000 students back to campus this week with a series of move-in sessions and activities designed to introduce new students to campus and reacquaint returning students with their Oxford home. (View the photo gallery here.)
New students were greeted by Student Life staff and other university team members who carried boxes, gave directions, and conducted traffic. Miami President Gregory Crawford and University Ambassador Renate Crawford also met with families and helped their students get settled into their residence hall rooms.
The class of 2025 is Miami’s largest and most academically accomplished first-year class in history, with more than 4,600 first-year students beginning this fall.
- 4,600 students come from 42 states and 27 countries.
- They have an average GPA of 3.84.
- More than half the class (63%) is from Ohio.
- About 14% are domestic (U.S.-based) multicultural students.
- 14% are first-generation college students.
Miami will celebrate these students with a “Welcome Home” firework show on campus behind Benton Hall (facing the baseball stadium) on Aug. 20. On Aug. 22, these students will celebrate their first weekend as Miamians at the Love and Honor Fair at Yager Stadium. They will learn the Miami fight song, hear the Miami University Marching Band play, and connect with campus resources.
Commitment to an immersive undergraduate experience
This year Miami is making a special effort to celebrate its second-year students, whose first-year experience was a bit unconventional given pandemic precautions and restrictions that included attending orientation, classes, and events remotely. The Second-Year Surge program is a new, pre-semester program designed to connect students with each other, learn about Miami, and re-orient them to campus. Attendees will explore career development, leadership and involvement, and recreation and sports.
Also new this year is a university-wide initiative to explore the theme of Race and Racial Justice as part of the new FOCUS program. FOCUS aims to engage the Miami University community in a sustained exploration of race as a social concept and of racism as a powerful and persistent feature of societies and social institutions, including Miami University. The program will include a yearlong series of public performances, lectures, readings, workshops, and symposia.
