Miami students say their degrees proved to be both highly valuable and very affordable
Skills bring success, and low-cost tuition offers peace of mind
Miami students say their degrees proved to be both highly valuable and very affordable
Skills bring success, and low-cost tuition offers peace of mind
Today’s college critics say the cost of a degree is too high and the skills gained don’t necessarily pay off in the job market. But these Miami students and alumni say that thinking is all wrong, and that they are living proof that a Miami degree not only makes a big difference professionally, it can also be very affordable.
Debt-free education leads to great job, house-ownership by mid-20s
Olivia Tilton ’21 said that when she was considering college in high school at Talawanda, details such as costs didn’t factor highly into her decision. But after spending a year at a small liberal arts campus, Tilton was confronted more squarely with the sticker shock of earning a degree at her chosen private school.
“Despite excelling academically and receiving many scholarships, I realized that if I stayed at (the private college), I would have ended up with about $40,000 in debt,” Tilton said. “I decided to transfer to Miami. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
Tilton started her second-year studies at Miami’s Hamilton campus, majoring in Nonprofit and Community Studies and Applied Social Science. She had a longtime interest in working in the nonprofit space on behalf of children, and the degree path fit her plans perfectly.
“The transferring process was very easy,” she added, noting that she had started as a Political Science major at her former school. “Miami’s advisors were so helpful. All my credits transferred, and they found a way to make them work with my new major.”
In addition to saving on lower tuition rates, Tilton said she also lived at home to reduce her costs even more.
“There is a stigma that you have to leave home to have a real college experience,” she said. “But I was double majoring and working two jobs to earn extra money. I also got involved in the climbing club on campus and traveled across the country for climbing trips, something I’d never done. I was growing personally and working harder than ever. But I was also not going into debt, which was important to me.”
An experience working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County in a grant writing class led to a job with the organization after graduation as an enrollment specialist. She said she loves her work, and she and her husband were also able to buy a house in their mid-20s, thanks in part to her debt-free degree.
“If we had both been paying off student loans, we would not have been able to afford a house. Instead, we used money that might have gone to loans toward saving for a down payment. That was possible because I went to Miami.”
Student’s degree was interrupted by COVID, but he returned after co-launching a successful business
As he was winding up his final semesters at Miami’s Oxford campus in 2020, Mike Jones’ life suddenly changed in ways he could never have foreseen. First, he was forced to leave campus due to the COVID pandemic. Next, he and several friends launched a successful e-commerce business from their homes in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
“I was a double major in Computer Science and Business Analytics,” Jones said. “I studied both of these from 2016 to 2020 right out of high school, and was only a semester or two from receiving my degree. However, my journey changed drastically after COVID.”
Upon returning to his hometown, two friends from high school approached him about helping with a new concept for an e-commerce business selling apparel with positive mental health messaging. The idea had come from a tragedy at the friends’ high school a few years earlier when a student had taken his own life.
“When this happened at our high school, there was silence in the hallways the next day,” said Jones. “No one knew how to talk about what had happened. We wanted to make clothing to help create conversations around mental health.”
What had started as a small school project quickly became an e-commerce start-up with real potential. Their venture, Happiness Project, went from selling a few dozen clothing items a year to selling thousands of hoodies around the world. The company has also donated more than $350,000 to mental health charities as part of its mission.
Jones said his coursework at Miami paid off immediately in analytical skills and business development tactics he was using daily as the chief marketing officer for the new company.
“The skills I gained in college transferred to my new role right away. My connections from school were also important. They helped get the word out about the business through social media and provided guidance about strategy.”
Things were going well for Jones. In fact, the business was so successful, he said after a year or two, he felt he didn’t need to finish his degree.
“I wore my college dropout status like a badge of honor,” he joked, citing well-known entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, who famously dropped out of Harvard to launch Microsoft.
“I’ve matured since then,” he said. “Now, I’m so excited to be back at Miami to get my bachelor’s degree,” which he is accomplishing through online coursework that he expects to complete in the spring.
“The Digital Commerce major is so relevant to what I do now in my job with the Happiness Project. Everything we’re learning, like content marketing, paid media buying, and email marketing, is what I do every day. I am also incredibly thankful to (Department of Commerce chair) Thomas Mays and the entire Commerce Department for making my transition back to being a student so easy.”
His degree will now be something he can be proud of, he said, in addition to the pride he takes in helping run a successful company that helps spread greater awareness of mental health issues.
Jones also credited his time as a Miami student during his four years at Oxford with giving him the self-assurance to take on something as big as launching a business.
“If I hadn’t gone to Miami those first four years, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to take a risk helping my friends to grow a fresh clothing brand from the ground up into a real, full-time business.”
College wasn’t in the plans; now fourth-year student can’t imagine his life without Miami
Corey Kiefer said he is a prime example of how life can change in a span of minutes after something as small as a single conversation.
For Kiefer, this moment came during his junior year at Harrison High School when a friend suggested he try the College Credit Plus (CCP) program.
“I wasn’t really thinking about college at the time,” he said. “I didn’t have great grades, and I thought it was too expensive. But I thought it couldn’t hurt to take some classes and get some college credit.”
That fateful decision to try the CCP program led him on a journey of educational and personal growth that he credits with changing his life. Kiefer is planning to graduate debt-free in May with a degree in Sales Management and a job in hand with a manufacturing company near his home in Cincinnati where he has interned for the past year in sales and marketing.
“Starting with CCP turned out to be the perfect segue to college for me,” he said. “My grades improved immediately and I loved all the professors at Miami.”
With the money he’s been able to save by living at home and taking courses at Miami’s Hamilton campus, he was able to buy a new car and pay it off by his expected graduation date, a goal that seemed remote just a few years ago.
Not leaving home also meant Kiefer was also able to remain in close touch with high school friends, which was important to him. In addition, he was able to work part-time jobs with Hamilton County Great Parks while earning his degree, which enabled him to stay active with some of his favorite hobbies, fishing and kayaking.
“I like that I was able to do college the way I wanted, which I didn’t think was possible,” he said. “Traditional college wasn’t appealing to me. Once I realized there was another way, college became a lot more appealing.”
Kiefer said his experience was like unlocking the secret code to a great education and career without what he considered to be the hassles he assumed were a required part of that choice.
He recently wrote to several of his professors to thank them for helping him with the professional and personal skills that would stay with him long after he was done with his coursework.
“College can get a bad wrap these days. But the experiences I’ve had at Miami have really prepared me for the professional world. I’ve learned discipline, how to meet deadlines, and how to think critically to find the solutions to a problem. I’m very thankful I ended up taking those CCP classes and going to Miami.”