At a Glance
Miami (Florida) admits 18.9% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Debt at Graduation
36.3%
receive need-based grant aid
$23,000
average debt at graduation
Miami (Florida) graduates carry an average of $23,000 in debt.
Merit Aid
3,063
students received merit aid
$23,416
average merit award
Getting In
Miami (Florida) admits 18.9% of applicants.
University of Miami's Early Decision applicants are admitted at nearly 3x the rate of Regular Decision applicants — 47.6% vs 17.6%. Note: ED is binding — you commit to attending if admitted.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 33% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 19% of the class submitted
58% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Miami rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Considered — showing genuine engagement with this school may help your application.
Student Life
52.9% of Miami (Florida) classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Miami (Florida), 52.9% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
11:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
65.1%
Live on campus
36%
Men in fraternities
21%
Women in sororities
22%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Miami (Florida)'s student body is 48.5% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Miami (Florida) graduates 72.7% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Miami (Florida) graduates 72.7% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Miami (Florida)
72.7%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $86,078
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
84%
Overall 6-yr rate
80%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 4 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
94%
94% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Coral Gables.
The campus sits on 239 acres in Coral Gables, a planned Mediterranean-revival city about seven miles southwest of downtown Miami, built around Lake Osceola and shaded by tropical planting rather than dropped into a downtown. Coral Gables itself is quiet and affluent — the Miami people picture is a 20-minute ride away on the Metrorail line that stops at the edge of campus, not out the front gate. South Florida is expensive to live in, and off-campus rent reflects that.
Notable Alumni
Gloria Estefan
Won eight Grammy Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor fronting Miami Sound Machine; earned her B.A. in psychology at the University of Miami in 1979
Dwayne Johnson
Played defensive tackle on the University of Miami's 1991 national championship team before a WWE and film career, graduating in 1995
Marco Rubio
U.S. Secretary of State and former U.S. Senator from Florida; earned his J.D. cum laude at the University of Miami School of Law in 1996
Roy Black
One of the best-known criminal defense attorneys in the United States, who took both his bachelor's degree and his law degree at the University of Miami and later taught evidence there
Jorge Mas
Chairman of the Miami-based infrastructure contractor MasTec and a founding owner of Inter Miami CF; earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration at the University of Miami
Dan Le Batard
Longtime Miami Herald sports columnist and national radio and podcast host; earned his B.A. in journalism and politics at the University of Miami in 1990
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Major city
Coral Gables, FL
Best For
Traditions
The Homecoming Boat Burning
Every Homecoming week since 1956, students set a boat alight on Lake Osceola at the centre of campus, followed by fireworks. Campus legend holds that if the mast falls before the hull sinks, the Hurricanes win the next day's game.
Sebastian the Ibis
Miami's mascot is an ibis, the wetland bird said to be the last to leave before a hurricane and the first back afterwards. The yearbook has carried the name Ibis since 1926, and Sebastian became the official mascot in 1957.
The Rathskeller
Opened in 1973 and known universally as "the Rat," the on-campus pub is the default place students, faculty and returning alumni meet. It marked its 50th anniversary in 2023 and is still the campus's main non-athletic gathering point.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Coral Gables
Key Largo and the Florida Keys
1 hour 15 minutesThe first island on the Overseas Highway and the closest reef diving and snorkelling to campus. Key West is a longer day at roughly three and a half hours further down US-1.
Everglades National Park
45 minutesA subtropical wetland the size of a small state, reachable straight west on the Tamiami Trail. It doubles as a field site for UM's marine and environmental science students.
Orlando
3 hours 30 minutesThe standard long-weekend run north up the Turnpike for the theme parks. Far enough that it is a two-night trip rather than a day out.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Miami International (MIA)
20 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Miami Marlins MLBAbout 15 minutes away
- Miami Heat NBAAbout 20 minutes away
- Miami Dolphins NFLAbout 35 minutes away
- Florida Panthers NHLAbout 50 minutes away
Career Proximity
Coral Gables is itself a corporate corridor for Latin American headquarters, and a Metrorail station at the edge of campus runs straight into Brickell, Miami's banking district.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Baptist Health South Florida
- Jackson Health System
- Royal Caribbean Group
- Carnival Corporation
- Ryder System
Brickell, Miami's financial district, about 20 minutes by Metrorail
Who Thrives Here
Miami admits 18.9% of applicants to a private university of 13,250 undergraduates on 239 acres in Coral Gables — a planned Mediterranean-revival city seven miles from downtown, not the South Beach most families picture. The student-faculty ratio is 11 to 1 and 52.9% of class sections have fewer than 20 students. The student body is genuinely Latin-facing — 24.3% of undergraduates are Hispanic — and 65.1% of the entering class came from outside Florida. The trade-off is housing. Only 36% of undergraduates live in university housing, so most of a Miami degree is spent renting in an expensive South Florida market that the published cost of attendance doesn't cover. Greek life is present without being the centre of gravity (21% of men, 22% of women), which leaves the city and the Homecoming boat burning on Lake Osceola as what everyone shares. The university meets 96% of demonstrated need rather than all of it, graduates leave with $23,000 in average debt, and 72.7% finish in four years against 84.0% in six.