Growing up as a Cuban-American in predominately Cuban-American Miami, I am happy to say I am no longer the majority at the University of Miami, as odd as that sentence may seem. In fact, I’d reckon there does not exist a majority in the student population of UM. UM’s student body is incredibly diverse, gathering bright, unique students from all over the globe, not just the United States of America, to bring something different to the University of Miami experience. I have made friends from different cities, states, countries, religions, incomes and creeds, all of them wonderful people. Perhaps the best statement that can be made in demonstration of UM’s diverse student body is a close friend I made while interviewing people for an article in the Hurricane, the student-run newspaper, a resident at UM. She is a Jewish girl from Philadelphia, who took a gap year after high school to live in Brazil where she learned fluent Portuguese and Spanish, and is now a Latin American Studies major. We bonded over a plate of my grandmother’s Cuban food leftovers I brought in Tupperware as lunch one day, me teaching her Cuban Spanish colloquialisms and her telling me about her time abroad. That is just one example of the kind of interesting people that can and will be met as a part of the University of Miami experience. Being the University of Miami, of course, there is a strong outspoken LGBT community on campus, much loved and supported by the rest of the student body. In fact, one of the most anticipated and hilarious events of the beginning of Fall Semester is the annual drag show put on by the local LGBT organization on campus. Politics, though not particularly prevalent on campus, do surface from time to time, particularly during Occupy Wall Street movement, whose Occupy Miami branch spent many loud days gathering supporters at the University of Miami. As might be expected of a private university, students are predominately liberal though there are both Young Republican and Young Democrat groups present on campus and open to anyone interested in joining. As far as I have noticed, students seem to come from very diverse economic backgrounds (I myself come from a Miami suburb middle-class one), though there is an undeniable presence of some very nice, expensive cars in the school parking lots. I have yet to see this ever affect student relations, however; if anything these differences only aid them. I first made conversation with and befriended a student from Dubai when I watched him park is 911 Porsche right next to my own car. It should also be noted UM supports 49 percent of full-time graduated with an average of 23, 552 dollars in scholarship money (according to US News), so monetary issues don’t often become an obstacle in applying to UM.