Starting answering!Every single one of my professors knows my name. It probably helps that none of these professors teach me in any classes larger than about 30 students, and in some cases in numbers as small as 16 students. The University of Miami offers a wide variety of classes, both unique and established, traditional classes essential to earning a degree in a certain field. Often, however, in the latter classes professors here will throw their own unique spin on it. Most memorably, my professor who taught Development of Western Civilization, a seemingly standard history course, spiced things up by paying extra attention to the day-to-day gender and sexual relations of the ancient and not-so-ancient civilizations we studied, definitely expanding class’ perception of history and making for some very interesting lectures. These professors are all friendly and experts in their fields. At the end of my first semester I talked to an English professor of mine briefly after class about that, as a fellow English major, I was a bit concerned about how to support myself after college when pursuing a career in writing. Though, as a Freshman, I am a long way from graduating, my professor suggested we have an one-on-one meeting and was only too happy to give me information concerning important internships, summer and scholarship programs, career opportunities and other professionals in the literary field UM has in its employment. His help has led to me to work with the school’s literary journal, the Mangrove, and applications to summer internship and research opportunities for English majors I would have otherwise been entirely ignorant of. I am proud to be a part of UM’s English department, as our professors are intellectuals and very much active parts of the world’s literary community and Miami’s own burgeoning local literary scene. Just in my first semester alone the English department invited to the University as speakers three different local writers who wrote about the unique Hispanic-American culture of Miami I grew up in. Our department head, professor Shoulson, is infamous for his mind-bending lectures at the higher level English courses, likened by students who have the privilege to take them as “Inception, but with English”. Many of the professors here also teach unique classes not offered anywhere else. My first semester I was able to take a course dedicating to studying the Music Genome Project and the science behind music; why does it make us feel the way we do and how, and how music can be organized and correlated. One of the more interesting subjects studied in that class was the formula Pandora radio uses to sort its enormous music collection. Often the students of the class served as guinea pigs for the professors idea’s and experiments, and willingly to boot. The student body here, as befits a top 40 school, is definitely interested in learning and their education. Of course, certain students will only be interested in their certain fields; fellow English majors will find plenty of stimulating discussion with other English majors, but perhaps not students of the Business School, and vice versa. That said, interactions with the incredibly diverse student body will also further a prospective student’s education; of my two closest friends at the University, one is a business student whose conversations about the ethics of current economical dilemmas make up for my lack of attentiveness to current events. The other is a student of the Robert Frost music school, a classical violinist, and we have attended many of the free-for-student film festivals and music recitals, able to offer different views and engage one another over a shared experience. The school’s academic requirements all measure up to the academic prestige I have just described; they are not lax and will definitely push you, but they are never unfair, and there will always be someone to help you, be it a friend, a professor, or a free on-campus tutor provided by the University.