University of Miami Reviews

Pros

*Great Stipend (`30K/yr if you get an RA over the summer and take extra assignments over the semester)
*Insurance reduction for Grads
*Great professors and research opportunities
*In general, work/study balance is very flexible
*Awesome Graduate Student Association

Cons

*Qualifier Exam is difficult - if you don't pass both opportunities, bad news, so study study study!
*The labs that we teach are well organized, but there is no training for new grads resulting in a large amount of variation in difficulty/quality for the undergraduates taking the course.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't agree with a lot of her personal politics, but Shalala is doing an excellent job improving UM.

Pros

Competitive pay, flexible hours, nice work environment with other students, pay increases every semester

Cons

No feedback from boss, little communication, they treat many workers poorly and give no benefits, minimum wage paid to them

Advice to Senior Management

Give more feedback

Pros

The university is steering towards clinical and away from basic research -- if that's what you want, good. See Cons.

Cons

The university is steering towards clinical and away from basic research -- if that's not what you want, bad. See Pros.

Pros

great location
lots of opportunities to excel

Cons

very hierarchical
quality of research suffers due to quantity

Pros

Best benefits you will ever find
Tuition remission
Medical care/doctors are excellent
Job security
Centrally Located
Public transportation easily accessible
lots of employee perks
appears hard to get fired
Staff Assistance Program

Cons

Salaries are on the low end
High turnover rate
More rude people than nice people
Cost of living in the nearby cities is high
employees must pay to park which is expensive
Not as much room to advance as you might think unless you have a PhD or Doctorate
Middle-upper management seriously lacking personalities and normal inter-personal skills
Human resources has one and only one policy: Always side with management no matter what the evidence shows. You will be ok as long as you don't go to HR complaining about management. No exaggeration either. Happens ALL the time and is not a secret.

Advice to Senior Management

Please change your HR policies regarding always siding with management. You are loosing great people because of this. Please get management extensive training on people skills. Most of your managers have been in school too long to know how to adequately deal with people or are way past retirement and simply too old. You are a great organization but these factors hinder UM tremendously.

Pros

Good benefits, job security is high compared to other companies

Cons

Employees have to pay for parking....low salary

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees and create more advancement opportunities.

Pros

Good place to work if you need to go to school and have a job at the same time. They're very flexible about taking time off and it's a pretty social and laid back environment.

Cons

Have had a few management and staff changes that were sprung on people last minute, and people have had to move around to compensate.

Advice to Senior Management

Maybe letting other people in the office know when staff changes are going to be occurring would be a good idea.

Pros

It has a good location and good climate, esp in winter. The campus is beautiful too. people here are very friendly.

Cons

too far away less opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

If I have to say sth about the leadship at UM, I am not very satisfied about Dep. of Electrical Engineering.

Pros

University of Miami is not what everyone will think it is. It is a disastrous place to work for. Human Resource is a mess. If you have problems with administration or are being treated unfairly, Human Resource will use it against you and your supervisor will be informed instead of trying to fix the problem. It is a very uncomfortable position to be in. All my family has worked here, including my mom that was a director here for 26 years and she has never felt so disgusted about the University of Miami in her life. I do NOT recommend this place.

Cons

No respect from management. They treat their employees horribly and nothing is done about it.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to treat your employees.

Pros

The school is centrally located in a vibrant city that is a gateway to South America and the Caribbean. The student body reflects this diversity. Dress code is laid back and the campus is paradise on earth during the winter months.

Cons

Not enough investment in innovation and too much belt tightening at a time when long term investment is needed. In the dozen years time between my time as a grad student and my return as faculty the department has gone from forerunner to also-ran. Retiring tenured positions are replaced with non-tenure track positions. Faculty essentially teach their courses and go home. There's little reward beyond personal satisfaction for bringing new things into the classroom.

Heat and humidity especially in the summer is no joke. Some days are like sticking your head in an oven. Every year you have to ride out hurricane season. Can be raining hard on one side of campus and completely dry on the other. Local Cuban ex-pats blame Fidel Castro. *-)

Advice to Senior Management

Invest for the future. Miami the city is not a major center for academia like Boston or New York and can feel out of the way or even back water so staying ahead of the curve is crucial. The students are eager and deserve the very best we can give.