SMU or Maimi (OH)?

A good friend of mine is struggling on one of the biggest decisions in his life as we speak, however, many may think it's not a tough call in the slightest. My friend, a senior in high school, is trying to decide what college he should spend the next four years of his life at. He applied to eight schools and was accepted to all of them, but quickly narrowed his options down to two- SMU and Miami University in Ohio. He has gone back and fourth for weeks now and has done the research on both schools, but still hasn't decided, and frankly I don't know what is taking him so long; the choice seems easy to me.


In his defense, my high school is, for some reason, a gateway to Miami of Ohio. Every year somewhere around fifteen students, give or take a few, venture to Miami University while only around three or four come down to SMU. Sure its all relative, and kids from the midwest have a tendency to want to stay in the midwest, but the choice between these two schools couldn't be more simple. Miami is located in the city of Oxford, Ohio, a small city about thirty miles away from any "big" city with not much to do. The winters are frigid in Oxford and the athletics at Miami are subpar, including their football team who is annually one of the worst teams in Division I. Contrarily, SMU is located just outside of downtown Dallas, an up-and-coming U.S. powerhouse of a city with endless opportunities. With generally nicer, warmer weather and a football team who is on the verge of cracking the top-25, I don't see how anyone could chose Miami of Ohio over SMU. Even though it really comes down to what he wants in a school, I don't see how anyone could turn down what SMU has to offer.