College growth, told student to student.
Major Insight follows college students, alumni, and campus figures as they talk through the choices that shape a university life. The show is most useful when it gets specific: dorm friendships, study abroad jitters, changing majors, roommate habits, student organizations, and the confidence that arrives slowly.
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Major Insight is a campus conversation series about how students grow into college, and how college grows into them. It is rooted in Miami University, but the situations are broadly recognizable: a first dorm hallway, a daunting lecture hall, a roommate's side of the room, a study abroad semester, a major that suddenly feels wrong or unexpectedly right. The show favors lived experience over abstract advice. Students describe the fears they brought with them, then trace the ordinary interactions that softened those fears over time. A dorm corridor becomes a first community. A host family in Luxembourg becomes another layer of support. A class like CEC 111 changes engineering from something reserved for geniuses into a people-centered way to solve real problems. The episodes also leave room for detours. Gianna Kolarich's story moves through media, communications, theater, creative burnout, and a return to acting with more distance and self-knowledge. Danny Martin connects student body leadership with friendship, pressure, and the need for spaces where he is simply another brother. Naya Smith's path through social work, public health, student organizations, and student body presidency frames involvement as a way to make campus feel like home. Valandria Smith-Lash brings an alumni perspective shaped by Course Culture and by the idea of finding identity on one's own terms. Greg Crawford adds a wider view of higher education, mentorship, science, invention, and the careers that can unfold after a first-generation college path. Major Insight is warm, conversational, and very specific. It is not a polished admissions brochure, even when it clearly loves the campus it covers. The value is in its peer-to-peer texture: students admit they were scared, messy, unsure, self-conscious, overcommitted, or scrolling through the wrong advice online. Then they explain what helped. Friends become family. Faculty and mentors matter. Involvement opens doors, but it also teaches limits. Study abroad is both castles and homesickness. Majors can change without meaning failure. The show gives prospective and current students a realistic emotional map of college life, one built from small decisions, supportive people, and the confidence that comes after trying things before feeling ready.
Made for: Major Insight is for prospective students, current undergraduates, families, and campus-life listeners who want concrete stories about finding footing in college. It especially suits anyone weighing majors, involvement, study abroad, leadership, or the social leap into university life.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by keeping big college questions anchored in lived examples from Miami University students, alumni, and leaders. Its advice comes through dorm stories, major changes, campus roles, and honest uncertainty rather than generic success tips.
Find your place and purpose on campus. Honest conversations between college students about choosing majors, getting involved, making friends, finding faculty mentorship, overcoming fears, and more.
An open dorm door gets zero visitors; your freshman-year nerves may finally have company.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm study-abroad review that finds Luxembourg's appeal in class, host-family support, and daily routine.
Parker makes Luxembourg feel like a convincing study-abroad choice by staying close to the textures of the experience: a discussion-based political science class, European professors speaking from local perspective, and a host dad, Henri, who comes along for a castle outing.
A warm campus conversation turns laundry, shared bathrooms, and an open door into a story of growing up.
Major Insight's college conversation traces the long stretch from move-in day to graduation, using residence-hall life as a quiet proving ground for adulthood.
Dorm friendships and a first engineering class help one student find her footing.
Engineering Your Own Confidence follows Eva Gorski as she talks through the slower, more ordinary work of finding confidence in college. A senior studying chemical engineering and bioinformatics at Miami University, she starts with the social worry of arriving introverted and…
A senior's college story finds meaning in changing direction, from communications and theater to a wider creative life.
Major Insight follows Gianna Kolarich's winding college path as a candid look at how uncertainty can loosen over time. She remembers arriving worried about friends, school, and her major, then gradually finding steadier ground through dorm friendships, involvement, and classes.
A graduating senior finds growth in unlikely friendship, campus roles, and the courage to keep putting himself out there.
A graduating senior looks back on four years of change through the campus moments that ended up mattering: intramural curling, student government, fraternity life, and a friendship sparked by a quiet glance from across the hall.
Campus radio from the wrong side of reality.
Campus decisions, Northeast news, and Northeast priorities.
How research culture changes in practice.
Conversations from inside the IT channel.
A student discusses his study abroad experience in Luxembourg, focusing on a political science class taught by a professor from Lebanon.
Alumni and her daughter discuss the transformative social and personal growth experienced during college, emphasizing the importance of building connections from day one.
College students discuss how they built confidence and found lasting friendships despite being introverted.
College seniors reflect on their journey from freshman anxiety to finding their place, purpose, and people.
Two college seniors reflect on their transformative four years, emphasizing personal growth and the importance of saying yes to new experiences.
A Miami University alum discusses her journey of personal growth and founding the first student-run startup on campus.
University President Greg Crawford discusses the transformative power of college, from his own student journey to his perspectives as a father and university leader.
Student body president Naya Smith shares her journey from uncertain freshman to campus leader, discussing how to find belonging and purpose through involvement in college.
Liz Grossman shares her journey combining sports, esports, and leadership at Miami University.
Maya Melman discusses her study abroad experience in Spain, including culture shock and overcoming FOMO, on the Major Insight podcast.