A few questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>Because of how large UMD is and how there are many, many people in it, I'm wondering how competitive are the students, especially in engineering. Is it a cut-throat kind of place, or do students help each other? </p>

<p>Also, how are the non-Scholars/Honors students treated? My parents are concerned that the University puts more emphasis on the Scholars and Honors students while not giving as much attention to the regular students. </p>

<p>And finally, how are the professors like at UMD? Are they approachable and willing to help the students succeed or are there more emphasis on meeting a quota or fitting a bell-curve?</p>

<p>I'm sorry if the questions seem blunt.</p>

2

<p>Students as a whole are NOT cut-throat at UMD and engineering kids especially tend to work together. Even if you are not in the same section, people who are taking the same class study together. Of course, that doesn’t magically happen - you have to talk to other students, but it’s not hard to find others to study with. </p>

<p>In engineering, there is a lot of support from the Clark School itself. In particular, I would strongly suggest applying to VIRTUS since the academic support is built into the dorm. [Virtus:</a> A Living Learning Community, SEEDS Programs, Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland](<a href=“http://www.seeds.umd.edu/programs/virtus.html]Virtus:”>http://www.seeds.umd.edu/programs/virtus.html)</p>

<p>For other classes, there is something called the Learning Assistance Service that supports all students, regardless of major. They offer general courses for academic success as well as specific to courses…</p>

<p>“My parents are concerned that the University puts more emphasis on the Scholars and Honors students while not giving as much attention to the regular students.”
Honors and Scholars students are not treated any differently - these programs are primarily to attract students to the University. Teachers and students have no clue who is in honors or scholars unless those students say something. The only thing different is access to honors level classes…kind of like students not in engineering can’t take engineering classes, students not in honors can’t take honors classes. Scholars students don’t even have access to honors classes but instead do programming outside the classroom. Other than that, everyone is treated equally. In fact, any freshman earning a 3.5 in their first semester is potentially eligible for the Primannum Honor Society. So, if you do that and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.5 by graduation, you wear honor cords at graduation. Participating in honors does not guarantee membership into Primannum. </p>

<p>Professors run the gamut. There are some awesome ones and that are not so good. They all have office hours and if you go to office hours, you can develop relationships with them. My freshman was able to develop a relationship with one prof just by hanging a few minutes after class - it worked for that particular situation with scheduling. It was a class of particular interest and the prof was more than happy to give guidance on a range of issues, not necessarily related to the class topic. I have heard tell of some profs you want to avoid, but that’s everywhere. You talk to other students and look on ourumd.com (take it with a grain of salt since those posting are either very happy or very ticked off at the professors they are reviewing) to get a sense of who to try to get for a particular class. Some teachers do curve a lot, others don’t - it’s not something that’s standard.</p>

<p>Blunt questions are good. Keep asking. </p>

<p>I’m sure other Terps will chime in (I’m an alum and have a freshman engineer there now). I will tell you that even though statistics would dictate their existence, I have never met nor heard of anyone who regretted the decision to attend Maryland. The student body as a whole is generally very happy. </p>

<p>In fact, I have a friend who has 4 kids - three went to ivy league and one went to UMD. She told me that UMD was her favorite of all the schools since her Terp son got the most and best job offers of all her kids. Kinda says a lot.</p>

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<p>Scholars students also have access to Scholars level classes (S Classes). They work the same as H classes do to my knowledge just with a different group of students. Just how there’s a ENGL 101H there is a ENGL 101S. The main advantage to this I’ve gathered, is smaller class sizes.</p>

4

<p>@TrAnMu, other than English101, there are not any “Scholars level” classes. The scholars program has 4 scholars-specific classes (one a semester for 2 years - colloquium, practicum and capstone) but those 4 classes are not classes required for graduation from the university.</p>

<p>On the other hand, there are a variety of options for honors classes and many do count towards general education requirements needed for graduation. In addition to having some unique subject matter for classes, there are “h-versions” of “regular” classes such as math, for example. </p>

<p>The point is that outside of these classes, there is not any distinction between students in honors/scholars and students not in honors/scholars. The University values every student equally and there is no favoritism which is what the op’s parents were expressing concern about.</p>

5

<p>Oh my mistake. I saw the one S class and figured there must be a few others but I guess not. Either way I was never calling your point into question. Scholars or Honors students won’t show up on the rosters any different nor will they be wearing signs saying I’m an honors student etc. Op’s concerns can be laid to rest on that one. The school’s just too big for that.</p>

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<p>In One sentence: We are prod Terps, regular kids, not cut throat, just young people whose goals are to succeed but at the same time enjoy what UMD has to offer,a Gem School for In and for Out of Staters!</p>