<p>Modern Languages and Literatures</p>
<p>Sure, I'd glady write a review... everything I've heard thus far has been pretty positive and the fact that they have strong language programs is also a plus, since I plan to either double major or minor in German... If I attend UMBC, I'll be using the Academic Common Market program so I can get in-state rates for the EHS major, but I'm not sure what their requirements are for double-majoring.</p>
<p>-Matt</p>
<p>Matt and others that are thinking of UMBC for anything other than engineering, trust me, check out Towson University. Ask the kids who go there ,"how they like it?" Visit both schools. Regardless of what is said here about UMBC, I think you will find that Towson is a relatively secret "gem" here in Maryland. </p>
<p>However, all colleges are about fit. You should visit each school and ask a number of people some penetrating questions.</p>
<p>UMBC has been rising very quickly and recently in the academic ranks. Don't really know why. Several of the MD schools, Towson, Salisbury, UMBC, St Mary's of MD are going through this trend. When I lived in Baltimore, Towson was pretty much a tea</p>
<p>I have a few friends who teach at both UMBC and Towson and I have visited both. </p>
<p>Towson is more attractive (although this is a relative term, neither school will be on a postcard anytime soon), very wooded with rolling hills.
UMBC looks more like a medical complex....although it has a very nice library.</p>
<p>Academically,
UMBC is superior, not radically so, but certainly a higher caliber student.</p>
<p>Sciences,
UMBC is superior. It also has an engineering program which by itself ups the student caliber.</p>
<p>Humanities are closer, but with an edge to UMBC.</p>
<p>College atmosphere,
Towson is more likely to please, less commuters.
Although, UMBC has a very nice and new Student Center.</p>
<p>UMBC may have more cash value with Grad and Med schools.</p>
<p>Towson hires allot of its proffesors part time, UMBC, I believe, less so.</p>
<p>Visit them both, sit in on a couple classes you'ld like to take.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.
Good luck.</p>
<p>SAT:</p>
<p>UMBC...............1120 - 1310.......avg., 1215</p>
<p>Towson............1003 - 1180.......avg., 1093</p>
<p>............................................(about a 120 point spread, that's significant)</p>
<p>HIgh school rank:</p>
<p>UMBC..............33% in top 10th</p>
<p>Towson...........23% in top 10th</p>
<p>Yes, Woodwork, UMBC is a bit harder to get into,but, in my opinion, not as well liked a school as Towson or , as good in some departments. Towson has a very strong performing arts ( visual and music) program and strong business and communications.
As I said, they don't have engineering.</p>
<p>However, you need to visit the schools. There is no question that if you ask 10 students at random at both school, you will get many more liking Towson than those that like UMBC. </p>
<p>UMBC is harder because it is the University of Maryland. Towson got the short end by being Towson University without the Univ of Maryland in its name. However, Towson has a lot of advantages, in my opinion that both Univ of Maryland College Park and BC don't have. I have personally taught at the University of Maryland Colleg Park, and I sent my son to Towson even though he did get accepted to the University of Maryland. I should note that two of my professor friends at Maryland also sent their kids to Towson. That should speak volumes!</p>
<p>Sounds as if it's a good choice for you since it's tops in the field you are interested in. Hope that we all didn't go too far with the negative points about UMBC, just personal musings, I really don't have that much basis. Sounds great for Emergency Health. Best wishes! I hope that it works out!</p>
<p>i live in md, and UMBC isnt as bad as most of the people above makes it. it's a well recognized university, and it's slightly a bit less than umcp, but it's still good. also, you shouldnt have applied to a school without knowing anything about it in the first place. towson is DEFINITELY not better than umbc. but i agree, that towson is located in the middle of well...towson, basically a rich downtown-type area. umbc is kind of more secluded type. umbc is definitely not a community college in any sense. hope that helps.</p>
<p>I don't mean to sound like I know nothing about the school, I read the brochures and the Princeton Review articles, I just wanted to see what other people thought. I don't really expect to get into any remarkable schools as my grades aren't so great, I did decently on the SAT, but my GPA is below a 3 unweighted so a school like UMBC seems about right and it's been cool to see others' perspectives...</p>
<p>-Matt</p>
<p>It has a national chess team. If you're a chess player, it's the place to be. I agree with most of lukewarm and negative stuff about UMBC, having visited there with D. Our impression was: sterile, somewhat isolated (but close to stuff) and somewhat boring. This may be unfair. I also agree with those that say Towson is more desireable in general, despite the numbers. UMBC claims to be Maryland's Honors college. Well, that's actually St. Mary's. Having said that, I'm sure that you could get a good education there.</p>
<p>It has a wonderful reputation for getting students into med school and, I think, doctoral programs in the sciences.</p>
<p>well, I went there today and was not all that impressed...its location is less than desireable and the campus is not all that remarkable... the people, however seem really cool and some of the programs they offer really stand out... some of the newer buildings, including the commons are really neat, but the older lecture hall buildings seem kind of rundown... I got to meet with a faculty member in my major and she was really helpful and took up about a half hour of her time to show me around the department and I thought that was pretty amazing... the caliber of student seems to be about as diverse as the nationalities represented, some hardworking gunners and others that seem to just cause trouble on campus... a couple weeks before they had a dozen car antennas stolen off cars in a parking lot and a motorcycle was vandalized....the tour guide also talked about how theivery is a problem and that walking alone at night is not safe on campus....I know this type of stuff happens on just about every campus, I just thought it odd that the tour guide would talk so openly about it, I mean live in Charlottesville, VA and we've had a "serial rapist" lurking around uva's campus for years and I'm pretty sure that's not discussed as part of the tour...in some sense, I guess its cool that they're honest and open about their problems...the jury's still out on my decision, but I've got a few months to decide...</p>
<p>Matt, what are you hoping to major in? What other schools have you looked at and/or visited? Would you consider smaller schools? Do you want to stick close to Virginia or would you consider going a little farther a field (say PA or Ohio)?</p>
<p>Thanks for posting about your visit --- keep looking, the right school is out there!</p>
<p>If I stay in the US, I'm looking to major in Emergency Health Services and UMBC happens to have the best program in the country. I've taken an entrance a-level type test (biology, chemistry, and physics), passed interviews and have already been accepted to a 6 year M.D. program in the Czech republic (Charles University in Prague: First Faculty of Medicine), but I'm not quite sure that I'm willing to go so far away. I visited there over the summer and it's an amazing university and Prague is beautiful city, but 6 years in a foreign country is long time. I've applied to VCU as a safety school, but I already got into UMBC so I guess that doesn't really matter. I think the deciding factor in whether I go to UMBC will be if I get an ARMY 4 year ROTC scholarship... I'm in the final selection process and next week I'm going to Johns Hopkins (the batallion for the Baltimore area) and interviewing with a professor of military science. The school in prague is DOE accredited and because it's a professional degree program I'd be eligible for $18,500 in Stafford loans, and since tuition is only $11,500, I could afford to live decently and would graduate with less debt than most American MD graduates and would still be able to be licensed in all 50 states. the website of Charles University First Faculty is : <a href="http://www.lf1.cuni.cz/default.asp?nLanguageID=2%5B/url%5D">http://www.lf1.cuni.cz/default.asp?nLanguageID=2</a> Hmm..choices</p>
<p>You've certainly done the research, and are thinking things through. When you mentioned the vandalism in the parking lots, it reminded me that students who commute complain bitterly about parking being tight, too. The vandals are probably not students, but kids from the surrounding area. You will do well wherever you decide to go.</p>
<p>Matt, you seem way ahead of most kids in terms of your thinking and research. I know you will make the right decision in the end - sometimes when you are interested in a very specific major that isn't offered at many schools, you have to make sacrifices in other areas. Good luck - hope you let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>It's amazing to me that anachronistic conceptions of UMBC persist as they do. Here's the scoop.</p>
<p>I'm a UMBC student, about to finish my sophomore year. First, to lend my testimony some credibility, here are some of my "stats":
SAT: 1500 (760M 740V)
GPA 3.7 UW 4.3 W
12 AP exams, all 4s and 5s
Accepted to U Chicago, Berkeley (out of state), Cornell, Swarthmore, and Tufts</p>
<p>This is a phenomenal school in many, many ways. It's also not perfect. First: the academics. Anyone who tells you that UMBC is weak academically is completely misinformed. I came here intending to be an economics major and was sadly disappointed. I'm sure it's possible to get a great economics education here, but one would have to be very careful about which professors to take and would probably want to do the 5 year B.A./M.A. I was turned off by an extremely easy intermediate microeconomics class and an intermediate macro class taught by an utterly incompetent man.</p>
<p>But as I was being disappointed by economics here, I was also taking computer science, physics, and other courses. My friends, the science courses here are hard--REALLY hard--but in a good way. Most of my professors in the sciences have been fantastic, and they've challenged me in all the right ways. Excluding the introductory labs, there is almost nothing in the way of busy work.</p>
<p>There's also a good bit of research going on around here, both on campus and in the immediate area. The discipline you're interested in matters--this is not yet MIT--but if you're really having trouble finding opportunities you're probably not looking hard enough. And if there are courses you want to take that aren't offered here, you can them at JHU (20 minutes away)-- at UMBC prices. Sweet deal, eh?</p>
<p>The engineering programs here are, according to everyone I've talked to about them, insane. They routinely send students to the top graduate programs, and many students simply can't keep up and end up switching majors. I haven't had an engineering course yet, but I'm knee-deep in the second computer science course for majors (Intro. to programming in C++) and it's probably the most difficult course I've ever taken. I'll probably be changing my major to Biochem. Eng. soon.</p>
<p>The Ivy snobs who look down upon state school students should try out-smarting some of the computer science students around here. My mind is routinely blown.
The top three programs here seem to be, in no particular order: 1. Biology 2. Engineering (either CSEE, ME, or CHE) 3. Physics. Any of the other "hard" stuff is great too.</p>
<p>Now, a difficult truth: if you're not a prospective scientist or engineer, you probably shouldn't come here. The music program seems especially weak, and I've been told fine arts isn't much better. The issue isn't the quality of faculty--I've currently taking private lessons with a master saxophone player, for example--but the funding. President Hrabowski knows what his priorities are.</p>
<p>One last point before I go to bed. The social life here is not nearly as bad as the detractors claim. Any deficiency in this area vis-a-vis UMCP or Towson is not a result of the relatively large number of commuters; something like 72% of freshman live on campus these days. The issue, to the extent there is one, is that a large swath of the student population on this campus is very introverted. Of course, that's not a "good" or a "bad." I love it, and others hate it. But the atmosphere is really no different from what you get at another science-focused school like JHU.</p>
<p>I hope this clears some things up. Good night.</p>
<p>Nerd, I agree with you. There are great opportunities at UMBC in the scientific and technical fields. I would like to point out, however, that UMBC's retention rate is about 84%, while College Park's is 93%. As a parent, I like the College Park campus and feel much better, but my high school son leans toward UMBC, which is fine. I agree with you that liberal arts students should at least look elsewhere. UMBC does have programs for them, too, though.</p>
<p>I preferred applying to UMBC over UMCP, however, because UMBC's campus isn't so crime-ridden.. -_-</p>
<p>And yeah, UMBC does have many distinguished programs, such as the various Scholar ones (I applied to Meyerhoff). A lot of that is thanks to Hrabowski's progressive approaches to education.</p>
<p>UMBC is a respectable school for Engineering or Science majors but other than that.......it's basically a commuter school. Its sister feeder school is located right next door: CCBC.</p>
<p>Academically speaking, Towson is weaker than UMBC. Towson is known as a teacher's college but other than that....... Better schools in that area are: Loyola, Goucher, Notre Dam of Maryland, and of course JHU.</p>
<p>MD is known for many good colleges. I'd rank them as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li> US Naval Academy (nothing but the best for the NAVY!!!) :), JHU </li>
<li> UMCP</li>
<li> St. Mary, St. John</li>
<li> Loyola</li>
<li> UMBC, Goucher, ND of Maryland, Hood </li>
<li> Towson, Morgan State University, University of Baltimore (not to be confused with UMAB which is the home of UM's professional schools: medical & law schools), McDaniel</li>
<li> Villa Julie ;)</li>
<li> Other schools.....</li>
</ol>
<p>So basically UMBC & Towson University are comparable, but few bars below UMCP</p>