<p>Just thought I'd ask current UMD students & parents about following list I lifted from another CC thread: (Surprised to see Maryland with 4 of 15.)</p>
<p>The Daily Beast recently did a piece on the least safe college campuses, based on reported crimes in the last two years on and in the immediate vicinity of campus. Here are the schools with the worst crime rates:</p>
<p>1) Emerson College (Boston): 80 robberies and 60 assaults in 2007, most of them in the subway station or on nearby Boston Common.
2) St. Xavier University (Chicago)
3) University of Maryland-Baltimore
4) Tufts
5) MIT
6) University of Maryland-Eastern Shore
7) Grambling (Louisiana)
8) South Carolina State
9) Bowie State (Maryland)
10) North Carolina Central
11) Fitchburg State (Massachusetts)
12) Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago)
13) Hampton University (Virginia)
14) University of Baltimore
15) Norfolk State (Virginia)</p>
<p>First off UMDCP is not on the list, thus, just the fact that 4 are from MD does not mean anything with regards to CP. Secondly, this comes up every yr. The fact is UMDCP campus itself is safe, it is when you start wandering off of it or being stupid that it becomes dangerous. The campus is not gated, there will be students and outsiders that have ulterior motives. HOWEVER, that occurs at every single college in the world. It is not just UMDCP or those on the list.</p>
<p>For example, if you are a girl, it makes no sense for you to walk by yourself on campus late at night. I went to an expensive small private school in the outskirts of Philly, a girl was raped by another student on her way home from a class that ended at 9 pm. Unfortunately it happens at big schools and small schools. </p>
<p>Our DS lives in New Leonardtown and last semester he had meetings that ended at 9 at night, they were held in Cole Field House, he had to traverse the entire campus to get home. What he did was call us on his cell and talk all the way back to his dorm.</p>
<p>I will not say that UMDCP is the safest campus, but it is also not the worst… Common Sense goes along way! I have no fear or concerns regarding our DS’s safety, nor would I feel that way if our DD went there. It really is more about not placing yourself in a situation. I.E. don’t walk down to the McD’s at 1 a.m by yourself because you’re drunk and need a food fix. </p>
<p>UMDCP has also tried to secure the dorms as best as they can, except New and Old Leonardtown (they are apts). You need to swipe to get in, you need to swipe to ride the elevator. Very shortly after the yr starts the kids recognize faces and it will become difficult to get into a dorm to any harm.
Remember the campus is not in a small town, it is in an urban town.</p>
<p>UMD is not on the list. However, UMB (which houses all the state graduate schools: Medicine, Law, Pharm., etc) is known to have an unsafe campus. I’ve visited a few times, and the surrounding neighborhood is in a somewhat ramshackle state. The same goes for UBalt and Bowie State.</p>
<p>Thanks for replies. I did realize College Pk was not on list, but seeing two of their satellite campuses on the list made me wonder. Here in CT we have had some high-profile campus violence (Yale, UConn, Wesleyan), and it makes a mom worry.</p>
<p>From pima “Remember the campus is not in a small town, it is in an urban town”…when you look down that list, most of those schools are in metropolitan areas that, in general, have much higher crime rates than most people here have in their neighborhoods. Part of the trade-off of choosing a school near a large city is that it does require more common sense… I have 2 D’s at UMD…it was an initial concern when my first D went there, but I do have confidence that both D’s exercise common sense, especially when it comes to that. Most (not all) of the crime involves being in places you shouldn’t be at that time of night, having had that much alcohol to drink. Like the girl last year who was raped when she accepted a ride from a couple of guys on campus, as she was on her way home from the bars/parties late at night. Both D’s go into DC on the metro, and if they are going in where either way would be in the dark, they go in groups. Like pima’s S, I have had many a conversation via cell phone with both of them en route from one place to another on campus. (I can tell when they get into the dorms, and the voice echoes in the stairwells that they are done talking to me!!!)</p>
<p>My bubble of innocent reality was burst when Eve Carson was killed, the UNC student body president who was found dead in the streets of quiet, idyllic Chapel Hill, NC. It really can happen anywhere. You’ve got to realize that you have to trust that your kids will use common sense, and by the time they go to college, they are adults…</p>
<p>D1 had an incident where she and her roommate and roommate’s bf went to a movie late at night in a shady area…they were approached by a group of high-school age kids whose sole intent was to scare them. They were effective in their mission, and it probably made her a bit more aware of her surroundings, which was good.</p>
<p>For clarification, the reason the kids call while walking is to reduce the chance of harm. It is something that all parents should make their children aware of doing regardless of the school they attend. It also makes it a good time to catch up with them.</p>
<p>Second, like Kokeshi has stated UMDCP is not affiliated to any of those MD schools. UMDCP is a state university, but it does not have anything to do with other state universities.</p>
<p>Stay away from RT1 at night by yourself and you will be fine.</p>
<p>You will find violence anywhere you look for it, I too lived in NC when Eve Carson died, the child was the President of the SC, with a very bright future. Not only did her killers take her life, but also a Duke grad student months earlier.</p>
<p>There is no school that exists that is 100% safe, you just have to be “street” smart.</p>
<p>On campus, I have never felt unsafe. I am a small female student and, in fact, walk across campus at night by myself regularly. I bike along at night every day. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but I’ve never encountered a problem or felt unsafe in this way.</p>
<p>I do agree that for many of these schools (2 of 4 Maryland schools listed are in Baltimore City), the fact that they are in a city plays a huge role. Of course the surrounding area crime rate is going to be higher in an urban area. Just recently in the Parent’s thread, there was a post about a shooting on the corner of the UPenn Campus (a Drexel student was injured). This factors in somewhat at CP - it’s not in the middle of the city, but it is “more” urban than not, with a metro stop right across the street from campus, and less than 10 miles from the heart of DC (and not 10 miles on the super rich expensive end, i.e. Bethesda haha). </p>
<p>It is the trade-off you make.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I’m not familiar with the area around UM-Eastern Shore and Bowie State. That said, despite the fact that they’re in the UM system, I honestly make no connection between them and CP. They are totally unrelated universities, in totally different communities. </p>
<p>In terms of College Park, yes, there are concerns about safety among prospectives and some students living off campus here. The campus is safe. There are tons of security cameras, tons of campus police - the university knows crime is something prospectives take issue with, and they address it more than adequately.That’s not to say I have no recollection of incidents that HAVE occurred on campus - I think in my about 3 years here, once there was a robbery on campus (the crooks were caught immediately due to the extensive security camera system on and around campus…it was a pretty sensational and funny story). In certain directions off campus, however, I don’t feel particularly safe. Generally, on the South end of campus near fratnerity row and in the Calvert Hills neighborhood, I feel fine. North end of campus is more sketchy - that said I still walk around there all of the time and haven’t encountered an incident (I would never be sketched out during the day). College Park is a very diverse community, and it’s about being smart and, when choosing a place to live off campus, putting security issues into the equation.</p>
<p>umcp11, you always put a really honest and straight-forward position in your posts. Most UMD students leave the CC UMD forum long behind, but it is always BEST to have a student perspective on these issues. Obviously, we parents don’t always have the most unbiased view of things! Thanks for all of your perspectives!</p>