<p>Thank you all for your help! I just confirmed with UMD; hopefully they still have housing and the other necessities available. I hope I made the right decision for myself. Again, thanks!</p>
<p>Hey Kikobird, no problem. I see that you’ve made a decision. It seems like it was your gut decision all along, so most likely it was the right fit for you. Good luck! Word of advice: Try not to focus on taking “the easiest route” to med school (and your future, essentially)…if you think of things in that way, you’re more likely to end up feeling burned out by the end of freshman yr. Explore your interests, take some challenging classes, and make the most of your resources. </p>
<p>Sidenote: I’m not pre-med anymore actually, I’m pre-PA (found it to be a better fit for me…still in medicine, less debt, working as a team w/a physician, and more flexible lifestyle). But essentially, my major requirements are aligned with pre-med requirements so I could still always apply if I decide to.</p>
<p>Oh, but there is something that I wish I had discovered sooner before college (specifically, before enrolling in courses) and that is ratemyprofessor and myedu. On either site, you can search course instructors (which you can usually find somewhere on the class schedule search) to gauge the difficulty of a certain instructor (and sometimes the course) …I would take anything on there with a grain of salt, of course. But if anything, they help prepare you at least for that professor’s personality…and not every professor teaches a course the same way.</p>
<p>Oh, thanks about the tip!</p>
<p>I spoke to my biology teacher just today, though, and she was under the impression that the research opportunity and scholarship at UMBC weighed more against UMD… I haven’t applied for housing yet for UMD because of this final discrepancy; I really wish I had those benefits at UMD, so I’m still feeling ambivalent about my decision. 
I did pay the non-refundable deposit already for UMD, but I guess I should talk it over with my parents and some other people and see if I may change my mind by this weekend.</p>
<p>Well, its a good sign that you’re making a careful and thought-out decision. It’s better to be losing a couple hundred than having any regrets and not being able to enjoy your first semester. </p>
<p>Honestly, the scholarship is primarily the reason I chose to come here (and many others who come here too), but of course I factored everything the school offers as well and compared that to other schools. </p>
<p>You should look into CP’s opportunities for research, because I’m under the impression that anyone can do research as long as they search for opportunities and network/e-mail professors with labs. Try to search around if CP has an online internship/research opportunities search tool, like we have UMBCworks under myumbc where research opportunities are posted online all of the time. But overall, I agree that there are probably more opportunities both internally and externally at UMBC. Internally, there are always professors who need undergrad assistants in the labs and then externally a lot of students do research at UMB downtown and at Johns Hopkins hospital, and NIH over the summer. </p>
<p>Yep, I agree with the sitting-down part and thinking it through over the weekend. If I were in your position, I would probably take a trip to CP this weekend, if you’re having this much doubt…Talk to some students, peek into labs if the buildings are open, etc. You need to get as much 1st hand info from both schools as you can…websites and forums online are helpful, but generally, you don’t really know until you talk to people who’ve actually experienced it, and even then, its subjective to that person’s perspective. Housing for 1st semester might be a situation if you wait this long for CP, but I know here, generally, you can still get Temp housing even if you put the housing deposit in late.</p>
<p>From an economical standpoint and conservative/safe choice, I would say the favor is for UMBC (and I’m really not trying to plug in for UMBC here) but because:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you went to CP for Fall 2013 + disliked it, you would be out whatever they have you paying for the semester’s tuition, and transferring to UMBC but you would have lost the scholarship for UMBC and be paying roughly the same tuition as CP. </li>
<li>If you went to UMBC for Fall 2013 + disliked it, you would be out less than a semester’s tuition (b/c of the scholarship) and transferring to CP to pay the same tuition that they’re offering you now. And I know people from my freshman yr who transferred to CP for spring and it was an easy process.</li>
</ol>
<p>But if money is not a concern, just know that either choice you go with, transferring is always an option, you aren’t obligated to spend 4 years (or even a semester) at a place if you don’t like it. Sure transferring might complicate things, but this is your education and you have to make the choices you see fit for it.</p>
<p>Yes, you’re right about that financial mindset. I am so confused…</p>
<p>I wonder, is the biology program at UMBC really that much better than CP’s? Even with the difficulty discrepancy (you said that UMBC seems much more difficult)? What do you think? I really don’t want to have to struggle that hard for a GPA, though…</p>
<p>Also, do you know anything about UMBC’s art program? I’m only interested in drawing and painting as well as 2-D animation, but it would appear that UMBC only offers “contemporary” mediums or majors that exclude such traditional concepts. I wouldn’t really want to go to a school without traditional art outlets, so it would help if you could clear that up. I tried contacting the school 3x through email and phone calls, but they never responded, which is really annoying and kind of inconsiderate of them…</p>
<p>Thank you for your help! Yes, I’m still reluctant to give up that research opportunity at UMBC and the scholarship. :(</p>
<p>Also, I tried to get my parents to take me again today, but they refused and said that I already visited. So yeah. Not really an option, I guess.</p>
<p>It’s really hard for me to judge CP’s program since I’ve never directly experienced it, but I think getting a good GPA at either school will require a lot of hard work (not necessarily intelligence…you can be an average student and as long as you’re hard-working and put in as many hours as you need to get an A, you can get an A). Though since you ask about GPA, to be honest, the majority of people here (in the sciences at least) are really concerned about their GPA and getting good grades…it’s a very academically-focused environment. </p>
<p>I do want to mention that a lot of UMBC classes in the biology curriculum are becoming discussion-based or team-based. There’s been studies on this that show students do better when they work together on problem-solving applications instead of sitting and listening to a professor speak for an hour. So right now the school is “studying” this by having courses alternate between a team-based course and a lecture-based course in alternating semesters. In the team-based course, in a class of ~100-200 students, you’re divided into a group of ~5-6 students for the semester and you take both individual and team tests/quizzes and your performance on both weighs into your final grade, as well as an end of the semester peer review where you have to grade each others’ performance in terms of attributions to the team’s learning. The professor and TA’s are still there in every class, but they generally limit lecturing on material to 5 min, and expect you to come in having read the material and to work through problems together…with them floating around to help and answer questions. I actually enjoyed my team-based learning course for both Anatomy & Physiology I and II, especially in a course where there is SO much material to learn, this really helps the material stick. But some people like this and some people don’t so I just thought you should be aware about this. The people who don’t like it, usually just have to take the class the next semester when it’s not team-based. But I’m under the impression, that the school is transitioning most of the science classes to have at least some team-based, so you might not be able to avoid it your entire college time here (if you choose here). </p>
<p>It might be helpful for you, if you haven’t seen it yet, to check out a thread on the studentdoctornetwork on UMCP vs. UMBC for pre-med (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to link to other forums on here, so just google this…it has a 2008 date) …its a fairly long read but I used it back in 2010 to help make my decision…there are arguments for both schools but the most convincing post for me was on pg. 3, posted by someone on 05-08-2009, 12:34 PM who’s actually taken classes at both schools. It’s interesting that that person points out that some people will go to take classes at CP for an easy A, I haven’t heard this recently in the 3 yrs I’ve been here but I have heard that people will retake or just take classes at a community college for an easy A. So maybe that thread on studentdoctornetwork may steer some people to UMD, but I’m the kind of person who prefers a challenge so I guess that’s why it did the opposite and steered me away from UMD, lol. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the art program, i have heard it’s really good and fairly competitive if you decide to major (bio and art double major I’m guessing?) since you have to submit a portfolio and all that stuff. I think a lot of the art majors here came as a 2nd choice to MICA because it’s just so expensive there and they can learn the “same” (probably not exactly the same level) material here. When I was considering taking an art history class, I did notice that the professor/lecturer also teaches at MICA. Sorry that you couldn’t reach anyone at the school, it’s actually pretty hard to reach people on the phone here, you’ll soon find out in college that the only way to really get anything done fast and efficiently is to just go to the office in person. </p>
<p>That sucks that you can’t make another visit…(if you haven’t) just search around for both schools’ sites for bio and art…like umbc art major site is art.umbc.edu and then the bio site is umbc.edu/biosci and maybe you’ll get some clarity there. Make a pro/con list, ask around…I’m sure there’s other people from your class who’s had to make the same decision, maybe they found some information about either school that you don’t know yet? And I think, just trust what your gut tells you (you could always just be over-thinking things?..i have a tendency to do that too sometimes).</p>
<p>Thanks for your awesome input yet again! After yet another day of deliberating with lots of opinions from everywhere (some people told me to go to UMCP, some told me to go to UMBC, and some said that I should choose the one where I would be “happiest”, whatever that means…), I finally just committed to UMCP since I was already half-way done with the commitment process and finished applying for housing. It looks like I’m headed for College Park, then! It’s kind of a bittersweet feeling, to have finally forced myself to decide on a college but to have also given up some great offers from UMBC. Man, I am missing that scholarship and research opportunity already, but I guess I should stick to my commitment, like my family and friends keep telling me… </p>
<p>I wish I had read your post earlier, though; I really like the perks that UMBC was offering me, but my parents and friends were getting ticked off that I wasn’t committing fully, and I guess deep down I didn’t really want to give up a UMD education because of the ranking and resources they have there as opposed to the smaller UMBC, which seems to lack a proper traditional art major- I didn’t see anything remotely traditional on their art website, so I assume that it just wasn’t a real option, even with MICA offerings. Also, I would have to pay my parents $400 out of my own savings to refund their deposit to CP and go through the mess of telling College Park that I wasn’t attending. I don’t know if having this change of mind would negatively affect my chances later on of successfully transferring to CP should I dislike UMBC, so my parents told me to just stick to College Park. Ultimately, I hope that I won’t want to transfer to somewhere else because it probably won’t look too great in front of medical school admission committees, so that was another reason why I didn’t pick UMBC in the end. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if I would necessarily do better in a discussion-based class. I actually dread seminars (English and social studies, especially), though I do learn well with regurgitation methods… I loved high school anatomy class because of that. ;)</p>
<p>Did you take high school anatomy? How does college anatomy compare?</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve browsed through loads of studentdoctornetwork posts to help me decide on UMBC vs. UMCP. It would seem that they recommend UMCP overall because of the so-called easier academics, but it was also a very ambiguous favoring for the OP.</p>
<p>Another thing that interests me is just the diversity of upperclassmen courses that are available at UMCP. There’s one about bird physiology, which is as close to ornithology as you can get; my love of birds definitely factored into my username. :)</p>
<p>I hope that the classwork will be manageable at College Park; I really want to aim for the highest GPA possible. It would seem that the grading scale of UMCP is much more difficult in terms of getting a 4.0, though, since now they have that +/- scale, as opposed to UMBC’s normal A, B, C, etc. scale.</p>
<p>Do you have some tips on adjusting to college (study tips, how to keep up academics and juggle extracurriculars at the same time)? Also, if you don’t mind, could you tell me a rough ballpark of your overall GPA and science GPA or your general peers’ GPA’s (you could just tell me a range, like 3.0+ or something)? If that’s a little too personal, then could you tell me how you’re currently doing in comparison to your high school performance? Also, have you done a research internship, and if so, how did you get it?</p>
<p>Once again, thank you so much, sosoandso3!</p>
<p>I guess I am late… but I will still chime. I graduated from UMBC in 2007. My understanding is that UMBC is tougher academically than UMCP. UMBC definetely does a great job placing students in grad school and it seems that a lot of undergrads at UMBC plan on going to grad school. Just from my group of friends, several of us went to Michigan, I know a few Harvards and Stanfords as well. While UMBC doesnt have a name recognition amongst students, academics know it. The problem with UMBC is that it is pretty boring. </p>