<li>Ive been reading about colleges cracking down on illegal download, ie, Bit Torrent and MP3 downloads from P2Ps. is this true at maryland?</li>
<li>How is living at the Frat houses in the greek rows. is it partying and the usual drinking you would expect at a frat house?</li>
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<p>BT and P2P networks do not work on campus. I'm not going to get into why, but there is no way around it based on the technology they use. IRC and Newsgroups work fine, along with the Hub.</p>
<p>Living on Fraternity Row is everything you'd expect it to be.</p>
<p>Downloading is the one thing I miss about UMD (I just transferred to UVA where the connection is less than stellar). </p>
<p>UMD has one of the strongest internet connections of any college in the world. Much of this is due to the fact that it is home to one of the 13 root domain name servers in the world. (A well kept secret, as these babies can be terrorist targets). Until last year Maryland also had one of the best p2p networks of any college campus, but beginning last May they brought down the hammer on these sort of activities. p2p has gone the way of the dodo, but my understanding is that you can still use encrypted bit torrent. That said you should be able to get all the mp3s and movies you want at 500 KBps or better. </p>
<p>Regarding the cracking down on illegal downloading, getting busted at UMD is a slap on the wrist. If you are worried about getting caught, use bit torrent. Of the approximately 5000 people that get nailed every year downloading files illegally worldwide, roughly 4000 are on the FastTrack (Morpheus, Kazaa) network. Bit torrent is hard to track and thus relatively safe. </p>
<p>Of course if you are really worried you can buy p2p insurance which should be in the United States pretty soon.</p>
<p>Lasker-- sounds like you were unhappy at UMD. How bad was it? Just curious as my d. just started and I have mixed feelings myself. Thanks for the internet info. Very interesting.</p>
<p>I wasn't unhappy -- on the contrary I met a lot of great friends at Maryland. I'd go as far as to say that my two years at Maryland were among the two best of my life. However there are a couple things I didn't like about it which led to me transferring.</p>
<p>First of all, I'm from the Midwest (Chicago). It may be a Midwest vs. East coast thing, but I found that people were less congenial at Maryland then they were at my high school. A callous jerk with a polo shirt was the prototype male. The women, especially the more attractive ones have a sense of entitlement. </p>
<p>The maturity was also lower; listening to other people talk, sometimes I felt like I was back in junior high. A lot of the girls at Maryland seem like they wish their lives had all the drama of an NBC sitcom. </p>
<p>The peppiness also got to me. Perhaps its ironic, then, that I decided to transfer to the bastion of prep - UVA. However, I draw a distinction. There is nothing wrong with wearing a polo shirt and kakis every day (actually thats my outfit), but at Maryland people wore it as a status symbol. I remember the day I went to summer orientation - all the guys had their collars popped. I was disgusted that people would do something like that to look cool or show off their affluence. Once again the only thing I have to compare with is my high school; at my high school (which was more preppy and affluent than UMD) popping your collar would have like writing "I'm a douchebag" on the back of your t-shirt.</p>
<p>None of these things inspired me to transfer. In fact none of these problems are unique to UMD. NYU has a lot of these problems as well, (a school which I narrowly decided against transferring to). The decision was entirely based on my career ambitions. I went into Maryland thinking that if I acquired a super-high GPA and joined some great extracurricular activities, I could work for a high-profile investment banking firm. I reached these goals and was disappointed to find that without a relative in the game, companies like Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone would never, ever, ever, interview me. So I left.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info Lasker. It's helpful.</p>
<p>SLasker - So how will UVa get you back on track?</p>
<p>For the most part UMD is already getting itself back on track. It's a regional university which is quickly becoming a national university. As it improves, it will become more selective as to whom it admits. </p>
<p>The college has already come a long way since 10 years ago. I ran into a guy in his early thirties not too long ago. He pointed out to me that he now wished he had gone to Maryland because "Maryland is a good school now" - when he was in college, it wasn't.</p>
<p>But first let's start with what Maryland is doing right - why they have come so far since 10 years ago?</p>
<p>Maryland is a well-marketed university. Do know what the two biggest influencers are on a students decision to enroll in a college? Studies show that #1 is the attractiveness of the campus/dorms, #2 is the attractiveness/congeniality of the tour guide who shows you around campus. Pretty amazing, I know. This is something that Maryland understands extremely well. By making its "Maryland Images" program selective and keeping its buildings well-maintained, Maryland was able to increase its enrollment rates significantly since the mid nineties.</p>
<p>What does it need to do better?</p>
<p>First of all it needs to focus on CLASS RANK instead of GPA for admitting applicants. It also needs to dig deeper into good high schools and shallower into ****ty high schools. Right now it basically looks at your GPA and SAT and makes a determination on your enrollment. I don't need to explain why this is silly.</p>
<p>It also needs to improve its relationship with recruiters. In terms of business, UMD is great for accounting, but people interested in high-finance don't have very many options. As the smart kids continue to shift from engineering to investment banking, this will become a bigger and bigger drawback.</p>
<p>UMD also needs a bigger endowment. Maryland (the state) is a bureaucratic nightmare, so it can't expect any help from the state any time soon. Major gifts are usually tied to having highly charismatic deans/presidents who are able to bring in the dough from successful alums. Investing 200-400K on elite deans capable of power-fundraising will be key.</p>