<p>I have this friend who told me she went to college park and that the areas surrounding the capus where pretty ghetto. I've never been to Maryland but have heard that the outskirts of D.C. aren't good at all and the university is about 8 miles aways from D.C. so it's pretty close. Is this a generalization and it's really not that bad or is my friend slightly right? I do recognize she is a little critical about way too many things so I'd like to hear other people's thoughts about this. I also know I'm gonna be in the campus most of the time so I won't really live or face all this but how's the scene in the areas outside of UMD? I'd really like to hear honest opinions, Thanks!</p>
<p>umd is in college park which is in a pretty dangerous area of prince georges county which is quite dangerous and has a reputation for crime. I hate to scare you, but at college park people are known to get stabbed and robbed in broad daylight en route to class. just recently some student got shot in a but, a guy shot his girlfriend in her face in a parking lot, someone got stabbed at a party. its pretty much a high crime area</p>
<p>OK, seriously, college park is NOT high crime. PG may have a higher crime rate than other counties, but the college area is VERY safe. The higher risk areas are a good 30 minutes away. You'll be safe. There are cameras in many public areas as well as in back streets. There are streetlights. If you've lived in a city, the surrounding area will certainly not be "ghetto" to you, but if you haven't, it may come across that way. "High crime" is like NYC, and LA, not freakin' college park. 2 stupid incidents do not make the entire place "high crime"</p>
<p>It depends. If you're facing Fraternity Row, everything to the left on that side of Route 1 is dangerous to be in at night. Everything to the right of Frat Row is fine to walk around in.</p>
<p>Once you start going opposite down Route 1 from Bentley's and Lupo's, thinks go downhill real quick. I was actually a victim of armed robbery while working at Alario's Pizzeria back in Spring '05.</p>
<p>omg, TWO INCIDENTS, are you kidding me. Everytime I read the Diamondback someone is robbed, car is stolen, assaulted or sexually assaulted not to mention knifefights and all the fistfights that go on. As someone from the westside of Baltimore City, undeniably one of the most high crime and ghetto neighborhoods in Maryland- i think i recognize a bad neighborhood when i see it. I will say that its not college park thats really ghetto, but the surrounding community that brings their mentality with them</p>
<p>Bmoryeo-- do you mean ON CAMPUS, or the surrounding area? It's my understanding the surrounding area is bad-- there are other schools like that-Penn, some Ivies, etc.
We live in a town where there are million dollar homes one block and ghetto the next. I have never been under the impression that campus is dangerous. I know recently there was an incident at Georgetown, (several) and GW..........................on campus.</p>
<p>Yeah, people in g-town just feel like getting in fist fights all the time. </p>
<p>I don't think CP is all that bad. SOme places in PG county are really the ghetto. I have taken a few bus rides in those areas all the time waiting for to get off. PG county really is horrible considering who it neighbors to its west. That brings us to that all areas around DC are by no means ghetto. Bethesda, Maryland which boarders DC is one of the richest places in the country and the suburbs of DC in Virginia are rediculously rich.<br>
CP isn't all bad as long as you keep an eye out and stay with friends. I don't think any crime happens on campus. If you are really worried check out Collegep rowler and their Maryland book. It has a secition on safty and security and include quotes from students. You can see the rankings here for all schools
http://***********<strong><em>.com/guides<em>by</em>rankings.asp/18
Replace the word that is edited out by *</em></strong> and put in P R O W L E R with no spaces. That word can't be said on this site. </p>
<p>UMD got a B+ which sounds good but many schools are in the a range. UMD is better than many schools though as you can see. IT is tied with UIUC, UT, Tufts, Temple, Georgia Tech, Reed, Vanderbilt, and PSU. These places don't get the bad reputation like UMD though. UMD does a fantastic job considering its area but hey its the suburbs of a major city. </p>
<p>The University of Michigan scored worse than UMD, other lower scores included Cornell, FSU, UCLA, MIT northwestern, and UCBerk. All those are Bs. B-'s included Johns hopkins, NYU, and Case. Upenn got a C+ as did brown, columbia, UW, and syracuse, and the worst of the major schools is Duke at a C. </p>
<p>Many schools are worse than UMD is safty and UMD gets more of a bad reputatoin due to its area. If you are smart there is no problem</p>
<p>cheapseats- thanks. I feel a lot better............</p>
<p>yeah, no problem and I really do suggest that people get that book . It was helpfull in getting to know the university and seems to be something that I will even use when I go there. It just gets a students opinion about the school. </p>
<p>My link did not work by just putting in the one word
Here is a link to all of the catagories they rank. Just click the catagory you want to see and you will see the grade for all schools</p>
<p><a href="http://www.**************.com/college-rankings.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.**************.com/college-rankings.asp</a>
OK this time replace the "*****"s with "collegep rowler" with no spaces.</p>
<p>is it true you don't want to get off the Green Line on the metro unless you're just switching lines?</p>
<p>Eckie-- not at all, the Green Line goes through DC just like all the other lines do. I've never heard that before. Generally though, I wouldn't take the metro alone at night on ANY line.</p>
<p>"I hate to scare you, but at college park people are known to get stabbed and robbed in broad daylight en route to class. just recently some student got shot in a but, a guy shot his girlfriend in her face in a parking lot, someone got stabbed at a party."
Honestly I don't know what the hell this person is talking about. I'm not going to lie. YES, things do happen. At night. Typically around 3 am (we get emailed crime alerts, usually about one a week). Usually it's something like "Victim was walking alone on College Avenue. Victim had something hard pushed into his back and suspect demanded money. Victim complied and suspect fled."<br>
I have NEVER seen a crime alert regarding a stabbing. I have NEVER seen a violent crime alert which was reported during the day. Yes, a kid got shot in the butt over the summer. That's the sketchiest thing that's happened here in a while. Someone did get stabbed at a party a while ago, that wasn't a university-related incident. And finally, I hadn't heard about a guy shooting his girlfriend in the face but maybe I'm just out of the loop. I guess my advice to you would be to get a significant other who won't shoot you.</p>
<p>So I don't think bmoreyo really knows what he/she is talking about with the crime descriptions there.....honestly it is not that much of an issue.</p>
<p>That said, CP is "ghetto" in the fact that there are a lot of people around that most upper-middle class people would consider lower-class, and we have no good shopping malls.</p>
<p>OK, College Park is NOT the ghetto! I don't go to UMD, but I live relatively close and am frequently on the campus doing research at the library or for workshops or summer programs. I do indeed venture out into the surrounding area to go the Pizza Hut and stuff like that. College Park is a working class neighborhood, and at a recent lunch break there after the open house, yeah, I was the only white person in the restaurant. But the other people weren't ghetto gangsters, they were pleasant, friendly families (including one kid having a birthday party - cute!). I have never once felt threatened in the area, and I live in an upper-class suburb. I think people are quick to look at an area that is not as pretty on the outside as their quiant, well-to-do token school district community (and not as white), and dismiss it as a "ghetto" or "horrifically dangerous". Lies. CP, however, is not your quaint little suburb, and I wouldn't be caught dead wandering alone at 3 AM there. Then again, a lady was murdered in the park a short walk from my 800,000 sticker home. You need to use common sense whenever you're on your own. But CP is not inner city Baltimore, it is not Washington too far from the monument, it's a college town.</p>
<p>Frankly, I felt way less safe in Wheaton, MD, when we stopped at some Mexican place after going to Chuck Levon's. A bar fight actually broke out, and some guy was giving the waitress trouble. Nice. Granted, it was pretty late.</p>
<p>While I wouldn't quite call it "ghetto", its defineately a lower-class and crime-ridden neighborhood. It's probably OK during the day, but no way I would not venture off-campus after dark. BTW, I've heard the neighborhood area surrounding Yale is much worse, though I haven't seen it myself.</p>
<p>grandpabruin-- by "off campus" i assume you mean areas like greenbelt or takoma park, outside of the neighborhoods directly surrounding the school? i wouldn't dare go alone anywhere more than a few miles off campus at night, that's for sure. but the area between the campus and the metro station is very safe at night (again, not that i'd want to be out alone at night for a long period of time) because there are so many people wandering around, especially on the weekends.</p>
<p>and you're right about yale & the new haven area...i did a summer program there a few years ago and they were very very insistent on us not going out at night.</p>
<p>by the way, college park, from metro to UMD, and UMD looked great on Maryland Day. I don't know if it was just the sun shining down that day with a blue sky but it looked great. I guess they fixed it up for Maryland day but it should look like that throughout the summer and early fall. The fountain was on, the flowers were planted, and everything looked great. After seeing it on Maryland day I don't think anyone can say it is one of the ugliest campuses.</p>