So, I saw there were no threads for a few years and the ones that are here have info that was current at the time, but may be very misleading to prospective students now. Maybe a little history and maybe some more recent information will help students make a better decision:
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Stevenson used to be Villa Julie. It started long ago as a 2 year secretarial school for women only. I think they went to 4 year in the 60s and started admitting men in the mid 1970s. So, this is not a recent change.
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I attended in the late 90s. It was very much a commuter school. In fact, when I started, the school leased furnished apartments from a local Comfort Inn to house the approximately 40 students that were residents. My wife and I were both in that small group. Everybody else that attended were commuters. My second year, that number was about 100 residents. And has exploded recently. I don’t know the exact percentage of students that live on campus now, but it’s high. There are a bunch of new dorms on the new campus (Owings Mills Campus).
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Split campus is definitely still a thing. I understand that they are trying to sell the original Greenspring Campus. As of now, I think that basically just the education program still occupies that campus. The Owings Mills Campus continues to grow. The pharmaceutical property that they purchased is still being developed into new academic buildings. It is connected by about a quarter mile long footbridge through the woods to the rest of the Owings Mills Campus. The brand new facilities are pretty impressive. Lots of new science lab spaces. Nursing labs that are pretty amazing. When I toured with my daughter we were looking at the new Bio-medical Engineering program, but couldn’t get enough of the Nursing lab rooms. They were awesome.
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Stevenson has a good reputation regionally. They have a very good career center (at least they did while I was there, I can’t imagine it’s gotten too much worse). I was placed in an intership that turned into a full time programming job before I had finished school. I actually went part time Fall semester of my Senior year to focus on the job more. Finished my Senior year full-time while working full-time, but was a great launch for my career.
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Some of the programs that are very we respected are Nursing, Accounting, Information Systems (Talk a little more about this below), Forensic Science, Education. I think the science programs are definitely on the come from what I’ve seen, but I can’t say that I’m close enough to that field anymore to say for sure.
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The two information systems degrees are Business Info Systems and Computer Info Systems. BIS is more of a networking and office application focused program. BIS would be for more of the IT manager types. CIS is more programming focused. I was BIS with an undeclared CIS minor (I could have applied for a CIS Associates, but chose not to). Either of these degrees will definitely set you up for a start in the IT field. I have several classmates that now hold CTO or VP/Director of IT positions around Baltimore.
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I can’t speak much about the Artsier programs. My wife studied graphic design, but that was only a two year program at the time. She transferred to UMBC to finish her degree. I can say that the new building that houses these programs is pretty impressive. I wouldn’t hesitate to let my kid be creative in it!
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The campus is pretty nice. And, as mentioned, it’s pretty new. I wasn’t super impressed with the food options (but I was there for a day and using my free voucher at a cafeteria in one of the academics buildings (to give the daughter an idea of what lunch between classes would be like). There is a small strip mall right below campus that has several nice food options and ton of shopping/food choices a mile down the road.
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There has been a lot of emphasis placed on athletics as the school has grown. I was an multi-sport athlete while there, so I’m not going to speak down about it. I don’t think that it overshadows academics though. I think it seems to be a reasonable balance. The athletic facilities are gorgeous, but they had a good starting point with the Baltimore Ravens former training facility as the foundation.
Anyway, I hope some of these things help. Don’t write the school off because of outdated information. Write it off for a reason more personal to you!