<p>I'm at Penn State right now. I don't want to leave, I love the atmosphere and my friends and classes, but it is so expensive since I'm OOS. My dad works at UMBC and it's about 20 mins from my house so if I lived at home I could go basically for free...</p>
<p>My other concern is that UMBC isn't as well known. I want to go to grad school (I'm a psych BS major) and I don't know how much where I go to undergrad will affect my chances of acceptance into grad school, but it I do stay at PSU I'm worried I won't be able to pay for grad school.</p>
<p>Any opinions on what the best decision is here?</p>
<p>My family has a college fund for me and basically I can use it in any way I see fit (if I go to UMBC I can use it for a car or something like that, or just save all of it for grad school) and after that’s gone I’m the one who’s paying the rest of the way. My parents are very supportive and will basically go with whatever I want to do, and either way their money is going to be used for my education, but how far it stretches and how much debt I will be in at the end is the issue really.</p>
<p>I would switch to UMBC because you going to need the money for grad school. Can you transfer to UMD and commute there? I don’t view Penn State as better than UMD. I know UMBC is good choice for their science and computer science programs but don’t know about your major. I don’t think it really will matter though.</p>
<p>We went to one of UMBC’s information days recently. Because of where it is located, there are great opportunities for internships and co-ops. Your dad works there, so it is probably difficult for you to think that it is a good school. However, many of the very best public students around here choose UMBC over College Park. </p>
<p>Additionally, UMBC has good stats for kids getting into grad school. One of my colleagues has a son who is a senior at UMBC. He has had a great experience and will probably be heading to grad school next fall.</p>
<p>MDmom I think you saw the best go to UMBC because they are more generous to all high achieving students than UMD imo. Unlike UMD they give money to ORM. So the Asian kids from my dd’s high school either went to UMBC or they went to Community College.</p>
<p>I’m a psych major and I just don’t really like College Park. I’ve never wanted to go there and it just doesn’t appeal to me, even though some people might think it’s a better school than UMBC.</p>
<p>And thanks to anyone who replied, I guess it really just boils down to whether the “college experience” is worth all the debt I’ll have in the long run…</p>