<p>Alright, well I may be attending Michigan State, but my entire extended family has or is attending Maryland College Park. </p>
<p>What bragging rights could I bring to the inevitable arguments that with ensue?</p>
<p>I've never heard of University of Maryland, so MSU.. just because it's better known?</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to study. For something like Agricultural Science, Packaging Engineering, and Political Science, MSU is the superior option. For others, UMCP may well be better. Ultimately though, both are just massive degree factories with almost no admission standards.</p>
<p>^^The above is hardly true. The last sentence, that is. They are both much more selective than the majority of colleges in this country. UMCP is the state flagship, and probably an above-average one at that. MSU is obviously second to UMich, but UMich is a top school by any standard, and there are certainly states where MSU would easily be the top state school. They are huge, obviously, and they are not super-elites...but to say they have "almost no admissions standards" is tremendously insulting to the thousands of people who dream of attending those schools, as well as the even greater number who have no opportunity to attend college at all. (I, btw, go to a top-10 LAC with less than 1500 students, and I know no one who has gone to either of these schools...so I am not invested in these schools in particular, and I had no intrerest in applying to big state Us. I just found that sentence so characteristic of the worst part of the CC mentality.)</p>
<p>In response to the OP, I don't know exactly what you could use, as I am not terribly familiar with MSU. But I will advise that in any family where almost everyone attended one college, and they are very fond of it, they will obviously tease you for going elsewhere. However, I find it unlikely that there will be real arguments about it...you may just have to take their poking fun of you in stride. If you love your school, that is what matters, not which one is ranked higher (UMCP, sorry), or anything else.</p>
<p>theyre both very good public schools. im way more familiar with msu. the average gpa is around a 3.6. umcp is probably that or higher. if you want to party hard, but get a good education, msu is the way to go. msu is a huge party school. im sure maryland is too, but msu's parties are amazing.</p>
<p>In term of sports, they are about the same in football / basketball.</p>
<p>UMCP freshmen avg weighted gpa is 4.0 and MSU is similar too
so I don’t think no admission standards is a good phrase to put.</p>
<p>I’m from maryland, so i’m basing what i say here off of in-state admission standards. Most people from my high school saw MSU as more of a safety than Maryland, and certainly saw UMD as the more prestigous school. However, i’m sure there is a lot of bias, coming from a high school where so many kids dream of attending UMD. As for standardized testing, Maryland has a bit of an edge, but nothing very significant.</p>
<p>I would personally go to whichever school is cheaper, since their academics/school atmospheres seem to be so similar.</p>
<p>UMD is in an area with outstanding job prospects- government, defense, consulting, etc. It’s a few subway stops from downtown Washington, DC. It also has a huge array of honors programs, if you are interested in that. MSU is a great school, too, but the location can’t compare with UMD’s.</p>
<p>Go Terps! Fear the Turtle! UMD is a wonderful school.</p>
<p>^^^^^Well said, pinnipotto… Both are fine schools. Some “polls” (not all) like USN&WR rate Maryland slightly higher, but MSU has an older, more-established reputation than Maryland which is probably why MSU is considerably wealthier (endowment-wise) than UMD and has considerably more famous alumni (as judged by institutions like “Who’s Who”) than Maryland… Remember, while Maryland is a proud land grant school that really has come into its own in the last decade or so, MSU is “The Pioneer Land Grant College” that has had a good academic reputation for many, many decades and, in some ways, since it was founded 150+ years ago.</p>
<p>That said, you won’t go wrong with either school. And certainly if an exciting location with access to internships/jobs is paramount to you, Maryland on D.C.'s doorstep is your bet. East Lansing is a great college town, but can’t compare with being on the East coast right outside Washington if, again, that’s what’s important to you…</p>
<p>The most important difference between Michigan State and UMD College Park is that the students at UMD College Park are much, much better. This should be a no-brainer. UMD is a far more selective school than Mich State. UMD is roughly on par with UNC Chapel Hill and UCLA in terms of selectivity.</p>
<p>if you get into UMD College Park, go there.</p>
<p>“Fear the Turtle!”</p>
<p>Umm.. I think not… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>“The most important difference between Michigan State and UMD College Park is that the students at UMD College Park are much, much better. This should be a no-brainer. UMD is a far more selective school than Mich State. UMD is roughly on par with UNC Chapel Hill and UCLA in terms of selectivity.”</p>
<p>First off, Collegehelp, that’s simply false. Maryland’s student’s are only slightly more competitive than MSU’s, not “much, much better.” Second, understand that while MSU has had competitive admissions for most of its history, UMD only has done so for barely 2 decades; it was open admissions up to that point. And UMD artificially jacked up its admissions stats by cutting the size of their freshman classes, dramatically, in order to achieve this result. Some thought this was a pretty artificial and cheesy way to achieve “stardom” although, the plus side, was the resulting in more competitive and more manageable classes than before.</p>
<p>Maryland and Michigan State are close. But in terms of schools with a greater academic tradition, greater resources more even quality across the board, MSU is superior. That’s not opinion, that’s fact.</p>
<p>Quincy4-
The SAT scores at UMD College Park are about 150 points higher than at Michigan State. That’s about the same difference as Harvard #2 and Tulane #50 in US News. That’s a pretty big difference. I think Michigan State has the unfortunate task of competing with University of Michigan for students.</p>
<p>BTW, I used an ACT->SAT conversion chart on College Board website.
<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p>UMD is not very well known before, but the last decade it has improved a lot. There were alot more state fundings. Program are getting more selective and it attracts more students / faculties. Not to mention there were 2 nobel prizes in the last 2 years. How many school has that? I read somewhere that there were 75 majors ranked in the top 25 in the country for UMD. It’s not because they jack up admission standard just to look good.</p>
<p>If you look at the two entering freshman class and compare student quality, Maryland is better.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.uga.umd.edu/admissions/counselor/freshmanprofile.asp[/url]”>http://www.uga.umd.edu/admissions/counselor/freshmanprofile.asp</a></p>
<p><a href=“https://admissions.msu.edu/admission/freshmen_profile.asp[/url]”>https://admissions.msu.edu/admission/freshmen_profile.asp</a></p>
<p>For Quincy4–If you were talking about MSU vis-a-vis UMD 20 years ago, or maybe even 15 years ago, what you posted would be right. Now, it’s not fact, as you put it, but rather contrary to fact. The average incoming student at MSU is at about the 1100/24-25 ACT range, while the average incoming UMD student is at the 1280/29 ACT range. While I’m not a fan of the USNews rankings, UMD has 29 undergraduate and graduate programs ranked in the nation’s Top 10 (this does not include journalism, where UMD is clearly on anyone’s top 10 list, but USNWR has no formal rankings), and another 61 ranked in the Top 25, while MSU has nowhere near that number. The overall rankings in any number of surveys differ as well.</p>
<p>On an ancedotal basis, I live in a suburban Chicago community which has students applying to both schools. The kids who apply to Maryland cross most frequently with the kids applying to Wisconsin; the MSU kids cross with schools like Kansas. Thus, as a matter of out of state perception, there’s a difference.</p>
<p>None of this is meant to denigrate MSU. Although I went to archrival Michigan, I have a niece and a nephew who attended MSU, and the school has some wonderful programs and departments, as well as a beautiful campus. It’s a fine school. It’s just not on Maryland’s level at this point.</p>
<p>To collegehelp:</p>
<p>after you posted this gem- “UMD is roughly on par with UNC Chapel Hill and UCLA in terms of selectivity,” you lost any shred of credibility you ever had. </p>
<p>wow…just wow…</p>
<p>OBrienUM97-
What makes you think that I ever sought to establish credibility with you?</p>
<p>UNC Charlotte
SAT 25th 1200
SAT 75th 1390</p>
<p>UCLA
SAT 25th 1180
SAT 75th 1410</p>
<p>UMD College Park
SAT 25th 1170
SAT 75th 1390</p>
<p>collegehelp:</p>
<p>first off, its unc chapel hill, not unc charlotte. second, its not all about numbers. you cant judge a schools selectivity by the average sat or act scores. and by the way, according to collegeboard, umd cp’s sat range goes from 1070-1390, not 1170-1390.</p>
<p>bosox097-
The UNC “Charlotte” was just a typo. </p>
<p>SAT and ACT are the only standardized measures of selectivity. They allow comparisons between schools. Top 10% of HS class depends on the quality of the feeder high schools. Acceptance rate depends on the number of applications.</p>
<p>In what way is selectivity “not all about numbers”? I think selectivity basically means SAT and ACT scores.</p>