<p>Does anyone know what is covered at the Spring Open House? Is it any different from the typical college visit? Is it worth going to?</p>
<p>it's different than your typical visit because you can visit more specific things-- go to an info session at the college you were admitted to (the business school session was a major factor in my decision of UMD over NYU), get a more in-depth look at the residence halls than you would on a regular tour, get info about honors/scholars/etc., financial aid.</p>
<p>i even met a guy (also visiting) who i'm still friends with today, 3 years later.</p>
<p>i thought it was extremely helpful when i went, but people have differing views.</p>
<p>lindz0722 - i'm debating umd and nyu as well. what exactly got you to go to umd??? i am having the hardest time choosing.</p>
<p>wow, there's a lot of open house people today. It's like swarm after swarm of groups</p>
<p>the open house wasnt very informative. i wasnt that impressed. and im also bitter that i got a 75$ parking ticket.</p>
<p>I had a very, very different experience! I thought our open house experience was terrific!
I had never visited the campus before (I'm the mom) event though we live 10 minutes away. It had always been "the back up." But after my S got into Honors and got a scholarship (and didn't get scholarships at other top choice schools) it rose much higher on his list.</p>
<p>We found the presentation by the Government and Political Science Department to be very well done and very informative. We got a very good sense of the level of quality of the department and the options for academic programs, internships etc. At that presentation and the one by the behavioral and social science school (which focused too much on meeting graduation requirements, but wasn't horrible) we also learned about possiblities for a joint masters program with the school of public policy.</p>
<p>At the honors presentation we heard a lot of the information we had seen on the web, but we got to see the personality of the folks running the program. We were incredibly impressed... The funniest moment was when someone asked the panel of 7 honors students -- honestly all of whom were rather nerdy, dorky or geeky -- if all the honors students were nerdy, dorky or geeky, and they all answered, "Oh no, we were all worried about the same thing!" My son figured with 700 students per year in the program that the Honors students would run the full gamut, and that with 30,000 students on campus he knew he would find a sufficient pool of students for friends.</p>
<p>We didn't do tours as it was indeed crowded.</p>
<p>And, by the way, we followed the instructions and parked for free in the garage. Sorry you had such a bad experience! For us, today sold us on sending S to Md. --- for the price of one year at Oberlin or Brandeis or Rochester (his other top 3 choices, Oberlin probably his favorite) he can get 4 years at Md. in the Honors program, and his public policy masters either withing those 4 years or adding on a 5th year.</p>
<p>xtefii: NYU has no campus. i wanted a real collegiate experience. at UMD, when i want to go into a big city, i hop on the metro and go into DC. but i still have the beautiful green campus with big brick buildings that gives me the "college" feel in my mind.</p>
<p>stern school of business at NYU= way too competitive and cutthroat. also, i fell in love with the QUEST program that i heard about at the UMD business school open house and that was a big deciding factor for me.</p>
<p>also, it was just so much cheaper to come here (i'm in-state, plus cost of living is a lot less here).</p>
<p>silversenior: i'm i honors, and i PROMISE i'm not geeky, dorky, or nerdy :) honors students definitely come in all types, as your son assumed.</p>
<p>my number one concern with umd is recruiting is it possible to get a great job (i'm talking 60,000+ a year) if i go to umd. i got a full ride so its free but i might transfer to wharton (i got waitlisted) junior year if i see i can't do well in the school.</p>
<p>If you want to earn that much I think it's better for you to go to grad school. If you become a TA, your tuition will be free so there's nothing to lose.</p>
<p>i'd say it's pretty hard to get a 60K job right out of undergrad no matter where you go. you can't get an upper-level position with entry-level experience. no education gives the same payoff as a few years of work.</p>
<p>i say, go to UMD because it's free. work a couple years and suck it up and deal with your entry-level salary. go to grad school. then you can easily make that kind of money-- you'll have graduate education AND previous experience.</p>
<p>and i'd like to add for the zillionth time, what i've already said in every single thread about the business school...</p>
<p>IF THE RECRUITING ISN'T WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE, DO IT YOURSELF.</p>
<p>don't wait on someone else to find you a job. put yourself out there and you will be able to get a wonderful job. sure, being "recruited" is nice. but so is searching for a job that fits your needs, instead of BlTCHING about not being handed one on a silver platter.</p>