<p>I got accepted to towson, umbc, and umcp. towson and umbc gave me enormous scholarships, while CP only gave me $9000. So considering I would like to graduate from college with as little debt as possible, I have limited my options to towson university and university of maryland, baltimore county.</p>
<p>Here's what I know.....</p>
<p>UMBC:<br>
Pretty good academics for computer science, and all tech in general
Gave me $48,000 over 4 years in scholarships
Little to no social activity/parties</p>
<p>Towson:
OK academics for CompSci, not as good as UMBC
More social activity/parties
Gave me $40,000 over 4 years in scholarships
I have many friends that go to towson, and they want me to go there (serious PEER PRESSURE!!)</p>
<p>So knowing this, what other thinks should I probably know when making one of the most important decisions of my life? Which campus would you say is better between the two? I want the full college experience. This includes the social part of college, but again academics will be an obvious priority.</p>
<p>Finally, which school would you attend, if you were in my position? Thanks for any opinions!!</p>
<p>Don’t look just at the size of the scholarships, look at what your cost of attendance would be. There is a good Award Letter Comparison tool at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org). Look of it near the bottom of the page that lists all the calculators. </p>
<p>My neighbor’s son is a Comp Sci major at UMBC and loved it there. He lived on campus for the first year and made lots of friends, so I am sure you can have a great experience if you will put in a bit of an effort.</p>
<p>Why don’t you go visit both universities, and meet the people in the Comp Sci departments? That might help you decide.</p>
<p>What are your priorities? Do you want to study hard and have zero fun? Then go to UMBC. I am currently a UMBC student and I can tell you that nobody does ANYTHING here. If I were you, id go to College Park. But if your set on UMBC or Towson… Id have to say UMBC. Just know that you will be spending your weekends drinking beer and playing video games at a friends room.</p>
<p>To LDM032,
I agree with Oswinhella. UMBC does not have anything to do. I was a former student at UMBC, and I did not had a good experience there. My major was not offered, and the major that I was in, Media & Communication Studies is a crappy, pathetic academic program. They taught nothing about journalism, the professors were incompetent and did not know anything, and I was not able to find an internship. UMBC and the MCS major did not help me. I also did not make any friends at UMBC because nobody wanted to get to know, and I was harrassed over there.</p>
<p>My decision was either transfer to College Park or another school or stay at UMBC and continue suffering there with no way to get a job or anything else.</p>
<p>I decided to transfer to CP, got in, and I am enjoying my time there.</p>
<p>My suggestion is go and visit the school and ask questions to faculty and students. See the school for yourself. The same applies to Towson and UMD-CP (do not rule out the school because of their financial aid package. They might be able to help you).</p>