Towson, review

Parents Forum
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<p>Since there has been some talk about Towson lately, I thought I'd post a review I did of it in late September after my son and I visited. Not sure if I posted it here or not:</p>

<p>Saturday my son, his friend and her mother and I visited Towson University in Towson, Maryland. It came up on my radar screen when our next door neighbors son, who happens to be my son's close friend, was accepted and decided to go there. He's a freshman this year. My son's friend that visited with us is a senior in hs this year so this was her last college to look at. She's also good friends with the current student.</p>

<p>Towson is a large College with about 16,000 students. Most of them are from Maryland and my guess is many applied to U of Md., and chose Towson as a safety. My son's friend's roommate for instance, goes home every weekend. We were told that the avg. SAT scores for admitted students ranged from 970 - 1100. There is an honors college with merit money, special housing and perks.</p>

<p>Our son's friend is a history major and would like one day to teach at a college level. One of the reasons he picked Towson was because of the depth of the history classes. It has a broad range of majors and one in computer security that I thought might interest my son. </p>

<p>When we arrived on campus we went to the Enrollment Services building. We were given a very brief talk about the college and watched a fairly generic video that featured students talking about why they LOVED Towson. It was good - I've just seen so many it was hard to pay attention. Afterwards we were broken up into groups of about 20 people and three guides. My son's friend joined us for the tour. </p>

<p>The campus is quite large, hilly and fairly well maintained. Lots of trees, open grassy areas and places to hang out. The dining facilities looked great - large variety and well placed. The meal plan was flexible and freshman could choose between 14 - 19 meals a week or something called 19 unlimited meals which I think was meant for football players.... There was a lot of activity on campus but I think many students were on their way to the stadium when we arrived, getting ready for the first football game. My son's friend had joined an ultimate frisbee team and it was much more competitive then what he was used to. But he was getting used to and enjoying it.</p>

<p>The dorms were pretty typical except they don't seperate freshman out so you could potentially share a dorm with juniors or seniors. In actuallity most dorms are freshman and sophmores because they have very nearby off campus housing that the upperclassman use. They had two orientation mixers that our son's friend declined before school started. I think one was a raft trip and the other was helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house. His mother was quite frustrated when he wouldn't do either one.</p>

<p>Classrooms looked nice. Avg. class size was about 20 students although some beginning classes could have 100 students with labs broken down to groups of 20. They were renovating a very large theatre arts building and said it would be done by summer 2005.</p>

<p>We ate on campus in the dining hall. I had a made to order omelet, tater tots and a salad. It was good. My son liked the all you can eat thing and got a grilled cheese, 4 slices (small) of pizza and a bowl of ice cream. A good candidate for the freshman 15 - but that wouldn't be a bad thing!</p>

<p>Something appealing about Towson is it's proximity to Baltimore. The tour guide said it was about 15 minutes to Inner Harbour. There's a nearby bus service into the city and the walk to the town of Towson was just a mile. We saw the town and it had a beautiful large library, a Borders book store and a nearby mall. Very conveinent.</p>

<p>The cost for out of state students is about $22,000. My son did like it as did his girl friend (those two words are not hooked together on purpose!) and she did decide to apply at Towson. Her other schools to apply to are Elon and NC State. Her mother is also suggesting she decide on a Pennsylvania safety school.</p>

<p>All in all, I liked Towson. It was a fairly pleasant 3 hour drive - we decided to go west through PA and then South into Md. instead of the faster, but more congested route on route I-95. I think it would be a match school for my son and slightly challenging and enjoyable college experience. </p>

<p>Postscript: My son's friend who attends Towson has been really enjoying his freshman year and is doing very, very well academically.</p>

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<p>My son also goes to Towson. I should note that the median SATS for last year's entering class is around 1150. </p>

<p>My son LOVES Towson. Why?
1, It is a large school that seems like a small school. All of his classes, even introductory classes are small. He has never had any class over 60 kids and most are under 25. In fact, two of his honors classes are under 12 kids!</p>

<ol>
<li><p>There is a LOT to do at Towson. Kids can rend videos, see movies, have access to numerous sports leagues from field hocky to ultimate frisbee etc. If a kid is bored there, they haven't left their dorm room. </p></li>
<li><p>Food is good, We have eaten in the Towson cafeteria and loved the daily salid bar and Mongolian Barbecue. Lots of grilled stuff such as chicken and hamburgers etc. They even have a kosher dining room. They also have Subarros on campus too.</p></li>
<li><p>No teaching assistants are used: All professors are professors and not graduate students or TAs. Also, my son noted that he has never had a professor that didn't speak English well. These foreign professors may exist,but they are not that common.</p></li>
<li><p>Very diverse majors and thus very diverse kids: Towson not only has a strong humanities program but has strong programs in performing arts, music, voice, and dance and in visual arts. The only customary majors that Towson doesn't have is engineering. If you want engineering, you go to Univ. of Maryland.</p></li>
<li><p>Towson does use a lot of part-time adjunct professors: This is a mixed blessing. Most professors have worked or are currently working in their field. However, they may not be as accessible as what you would find in a small LAC. This does tend to be a problem.</p></li>
<li><p>Towson has lots of scholarship money. I don't know the reason,but Towson, more than that of other Maryland state universites, has a lot of scholarship money. Every kid that gets into the honors college gets some money. Considering that their tuition isn't bad even for out of state students, this makes Towson a real deal!</p></li>
<li><p>Towson is near Baltimore: Baltimore can be a fun city. Lots of stuff to do and see. It also has some terrific restaurants if you want to take advantage of these places.Morover, Towson is very near one of the biggest and best shopping malls in the country for those that want to take advantage of this.</p></li>
<li><p>Towson has a very pretty compus. You really get a nice college campus feel at Towson. Frankly, I think it has a nicer campus than that of the University of Maryland. I don't get that sprawl feel at Towson and many of the buildings are "classically designed." Univ. of Maryland has all types of buildings that don't necessarily match.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Thanks so much Kathiep. We're scheduled to visit at the end of this month. It's becoming pretty popular on LI as it is now harder to get into U of Md. and U of Del. and it seems to be attracting the same "type" of student. I've only heard good things about Towson and the fact that it's near Baltimore (and internship possibilities) makes it a serious contender in our household. We just have to hope my d's SAT/ACT scores are within their range. She's not doing well on her practice SAT's but I do think she'll score over 970 (or the new equivalent). She's a B+ student and will be inducted into NHS next week but her test scores are going to be a problem. We'll also be looking at Temple-George Mason and York during the April school break. Again-Thanks for the info.</p>

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<p>I visited Delaware with my daugher a few years ago in the summer after her Junior year. Unfortunately, for us, visiting during the summer was a mistake, especially at this campus. We saw two students - our tour guide and the person working in the admissions office. Campus was nice and Newark is a nice small city. BTW, it's my husband's hometown. Every employee we saw was bickering with another employee, and no one seemed to be happy to be there. After that, I really started thinking about why in the world we would pay out of state tuition when we live in a state with good state schools and besides, daughter didn't like U of D. She did get accepted at PSU but decided it was too big.</p>

<p>We visited York college last fall also. I liked it, Son did not. I'm thinking we might want to re-visit though and find more information about their computer science program. We got a free voucher for an application from the admissions officer and it would be a safety.</p>

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<p>Friends d goes to York and likes it- but I understand its quiet on the week-ends. My gut feeling is that d is not going to like it and would find Towson or Temple more interesting. But she may surprise me. We're planning to see York 4/30, (and Towson 4/29) and d will stay overnight in dorm on Friday before the Sat. tour. We also got info on voucher as we signed up for the tour. As you are a neighbor to NY, did you consider SUNY schools? They are not exciting but you can get a fine education and OOS tuition is relatively inexpensive (around $10,000). I would think our university centers like Binghamton-Albany-Buffalo and Stony Brook would have good computer science dept.s. so you may want to check the SUNY schools. Thanks for the info on Towson and York.</p>

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<p>Moderator, you may want to transfer this thread to the Towson University Thread.I made a copy of it there,but transfering the thread will make it more readable.</p>

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<p>Do any of you Towson folks know how much social interaction Towson students have with Johns Hopkins students? Do you guys party at the same places at the Inner Harbor, etc.?</p>

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<p>Marny,
No, I really don't plan to look into the SUNY schools. While they might be better then our second tier state schools, I don't think the price differential is worth going out of state. If he ends up at a oos STATE school, it might be Towson, but that's because it offers a lot more then our schools. The SUNY schools seem to be (jmho) more like ours in that they are semi-rural and often suitcase schools. Towson, at least, is large and close to a big city but still suburban, and attracts a few more out of state students. </p>

<p>He does want to look at RIT this summer. They have a special program for rising seniors that's technology oriented.</p>

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<p>Kathiep- That's why we're looking at Towson. But if you are near RIT, you may want to also look at University of Rochester. It's a private U and not SUNY. It has a wonderful reputation and a lovely campus. D # 1 gave it serious consideration but decided to go to Cornell. U of R is pretty generous with merit awards. Depending on class standing and SAT scores, they often reduce tuition by around $10,000. I would compare U of R with Case Western or Brandeis. So if you are in the Rochester area, I suggest you check out U of R too.</p>

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<p>Hi everyone, my son is a junior at a Long Island HS, took 1AP (ss) last year, 4 this year,5 next year. He plays Varsity baseball,has an overall high 80's early 90's avg. I sin Key Club,enviornmental club,honor roll, and founded a charity softball tournamnet. He wanst to go "out of state"we visited Boston College, Northeastern, and Umass Amherst, he loved BC. He also wants to check out Towsen, and U Florida as well as U pittsburgh. He likes big football schools,lol. Any suggestions on and comments on his chances? he is also hispanic, some people say that will make a difference? Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>Hi Q and welcome. We're from LI too. Your son's average will probably make him a contender for Towson and most of the other schools you listed. Of course the SAT's are going to be very important factor. Being hispanic can only help his chances. BC may be a reach but he shouldn't rule it out. I went to the Towson sports page on the web. If I am reading this right (and I don't follow football at all)-Towson is in the Atlantic 10 League which also includes U of Mass and Northeastern. Unfortunately- Towson appears to be in the cellar with a record of 0 wins 8 losses. Both U Mass and Northeastern have better records. I think U Pittsburg and U Florida are big football schools and they are pretty popular with the LI crowd. Anyway they are all really good schools and I think he'll have a decent shot at them. Good luck.</p>