U of MD Honors College Engineering VS PITT

My daughter was admitted to both of the above also (Drexel, Villanova, Univ of Miami, Case Western, and Stevens). I think based on finances we have ruled out all but U of MD and PITT. She is accepted into the Honors College at U of MD and did get some money 12.5K. Nothing to sneeze at. We are OOS so it is still more expensive than PITT. Any thoughts on the better program or pros and cons? She is going Bio-engineering. I am a bit worried about this “can’t get a seat talk”. I am under the impression that the H classes are very small. We don’t visit until end of April but are doing the Host a day and meeting with engineering staff. Would love a comparison! Also, any chance on getting more merit aid? Thanks.

@mom517 - @maryversity is the very knowledge regarding engineering at UMD and hopefully she will reply here. I am not sure what you mean by “can’t get a seat talk”. If in reference to Honors classes, they are usually limited to 20 students and only available to Honors students, However, most of the courses that your D will take will not be Honors courses. Except for possible departmental scholarships, I think that all merit aid has been awarded.

@mom517 Unfortunately I don’t have much prior knowledge regarding Pitt engineering but can answer some of your specific UMD engineering questions. My daughter is a freshman at UMD in the Honors College/University Honors. She is also a Bioengineering major, as is her freshman roommate. We also visited many engineering schools, including UMD Clark School and came to the realization that the facilities and program here are just as strong if not stronger than most engineering programs out there. I thought the only school that we visited that had more impressive facilities was Georgia Tech. The Clark school has its own large Career Services office and also has its own Study Abroad office. We found most other engineering schools incorporate these services at the university level, not at the individual college level. Also, the Bioengineering department is located in the new A James Clark Hall. You will hopefully be able to see the building as part of a tour. The facilities are very impressive with a lot of state of the art labs and conference rooms. This reflects the money flowing into just not the school itself, but specifically the major. Also, due to UMD’s location outside of DC, the school is able to offer a lot of research and internship opportunities with a number of federal agencies, including the FDA. Your daughter will need to realize that the Clark School is a relatively large engineering program. I believe the Bioengineering major is either the 2nd or 3rd largest in the college. This essentially means that she will need to be somewhat assertive if she has specific questions related to advising, issues in classes, etc. Also, the issues regarding getting a seat in a class are more related to getting a seat in a specific section of the class as opposed not getting in at all. First semester registration is based on when she attends orientation - the earlier the better. After first semester, registration is based on # of credits -so if she’s coming in with a lot of AP credits, she will likely have a less stressful registration process. My daughter came in with nearly 50 credits, but still had issues getting into her preferred Math section this semester - this meant she has a 9am class discussion once a week instead of a 10am class-life is tough as a freshman!

If you PM me I can give you my daughter’s contact information and I’m sure she would be happy to answer any of your daughter’s specific questions. She is also a tour guide for the university so is fairly familiar with the typical questions asked by incoming students/families.

Hi! I can’t give any insight for comparison of Maryland to Pitt directly but will tell you that when my son was looking at different schools, he actually compared apples to apples by pulling the curricula at each school he considered to see what classes he would have to take at each, to see which was more appealing to him.

As for additional money, after matriculation, there are lots of smaller scholarships available through the engineering department. There is one application and students are matched with the most appropriate scholarship possible. A lot are based on finances in addition to merit, so filling out a FAFSA is definitely important to do, even if you wouldn’t qualify for a need based award from the university. I am OOS and my son got a presidential of 5K a year as an incoming freshman. He applied in the spring each year http://www.ursp.umd.edu/scholarships/current-students and was granted some additional funds each subsequent year.

As for “can’t get a seat”…was that in reference specifically to engineering? I have heard that was a big issue for comp sci students, which is likely why the major just was added to the list of LEPs (limited enrollment programs) this year…

However, if it helps to know, my son did Mechanical, which is the biggest discipline within engineering, and honestly never once didn’t get into a class he needed. He did have to go on the waitlist on several occasions, which seems daunting when you are #23, but even at that, he still got in…just closer to the start of the semester…and he found waitlist was not a big deal - it prob stressed me more than it did him until I found it was not a problem. Whenever there is a required class, if the wait list gets to a certain point, they open up additional sections, so it’s really not an issue.

Electives are a different story (they don’t typically open additional sections based on the waitlist), but there were only two reasons he didn’t get an elective he wanted: 1. the time it was offered conflicted with another class he wanted or needed 2. he was technically an undergrad trying to get a grad class as an elective (understandable that grad students get priority for grad electives - he was taking them his senior year because he was doing undergrad/grad in 5 years).

To clarify, when he went on a waitlist for a required engineering class, it was to get the time he wanted or prof he preferred, not because he couldn’t get a class…

@mom517, if the difference in price is not exorbitant, I would highly recommend Maryland, especially for engineering…

One thought for possibly leveling the financial playing field might be to consider becoming an RA. That is an on-campus “job” that requires some training and responsibilities, but then compensates with full room and board. The job description states it’s 20 hours of work a week and “All RAs receive remission of room, board, basic telecommunications, and basic cable fees as compensation.” Here is where you find the info http://reslife.umd.edu/employment/ra/ and here is where it talks about compensation http://reslife.umd.edu/global/documents/raposition/conditionsofemployment.pdf.

Mind you, applications start in the fall, and the training course is spring semester. So, obviously, this will not help freshman year, but, the savings the following year definitely compensate for that…if you can manage that first year of finances…?

Just an idea to consider, since I am confident that once you visit Maryland, and see the engineering program, your daughter will be in love with the school ;p…

Just in case you haven’t seen it, I did do a more detailed thread a few years back about engineering at Maryland http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1732708-everything-you-want-to-know-about-engineering-at-maryland-p1.html
and about Maryland in general http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1743639-things-to-love-about-maryland-p1.html

I know the decision process is a tough one. However much I am a huge cheerleader for Maryland, I will tell you that no matter what school your daughter attends, it matters less where she goes to school than what she does when she gets there. So, truly no worries about making the “right” choice. It’s all good. Best of luck in the process, and enjoy your visit!

She should visit both schools. I cannot give you any insights about the engineering programs at the school and you have a lot of direct info about them from someone who knows them well. I want to address the differences in culture and atmosphere at the two schools.

Some kids just prefer the city environment for college over the more bucolic college campus. Pitt doesn’t really have a campus. My son and his cousin both loved the city scene and chose it over schools like MD, DE and Penn State. My one son actually was accepted to both, but it was clear that Pitt was his top choice because of the Oakland scene.

One issue that arose that I brought up to him was the fact that he was an OOSer at Pitt (and those other big school choices mentioned) which meant he was going to be in a sea of new people with very very few that he knew from his earlier years. Since Pitt is a state school, most of the kids know a large group of people at the school, just from the state events through high school. My son was the only one from his class to go to Pitt and I doubt there were more than a handful of kids he knew from high school during the entire time he was there. That his cousin was there as well, helped him out socially, quite a bit, as he was a PA resident and a lot of his large high school class was there and he seemed to know everyone. Another “cousin” (in law) was also there at Pitt and she took him under her wing which also helped. BUt it was a huge transition from his highschool where he knew a lot of kids from elementary school. He’s shy socially, so it could have been an issue without the cousins, a great roommate, and the fact that his close cousin was assigned (randomly!) to the dorm room right next door to him.

He enjoyed his 4 years there immensely. He took an obscure major that holds few overt job prospects but has done well in his career in his last several years. A Pitt degree certainly was not an issue. I cannot see how he could have done better and be happier.

The other thing I wanted to bring up about Pitt is that cheap housing is plentiful there. Also shopping not an issue. Most of the kids seem to live in the student ghetto and live on the cheap. Son brought down room and board costs considerably after freshman year moving into an off campus apartment and living frugally. Job opportunities also abound in Oakland. He worked part time for most of his time there, even staying a summer in his place and working in Pittsburgh rather than coming home. A Pitt ID gives their students free public transportation and entry to most of the museums and things in Pittsburgh. He felt he was living high on very very little. A lot of freebies offered in terms of food and events. Loved going to the athletic events. Pitt hit all the best notes for him.

@maryversity the difference is 20K of debt over the 4yrs. I am okay with that if she is getting paid for co-ops. She will be getting paid co-ops at PITT. It is a 5 year program several co-op periods. Does MD follow the same program?
I will def check out those links you provided and I like the info about the RA positions! That would be a huge savings.

@cptofthehouse we have been to PITT twice. One of the visits was a Pink Panther day where we met with a professor in the BME department and spent the day with a female BME student. We are headed to UMD at the end of April. I have looked at the pics online and UMD surely is the type of campus you describe. Reminds me of Johns Hopkins. I really appreciate all of your input!

Maryland is a traditional 4 year program and does not have a built-in co-op program. I have heard there is support for that at Maryland , but you have to seek it out. You should understand that it is not so much the culture Maryland as is doing internships over the summer.

My son got an internship as a sophomore that he stayed with every summer and is now employed full time there.

There is only one program that I am familiar with that has a semester with a built-in school-sponsored internship, and that is QUEST honors program.

@maryversity if the internships are paid then I see that as a co-op. Do the students get assistance with finding internships? Could they intern after freshman year?

@mom517 - I’m sure that @maryversity will reply, but I think I can answer part of yot question. I attended a university that had co-op programs (Drexel). They were a built in part of the curriculum. The school operated on a quarter basis with 3 6-month co-op periods. The co-ops were not optional and it resulted in a 5 year program. My personal co-op period was Winter/Spring and I attended classes Summer/Fall. Other students had the opposite. Summer/Fall in co-op and Winter/Spring in class.

Internships tend to be optional and of a shorter duration, usually 3 months during the summer.

Yes, freshmen can and do intern after freshmen year. My son chose not to look too hard because he had an awesome summer job that paid extremely well, so he wanted to do one more summer of that…I will say it’s more challenging to get internships from the career fair as a freshman because many companies do favor upperclassmen, but it’s not impossible. Just requires a little more effort on the student’s part (and, as stated, mine was not motivated to do so as a freshman).

Does the school help? Yes and no. Yes, my son’s internship was a direct result of a connection at Maryland who made the match/introduction. Yes, they have tremendous resources available not just for students in general, but a whole department specific to engineering. No, they don’t hold students hands in the sense that students must go to them to ask for help. It’s not automatic/advisers don’t call you in for appointments or make you sign up for the career services they offer (although engineering career prep is included in curriculum of the Virtus/Flexus LLPs).

I prefer the more traditional enclosed campuses with the like buildings and quads punctuated with some more modern architecture here and there. I love the intertwining of the traditional with the new.

So schools like Pitt or BU or GW or NYU would have that strike from the get go. But i know s lot of kids who loved going to these city schools. My son being one of them