Hi everyone. I am an international transfer student and have acceptances for electrical engineering from both UMD as well as University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMN). I can’t seem to decide between the the two as they are both good engineering schools. I hope that you could answer a few questions regarding both universities.
Which university has a better reputation for electrical engineering?
How are the co-op and employment opportunities at UMD compared to UMN?
I wish to pursue undergraduate research in engineering. Which university offers better research opportunities for undergraduate students?
I am thinking of taking a double major in physics and electrical engineering as I like physics a lot. Is the physics department at UMD better than UMN?
In UMN, I have heard that their electrical engineering department is pretty well known for its VLSI and embedded systems design. What is UMD’s electrical engineering department well known for (strengths of their electrical engineering faculty)?
I have heard that the cost of living and crime rate at Maryland is greater than Minnesota and I am a little worried about that, especially the crime rate. UMD has a slightly more expensive tuition fee. As the difference isn’t that much I am not too worried it. Thank you for taking your time to answer my queries.
My daughter is about to study physics at Maryland. They have one of the top physics departments in the nation (and World), ranging between # 11-18, depending on ranking. See the above link for engineering info. My older daughter graduates next week. If I thought it was unsafe, I would not allow my younger daughter to go there in the fall.
The crime rate in College Park is much lower than Minneapolis.
http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/minnesota/minneapolis Violent crime index of 52.5 (out of 100)
http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/maryland/college_park Violent crime index of 82.4
They’re rather equivalent academically. I’d agree the UMN environment around campus + city of Minneapolis are better than College park but umd has better weather.
(Minneapolis is a metropolis so you can’t really compare crime rates with a college town, especially since college students are everywhere in a college town but rarely go into unsafe areas in a metropolis. The above statistics are misleading because where umn Students go is safe.)
Would you rather attend college in a large, thriving city that’s quite cold for half the year, or in a not that great college town with good weather and easy access to the US capital?
Specific to your question about research, here is general info about engineering research http://www.eng.umd.edu/research/opportunities and here is a list of electrical engineering labs http://www.ece.umd.edu/research/labs (note there are 3 pages so at bottom of page, be sure to click “next” to see more).
If you are interested in robotics, you should check out the labs available through the Institute for Systems Research (Maryland Robotics Center) http://www.robotics.umd.edu/labs and some of the research going on there http://www.isr.umd.edu/research. There is also a micro robotics lab https://sites.google.com/site/microroboticslaboratory/projects
Unique to Maryland (only university in the country to have such a facility) is the Neutral Buoyancy Lab http://www.eng.umd.edu/facilities/nbrf and here is another link with info http://ssl.umd.edu/facilities/
Other interesting labs that you might not be as interested to work in but would be interested to know about are http://www.windtunnel.umd.edu/index.php and http://www.ennu.umd.edu/facilities.html
I’m sure there are some I am forgetting to include…but hopefully you will get the sense that Maryland has a LOT to offer in the way of research!!!
As for co-op and employment opportunities… while they are available, coops at Maryland (where you spend an entire semester working full-time instead of taking classes) are not as popular as internships are (where you work full-time in the summer).
There are some schools in the U.S. that are designed specifically for co-ops, such as Northeastern University and Drexel University, for example. They don’t have the traditional 4 year program with two semesters with the summer of 3 months off like Maryland does. Drexel and Northeastern are designed primarily as 5 year programs with a few coops incorporated into the schedule and less traditional semester time frames.
Maryland is designed as a four year school and has two primary semesters (Fall (end of August - December) and Spring (end of January - May) and shorter semesters as additional, non-required options (Winter (3 weeks in January) and Summer - either taken as two 3-week sessions or one six week depending on class).
You absolutely can do a coop, but as I stated, most that I know of do internships. My son and all his friends have not had any problems getting internships/jobs. There are lots of job/career fairs and career placement services at Maryland.
http://www.careerengr.umd.edu/students/co-ops-and-internships
http://www.careerengr.umd.edu/students/career-fairs
http://www.coop.eng.umd.edu/employers/programs
http://www.coop.eng.umd.edu
http://www.coop.eng.umd.edu/students/careers4engineers
SoofDad, MDdad2012, MYO S1634, maryversity. I will be attending UMD this year. Thank you for answering my questions.
Congrats! Good luck in your college career. I’ll be on this forum for at least another 4 years, since my younger daughter is going to UMD in the fall. f you have any additional questions hit us up.
You made a good decision. In some branches of physics Maryland is ranked top 5, such as quantum theory and other theoretical physics areas. Quite a few of the physics faculty are appointed in EE, as they work on interdisciplinary subjects like neural networks, or plasma theory that has aspects of EE and physics impeded. Maryland is fantastic in mathematics, applied mathematics and physics should you want to try any of these subjects. Good luck.
@MDdad2012 @Coloradomama Thank you!
How long would it take to complete a dual major in EE and physics? I have heard that the upper level EE courses are pretty demanding. Would it be possible to complete the requirements of both the degrees and still graduate on time?
Would pursuing a physics minor be a better option?
I intend to pursue a career where both the fields intersect such as semiconductors, opto-electronics, etc. Would a dual major be advantageous here?
Go to Maryland hands down. Not only is it an excellent choice for the fields you mentioned, but as a school it is far superior to Minnesota in terms of competitiveness, location, student life, and name. Every year it is becoming increasingly competitive. If you go to the campus you’ll see there are so many new and exciting things happening. Athletics are better too. But seriously academically Minnesota can’t give you the same opportunities as UMD can.