I applied to University of Maryland College Park, University of South Carolina, and Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Which school has a better engineering department and a better electrical engineering program? I believe Maryland’s is better, but between USC and Miami, which is a better choice?
Have you been admitted to all? Do you have your financial aid packages? Is any of those ‘instate’’ for you?
My son found that the best way to compare colleges was to look at the specific coursework required for his major (he did MechE) and then look at the electives available. My son did not look at either USC nor Miami, so can’t comment on them, but Maryland’s EE program is indeed top notch.
I am instate for UMD and have been admitted to all three schools. I am also a semifinalist for the Banneker Key Scholarship at UMD, but if I only receive the partial scholarship it may be cheaper to go out of state because of the scholarships offered from the other schools. I was wondering if the program was significantly different across the three universities.
@maryversity Hey! Now that I’m a semifinalist for Banneker Key I’m hoping to go to UMD. However, I’m confused about the academic requirements of being in the honors college. According to the form on coalition I must choose a living learning program. I will probably select University Honors because it is the most generic. I do not want honors college requirements to impede my major or minor with more required credits. Do you know what an honors seminar is, if it’s an actual class that will prevent me from taking a class of my choice? And how do the honors courses work? I’m concerned about how it will impact my course schedule.
@Ohboycollege - Every major at UMD requires that students take a certain number of GenEd courses. All Honors Seminars satisfy one or more GenEd requirements, so they are really no additional work. Honors classes are just Honors versions of regular classes, i.e., there may be a Calc II course and an Honors Calc II course. The Honors Calc II will generally be a smaller class size. My D, a senior, is in University Honors, has a Major and a Minor, and completed her Honors Citation requirements in her sophomore year.
@SoofDad Thank you for the information. Do you know if underclassmen can take the honors versions of courses? I plan on taking calc ll my freshman year.
@Ohboycollege - Yes, you can take Honors Seminars and Classes every semester. I was just using Calc II as as example. Not all courses have Honors versions. That is an individual Department decision. And not all Honors Seminars and Classes are offered every semester.
Calc II Honors is actually being offered this current semester…The schedule of Classes for Fall 2018 is not yet available.
Here is the link for the current classes
@SoofDad Thanks!
Wow! Congrats on the B/K invite!
Just a comment on your statement that “if I only receive the partial scholarship it may be cheaper to go out of state because of the scholarships offered from the other schools”…a good friend’s son turned down a huge scholarship at an OOS school because she explained that scholarships typically come with a caveat of maintaining a certain gpa. I questioned why that would be a problem because her son is brilliant. She said that life happens and you can’t always predict things. There are any number of reasons that grades may drop that have nothing to do with intelligence. So, she said that if, for whatever unexpected reason, her son were to lose that scholarship, they couldn’t afford that school. Further, it wasn’t the best school for him, despite the scholarship offer. So, he ended up at a school that was a better fit that happened to be IS, and did very well for himself. Consider that even if you got a full ride elsewhere, there are other considerations such as distance/convenience of transportation to come home.
Even a partial B/K (which is a half-ride) is still a great deal with IS tuition, and I would argue that Maryland is the best of the three schools you mentioned for electrical engineering/engineering…(yeah, I know, no surprise I would say Maryland is the best, lol).
Oh, and while I think SoofDad responded to most of your questions about honors, to answer your question, a seminar is indeed a class with credit. The difference between a seminar and a typical class is that seminars tend to be more interactive.
My son had several engineering friends in Honors College and none of them had any issues/conflicts doing honors and engineering. Typically, since engineering has so many very specific required courses, you pick those first when setting up your class schedule. Then you see what honors seminars work with the open time slots in your schedule and pick from those.
Using the link SoofDad supplied, click on the HONR classes to get a sense of the seminar class topics (options change every semester, with only some classes both fall and spring). The h-versions are found separately from the HONR link - the h-versions are listed within the department/category, such as MATH, you will see both MATH141 (Calc2) and MATH141H (the h being the honors version designation). I will tell you that I have heard from several sources that it is better just to stick with the HONR seminar classes and avoid the h-version options of required classes…the h-versions may not be such a good idea for gpa for engineering students. The best strategy for engineers is to get the highest possible grades early on so that when you get into the really tough classes later on, they don’t do as much damage to your gpa.
@maryversity Thanks! Those are some good points. I’ve been used to having a high gpa in high school, but I haven’t considered how it may be less stable in college. Comparing the honors programs I am probably going to decide between University honors and the aces (cyber security). Looking at the requirements, it seems that completing the cyber security llp and majoring in EE would complete all the requirements except one class to get the cyber security minor. I may need a fact check on that, but if that is true maybe I should take the aces llp rather than university honors. Whatever takes up the least space in my schedule would be best since there are many required credits in engineering. Sidenote: do you know if students are allowed to keep their bikes in their dorm rooms? Only one hall, oakland (not an honors hall) claims to have an indoor bike storage facility.
My son didn’t have a bike freshman year but did after that and he had to use outdoor bike racks. Definitely a good question to pose at orientation. I can tell you that you have to register your bike with DOTS (department of transportation services) or they will cut your lock and remove your bike. In my son’s day, at the very beginning of the year, they did have a one day special offer of free locks for registering. http://www.dots.umd.edu/bike.html
@Ohboycollege, my older son lived in La Plata in 2014 and 2015 and was able to store his bike in the basement. He was not allowed to keep it in his room, but there were bike racks in the basement of the dorm.
Maryland is a top 25 program. I would probably go there!
Maryland’s engineering easily beats out the other schools and it isn’t even close. To give it some perspective, Miami Oxford ranks 29th HOWEVER that is in programs that do not offer doctorate. Most non-doctorate schools are not on par with big time schools, though some can compete. So if they were ranked side by side Miami Oxford wouldn’t be close to the level of Maryland engineering. There is no question. USC didn’t make it into the top 100 engineering schools, so there is no question there. It literally ranks over 75 places behind of Maryland.
Now you need to make the best financial and personal decision, but in terms of your original question regarding engineering, Maryland wins hands down. Quite frankly it isn’t even really a great question because the answer is obvious. If you were accepted to Maryland you were probably accepted to other top tier engineering schools and you should be comparing those to make a decision.
Ranking the schools:
Maryland
USC
Miami Oxford
@qow100 Thanks for the information! I have decided to go to UMD, which is my top choice school. It does have the best engineering programs and the other schools most likely will not be less expensive.
Congrats on making a great decision! I have no doubt you will love being a Terp!
@maryversity Thank you!