Is UMD's ranking accurate?

[Anonymous]

I was reading the thread on VA state schools and a couple of posts compared UVA to UMD. UMD is ranked much lower than UVA on the US News ranking but UMD grads seem to be happy with their education and their post-degree prospects. I ask because we probably can't afford to pay $50K per year and earn too much to qualify for the FA packages at the more selective schools. We are still a few years away from this decision but I do worry about it. DC is a high achiever and hopes to end up at a med. school eventually.

[Anonymous]

Maryland is a good school. Know lots of people who are there or who have graduated who are very happy. I would only go to UVA over Maryland if you have a very specific major that is only there. For medical school, I'd try all kinds of schools and see if she/he can get a scholarship as where you go to school matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a good school. Know lots of people who are there or who have graduated who are very happy. I would only go to UVA over Maryland if you have a very specific major that is only there. For medical school, I'd try all kinds of schools and see if she/he can get a scholarship as where you go to school matters.

This is the OP - thanks. Do you mean where dc goes for an undergraduate degree matters or where dc goes for med school matters?
Thanks

[Anonymous]

UMD is ranked ahead of Uva in every world ranking except US news. Umd is way higher ranked in every math, computer, and scientific major. Uva is ahead in business and humanities. Umd has more pulitzer/nobel faculty and alumni than Uva. Uva has the law and med school attached while Umd is separate in Baltimore. if Umd ever unified it would be a top 5 research school. right now its 17th.

[Anonymous]

I think it's commonly agreed that UVA is harder to get into and is a better school than UMD.

[Anonymous]

LOL UMD is no where the same level as UMD, UMD is more like George Mason or maybe VTech

[Anonymous]

LOL UMD is no where the same level as UVA, UMD is more like George Mason or maybe VTech

[Anonymous]

richest uva alum: Paul Tudor Jones I believe (round 6-7 billion)....did it as a hedge fund manager.

richest umd alum: Sergey Brin.....20 billion..did it by only helping to create on the worlds most ubiquitous companies and products.

UMD is a awesome school with a lot less of popped collars, pastel wearing laxbros.

I will concede if you want to work on wallstreet or in strategy consulting right out of undergrad, UVA is a LOT stronger.

but besides that, UMD is just as good, if not better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a good school. Know lots of people who are there or who have graduated who are very happy. I would only go to UVA over Maryland if you have a very specific major that is only there. For medical school, I'd try all kinds of schools and see if she/he can get a scholarship as where you go to school matters.

This is the OP - thanks. Do you mean where dc goes for an undergraduate degree matters or where dc goes for med school matters?
Thanks

PP here, where your DC goes to undergrad DOES NOT matter if he/she is interested in being a doctor. UMBC sends hosts of kids to harvard med.

Medicine is pretty much the last bastion of somewhat egalitarian admissions (even other stem careers like tech are getting hung up on UG prestige...see what marissa meyer said abotu yahoo hiring practices) because it is heavily structured, tracked, and centralized through amcas.

do extremely well on the core pre-med course requirements (you don't even have to major in science as it is only like 8-10 courses that are required for med-school apps), kill the MCAT, interview well, show interest in medicine and you can be competitive at many top med schools no matter where your UG was.

same with med school....med school prestige matters a bit more but even then, not really because if you crush Step 1/2, get AOA, do good research/etc, you will match into a top residency at a top place even if you don't go to the most 'brand name' med school.

medicine stays egalitarian because it is so highly tracked and structured from UG through residency.

[Anonymous]

Completely agree with PP, am a research physician who went to Ivy undergrad and med school, but if UMD is the best financial deal to avoid huge debt by the end of med school, then go for it, particularly if the other option is UVA, from a med school perspective in terms of admissions, no difference (only HYPS, MIT, Caltech,or that caliber private would give any leg up in terms of getting into med school with slightly less stellar grades). UMD honors college in particular is excellent, and loads of research opportunities at UMD itself, or at NIH or other local places can be a big advantage. UVA area nowhere near as rich scientifically.

[Anonymous]

pp gave good advice. If your kid goes to a local MD public high school and does well on the SATs and has great grades...he might get a merit scholarship to UMD. It's fine for sciences and every where you turn people are talking about dr. shortages. Kid has to do really well throughout.

[Anonymous]

UVA is more prestigious in general, harder to get into, and superior to UMD for business or pretty much any of the liberal arts/humanities. UMD, however, has the edge in most of the STEM fields. A lot more science is coming out of UMD than UVA.

[Anonymous]

There are a handful of elite public schools (Berkeley, Michigan) and UVa falls in that group, though they have had a number of issues, including with the direction of the school recently. Maryland is a very good state school that is getting better -- but it is in that second tier of good public schools, probably below UNC but above say Rutgers, though it might be tied with Rutgers. (I think Illinois would be the right comparison.) UMBC seems, in some areas, to be stronger, but UMD provides an excellent education, and I think it is considerably above George Mason, which is a weird school in many ways (intentionally conservative in many disciplines and a commuter school -- U MD is primarily a residential school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL UMD is no where the same level as UMD, UMD is more like George Mason or maybe VTech

UMD has a highly ranked, well regarded business programs. The business schools at GMU and VT are definitely not as strong as UMD's Smith School. UVA is still a step above UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a good school. Know lots of people who are there or who have graduated who are very happy. I would only go to UVA over Maryland if you have a very specific major that is only there. For medical school, I'd try all kinds of schools and see if she/he can get a scholarship as where you go to school matters.

This is the OP - thanks. Do you mean where dc goes for an undergraduate degree matters or where dc goes for med school matters?
Thanks

PP here, where your DC goes to undergrad DOES NOT matter if he/she is interested in being a doctor. UMBC sends hosts of kids to harvard med.

Medicine is pretty much the last bastion of somewhat egalitarian admissions (even other stem careers like tech are getting hung up on UG prestige...see what marissa meyer said abotu yahoo hiring practices) because it is heavily structured, tracked, and centralized through amcas.

do extremely well on the core pre-med course requirements (you don't even have to major in science as it is only like 8-10 courses that are required for med-school apps), kill the MCAT, interview well, show interest in medicine and you can be competitive at many top med schools no matter where your UG was.

same with med school....med school prestige matters a bit more but even then, not really because if you crush Step 1/2, get AOA, do good research/etc, you will match into a top residency at a top place even if you don't go to the most 'brand name' med school.

medicine stays egalitarian because it is so highly tracked and structured from UG through residency.

This is the OP - thanks so much for your informative (and reassuring) post. I really appreciate it.