What is UMBC student life like? (Snobs need not answer)
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Anonymous
| I’ve been on campus a few times but not for official visits, and I’ve visited the website. What do students enjoy on campus and how do they gather? |
Anonymous
| Commuter school life like |
Anonymous
| When my son meets his UMBC friends out they go to Federal Hill. |
Anonymous
| A bit nerdy. Otherwise most students do the same activities like other colleges. Depends on what your kid wants. It is not a party school. It is not big on greek life. It is a small school. Has a cosy feel. But the rest of the stuff - drink, drugs, hooking up...all of that is still happening ...just like any other school. |
Anonymous
| They have an episode of The College Tour. You could check that out |
Anonymous
|
Aww, I’m an alum. It’s pretty dead. When I attended, early 2000s, weekends were filled with trips to lounges/ clubs in Baltimore and occasionally DC. M-F studying in the library. That’s it. Definitely a large commuter and international student population. Quiet, clean, and pretty. Night and day compared to College Park.
Looking back it’s good for focused students but I was bored out of my mind when I attended. |
Anonymous
| It is very much a commuter campus and only a few dorms. Catonsville is close and charming. Easy access to downtown baltimore to go out. |
Anonymous
I have no personal experience with the school but live in Baltimore city. From what I’ve heard, the school has really changed a lot since the early 2000s. Op, I would try to speak with current students or recents alums for accurate info. |
Anonymous
Thank you. I just learned about this from their website. Can’t believe I didn’t already know about it! |
Anonymous
|
Thank you. I appreciate your replies!
I will watch the show above and also seek out recent students. We are looking for a backup to UMD. In Maryland, there’s a big gap between UMD and the other state schools either with regards to city life, student life or opportunities. |
Anonymous
| My DD is a sophomore and she and her friends seem to have fun on the weekends (she lives on campus). They hang out in their suite, go see their friend who is in an improv group (on and off campus somewhere), go see their friend who is in a band (off campus). The school organizes a lot of fun stuff too- festivals etc to keep it fun on the weekend. They go to the gym and work out. They get food delivered. There are parties at frats etc, and the sports teams party together (club teams anyway, all I know about). It’s not wild stuff all the time but she definitely has fun stuff to do on the weekends. She did get super lucky with good roommates and floor mates as a freshman. Classes are good, people are friendly. Prof helped her get a great internship last summer. So far it’s been much better than I was expecting! |
Anonymous
We're also looking at UMBC as a backup for UMD. And we just visited Towson, and it has moved up significantly on DD's list (as in, it might be ahead of UMD right now). To me, Towson had more of a "larger university" feel but without the headaches of life at UMD (difficult housing situations, horrible traffic, tons of construction on and just off campus). I'm almost hoping that DD chooses either UMBC or Towson over UMD - they both feel like they offer a better educational experience for undergrads, even if they don't have quite the small city feel of UMD. |
Anonymous
The colleges pay about $100k for the College Tour to visit. It’s marketing, not an unvarnished look at a school. |
Anonymous
Where did you find that information? |
Anonymous
| I mean, sure, it’s marketing - but it does allow you to see the campus and some of the a activities/social life |