University of Maryland - what's right and what's wrong about it?

[Anonymous]

Main cons are that campus is ugly and college park is depressing. If you are ok with that, go for it.

[Anonymous]

Maryland has gone through some growing pains over the last few decades. Great school still. I still do not like the liberal leaning faculty - you would think being this far away from New England they would be more open minded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland has gone through some growing pains over the last few decades. Great school still. I still do not like the liberal leaning faculty - you would think being this far away from New England they would be more open minded.

You'd have to visit a religious school to find faculty anywhere in this country who don't lean left. Why would you think that the distance from New England has anything to do with it? I'm sure there are some conservative instructors scattered throughout the land, but as a general rule, academia leans very liberal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland has gone through some growing pains over the last few decades. Great school still. I still do not like the liberal leaning faculty - you would think being this far away from New England they would be more open minded.

Very odd post.

[Anonymous]

Maryland will find it difficult to climb much higher in the polls. But a great school overall.

[Anonymous]

Not a place where you are coddled. You come out tougher than you went in which explains the high levels of very famous and highly impactful numbers of alumni. Pretty much blows away regional schools in numbers of Nobel , Pulitzer , fields medal , Emmy , academy award alumni along with numbers of national championships. If your child has guts and confidence he/she will thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a foreign national living in MD with a European University education. I would love to hear people's thoughts on UMD in terms of those who have attended themselves, or their kids are currently attending.

I'd particularly like to hear about academic rigor. I've seen the website, I know the breakdown of courses offered, I'd like to know how good they are, particularly journalism, history and english.

Thanks.

I used to work for national accreditation council and university of Maryland was steadily getting very high accreditation scores.
When It was time to go back to school I chose umbc and was not disappointed, quality of education is very high. I obtained stem masters but quality of education is pretty solid among all umbc colleges.

[Anonymous]

Generally, UMD is strongest in the physical sciences. For the humanities (except journalism), I'd go elsewhere (maybe UVA or W&M or private)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right: lots of things

Wrong: college park is so ugly and depressing. Looks like a war zone a few miles off campus.

Student body is too large. Needs to reduce by 50%. Feels like Walmart sometimes

Solution - cut student body size by half, invest in campus and surroundings to make it look like boulder

Which war zone is that?

[Anonymous]

"Anyone else who can comment on the quality of the teaching and the courses and not dwell so much on the abstract concepts of hand holding or not."

As the person who wrote the wonderful book review on the difference "support" can make is trying to tell you, support and/or handholding is often the difference between high and low quality teaching.

That doesn't mean professors with 500 students don't try, it is just impossible to get teaching assistants to assume the role of "mentor" that book writes about.

The good news is that once you get past the "freshman" classes and into classes in your major, it gets better as the classes get smaller.

The other thing to think about is that if a student goes looking for a mentor at UMd, they are likely to be able to find one, whereas, at smaller schools many times professors seem to actually go looking for students to mentor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Anyone else who can comment on the quality of the teaching and the courses and not dwell so much on the abstract concepts of hand holding or not."

As the person who wrote the wonderful book review on the difference "support" can make is trying to tell you, support and/or handholding is often the difference between high and low quality teaching.

That doesn't mean professors with 500 students don't try, it is just impossible to get teaching assistants to assume the role of "mentor" that book writes about.

The good news is that once you get past the "freshman" classes and into classes in your major, it gets better as the classes get smaller.

The other thing to think about is that if a student goes looking for a mentor at UMd, they are likely to be able to find one, whereas, at smaller schools many times professors seem to actually go looking for students to mentor.

I am perfectly okay with this aspect of UMD. It drives kids to be self-driven and self-sufficient. Key attributes you need in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Anyone else who can comment on the quality of the teaching and the courses and not dwell so much on the abstract concepts of hand holding or not."

As the person who wrote the wonderful book review on the difference "support" can make is trying to tell you, support and/or handholding is often the difference between high and low quality teaching.

That doesn't mean professors with 500 students don't try, it is just impossible to get teaching assistants to assume the role of "mentor" that book writes about.

The good news is that once you get past the "freshman" classes and into classes in your major, it gets better as the classes get smaller.

The other thing to think about is that if a student goes looking for a mentor at UMd, they are likely to be able to find one, whereas, at smaller schools many times professors seem to actually go looking for students to mentor.

am perfectlyI okay with this aspect of UMD. It drives kids to be self-driven and self-sufficient. Key attributes you need in real life.

I am the OP and I didn't write this, despite it sounding like an "op reply" seriously folks, why do you do this??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally, UMD is strongest in the physical sciences. For the humanities (except journalism), I'd go elsewhere (maybe UVA or W&M or private)

This is really helpful, thank you. Its W&M that we're also looking hard at. I'm not so sure about UVA anymore. I remember visiting it as a younger teen (this is the OP by the way) and it looked amazing but I do remember even then it was frat boy heavy. I don't think that will suit either of our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Anyone else who can comment on the quality of the teaching and the courses and not dwell so much on the abstract concepts of hand holding or not."

As the person who wrote the wonderful book review on the difference "support" can make is trying to tell you, support and/or handholding is often the difference between high and low quality teaching.

That doesn't mean professors with 500 students don't try, it is just impossible to get teaching assistants to assume the role of "mentor" that book writes about.

The good news is that once you get past the "freshman" classes and into classes in your major, it gets better as the classes get smaller.

The other thing to think about is that if a student goes looking for a mentor at UMd, they are likely to be able to find one, whereas, at smaller schools many times professors seem to actually go looking for students to mentor.

am perfectlyI okay with this aspect of UMD. It drives kids to be self-driven and self-sufficient. Key attributes you need in real life.

I am the OP and I didn't write this, despite it sounding like an "op reply" seriously folks, why do you do this??

Is identifying OP vs not-OP one of the unspoken DCUM rules? I thought people are free to post w/ or w/o identifying OP (or not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally, UMD is strongest in the physical sciences. For the humanities (except journalism), I'd go elsewhere (maybe UVA or W&M or private)

This is really helpful, thank you. Its W&M that we're also looking hard at. I'm not so sure about UVA anymore. I remember visiting it as a younger teen (this is the OP by the way) and it looked amazing but I do remember even then it was frat boy heavy. I don't think that will suit either of our kids.

If you are looking at UVA, you may as well look at private schools too. Same price.