Virginia vs. Maryland for Universities

[Anonymous]

That is really interesting that UMD and Tech have the highest percent continuing their education! Obviously it’s not a huge difference but I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite: UVA and W&M, being stronger in the humanities and social sciences (eg fields where grad school is often necessary and maybe more common) would have more kids going to grad school.

[Anonymous]

It may reflect students pursuing Masters degrees in Engineering

[Anonymous]

Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA is probably the top school (16K undergrads), then I would put UMD (31K undergrads). Va Tech (28K undergrads) has a very good engineering program, but I don't think anything else stands out there. W&M only has about 6K undergrads, so combined with UVA, they are both smaller than UMD. As others have noted, Maryland is about 2/3 the size of Maryland.

I would say that if you want to make a run at getting into UVA with only a small downside if you don't get in, then go to Virginia. Otherwise, Maryland has a very good big state school, with excellent STEM programs, and which has more undergrad spots for a smaller population. I think this is closer than people are saying. I used to think Virginia ruled too.

Yeah, this thread actually convinced me that Maryland is better than I thought

A good chance of getting into Maryland is better than rolling the dice at UVA/W&M in many situations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

Majors may be more important. Maryland had 35% of graduates in computer science, engineering, and business for 2018-19 vs 24% for UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is really interesting that UMD and Tech have the highest percent continuing their education! Obviously it’s not a huge difference but I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite: UVA and W&M, being stronger in the humanities and social sciences (eg fields where grad school is often necessary and maybe more common) would have more kids going to grad school.

When there is a strong job market (ie pre-Covid19), students tend to put off graduate school after graduation. Only those immediately pursuing further education would be captured in these surveys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is really interesting that UMD and Tech have the highest percent continuing their education! Obviously it’s not a huge difference but I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite: UVA and W&M, being stronger in the humanities and social sciences (eg fields where grad school is often necessary and maybe more common) would have more kids going to grad school.

When there is a strong job market (ie pre-Covid19), students tend to put off graduate school after graduation. Only those immediately pursuing further education would be captured in these surveys.

A meaningful portion of those immediate seeking grad school are pre-med/health science/vet schools which may be more represented by UMD and VT. For wider range of grad programs students typically work a few years before going. There are other surveys that show in 6 years after school the likelihood of seeking graduate study and there are more your expected patterns there for UVA and W&M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is really interesting that UMD and Tech have the highest percent continuing their education! Obviously it’s not a huge difference but I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite: UVA and W&M, being stronger in the humanities and social sciences (eg fields where grad school is often necessary and maybe more common) would have more kids going to grad school.

When there is a strong job market (ie pre-Covid19), students tend to put off graduate school after graduation. Only those immediately pursuing further education would be captured in these surveys.

A meaningful portion of those immediate seeking grad school are pre-med/health science/vet schools which may be more represented by UMD and VT. For wider range of grad programs students typically work a few years before going. There are other surveys that show in 6 years after school the likelihood of seeking graduate study and there are more your expected patterns there for UVA and W&M.

At least for medical school, that isn't it. UVA has more medical school applicants than UMD despite being significantly smaller. W&M has more medical school applicants than VT despite being much, much smaller. https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-2.pdf

I don't think vet school is going to make that much difference.

For degrees like MBA, you typically do two years or more work experience before applying to better schools. They wouldn't show up in these first destinations reports.

For law, W&M and UVA also have a higher percentage of applicants on a per capita basis than UMD. VT doesn't show up on the list. https://www.accesslex.org/sites/default/files/2018-04/Law%20School%20Applicants%20by%20Degrees_Per%20Capita_Mar2018.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is really interesting that UMD and Tech have the highest percent continuing their education! Obviously it’s not a huge difference but I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite: UVA and W&M, being stronger in the humanities and social sciences (eg fields where grad school is often necessary and maybe more common) would have more kids going to grad school.

When there is a strong job market (ie pre-Covid19), students tend to put off graduate school after graduation. Only those immediately pursuing further education would be captured in these surveys.

A meaningful portion of those immediate seeking grad school are pre-med/health science/vet schools which may be more represented by UMD and VT. For wider range of grad programs students typically work a few years before going. There are other surveys that show in 6 years after school the likelihood of seeking graduate study and there are more your expected patterns there for UVA and W&M.

At least for medical school, that isn't it. UVA has more medical school applicants than UMD despite being significantly smaller. W&M has more medical school applicants than VT despite being much, much smaller. https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-2.pdf

I don't think vet school is going to make that much difference.

For degrees like MBA, you typically do two years or more work experience before applying to better schools. They wouldn't show up in these first destinations reports.

For law, W&M and UVA also have a higher percentage of applicants on a per capita basis than UMD. VT doesn't show up on the list. https://www.accesslex.org/sites/default/files/2018-04/Law%20School%20Applicants%20by%20Degrees_Per%20Capita_Mar2018.pdf

'

Note that the variance in percentage pursuing graduate education was small at 19% to 15%. There were bigger differences in other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

Majors may be more important. Maryland had 35% of graduates in computer science, engineering, and business for 2018-19 vs 24% for UVA.

That doesn't make sense, W&M has no engineering school and the vast majority are non-comp sci/business, larger humanities %, but it has ~15% higher employment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

Majors may be more important. Maryland had 35% of graduates in computer science, engineering, and business for 2018-19 vs 24% for UVA.

That doesn't make sense, W&M has no engineering school and the vast majority are non-comp sci/business, larger humanities %, but it has ~15% higher employment.

W&M has fantastic, top-ranked career services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yay, another bash Maryland thread.

How charming.

It is not a bash Maryland thread. But this is one area where VA clearly gets the win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay, another bash Maryland thread.

How charming.

It is not a bash Maryland thread. But this is one area where VA clearly gets the win.

The biggest thing Virginia has over Maryland is breadth of choice. Maryland has much more dependency on UMD for quality options than Virginia has on any one school. That doesn't mean you can't do well from Maryland (at least UMD) as the destinations information showed.

The biggest thing Maryland has on Virginia is it is not putting more money per student into higher education than Virginia has, and it has been doing this for some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

Majors may be more important. Maryland had 35% of graduates in computer science, engineering, and business for 2018-19 vs 24% for UVA.

That doesn't make sense, W&M has no engineering school and the vast majority are non-comp sci/business, larger humanities %, but it has ~15% higher employment.

Starbucks baristas bro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see UVA has 10% more students looking for work than UMD, considering UVA is half the size you'd thinking getting jobs would be easier with less competition.

Majors may be more important. Maryland had 35% of graduates in computer science, engineering, and business for 2018-19 vs 24% for UVA.

That doesn't make sense, W&M has no engineering school and the vast majority are non-comp sci/business, larger humanities %, but it has ~15% higher employment.

Starbucks baristas bro

From the W&M first destinations report: 91% of those working reported their career interests aligns very well/somewhat well with their work.