Rethinking Maryland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College Park has no college town. The surroundings are unattractive and the campus itself is sort of middling in attractiveness. I say this as a faculty spouse whose dh moved to UMD because his specialty is ranked #1 in the nation (a specialty within one of the STEM departments). He loves his work and colleagues, but the campus and surroundings are blah. He often has to take seminar speakers out to dinner - the options are very limited!

There is not a lot of fine dining but there are tons of places to eat and its a very nice area now. The mall is a bit sketchy but I go there all the time without issue. I like the campus and think it has a nice friendly feel. The students are friendly.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Maryland grad and I out earn my SLAC undergrad and Johns Hopkins grad DH

My BIL is a UMD engineering grad and he's now VP of a satellite firm located in South of France so he's living the rough life in Nice. SIL is an UMD business undergrad and she's a SES.

We're not too shabby for a bunch of public school kids.

[Anonymous]

you would think MD grads would give back to make college park nicer - as i said, MD is a great school that is really held back by campus/immediate surrounding areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you would think MD grads would give back to make college park nicer - as i said, MD is a great school that is really held back by campus/immediate surrounding areas.

This is not disimilar to a lot good colleges. Isn't the town outside Yale pretty ratty? Same for the very pricey USC campus and a lot of others..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need directions from the person who travels from Princeton to New York City in less than an hour.

Funny, posted the same think at the same time.

OK, 75 minutes by train but way more to do than in DC.

[Anonymous]

Is someone really choosing between Princeton and Maryland?

I'd say that Maryland is a no-brainer for a Maryland resident considering Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, for example.

[Anonymous]

UMD grads have given back bigtime - for example look at the Jeong Kim egineering building. I think, being a STEM kind of place, the giving back has been to improve immensely STEM programs not to beautify the campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish that College Park was a nicer town in general. I know PG county is making strides but right now it's not a very inviting entrance onto campus.

I also wish MD had more than one "good" state school. Va has William and Mary AND UVA. It would be nice if MD had a second well regarded school in another part of the state.

St Marys College seems to going through a rough patch right now but I think it has a lot of potential if you want a SLAC experience (in a nice but non-urban setting).

[Anonymous]

Some UMD grads do give back. Here's an article from last month about a grad who donated major $$$ for a new computer lab at UMD. http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-new-umd-computer-science-building. I didn't go there, but this looks like a good option for DC who is into STEM - if we can get past the proximity and town issues others have mentioned.

I'm guessing that most major donors would prefer buildings with their names on it.

I'm not sure how you'd donate to prettify College Park anyway. Would you donate for streetscaping along Route 1? Or maybe new facades for the little stores along there? I can't see that happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some UMD grads do give back. Here's an article from last month about a grad who donated major $$$ for a new computer lab at UMD. http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-new-umd-computer-science-building. I didn't go there, but this looks like a good option for DC who is into STEM - if we can get past the proximity and town issues others have mentioned.

I'm guessing that most major donors would prefer buildings with their names on it.

I'm not sure how you'd donate to prettify College Park anyway. Would you donate for streetscaping along Route 1? Or maybe new facades for the little stores along there? I can't see that happening.

The best I can see is that donors donate to the school. The school doesn't have to spend the money on whatever it got donations for. School works with county on redevelopment efforts for the surrounding area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some UMD grads do give back. Here's an article from last month about a grad who donated major $$$ for a new computer lab at UMD. http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-new-umd-computer-science-building. I didn't go there, but this looks like a good option for DC who is into STEM - if we can get past the proximity and town issues others have mentioned.

I'm guessing that most major donors would prefer buildings with their names on it.

I'm not sure how you'd donate to prettify College Park anyway. Would you donate for streetscaping along Route 1? Or maybe new facades for the little stores along there? I can't see that happening.

You would do what bloomberg does with JHU - put up huge ass buildings and fund world class programs which brings talent to the area, which spurs business development, which spurs community beautification.

umd's endowment is super low for the quality of education it provides.

is it a dc thing? Becuase georgetown's endowment is also really low compared to its peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMD grads have given back bigtime - for example look at the Jeong Kim egineering building. I think, being a STEM kind of place, the giving back has been to improve immensely STEM programs not to beautify the campus.

http://alumni.umd.edu/s/1132/1col.aspx?sid=1132&gid=1&pgid=3009

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some UMD grads do give back. Here's an article from last month about a grad who donated major $$$ for a new computer lab at UMD. http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-new-umd-computer-science-building. I didn't go there, but this looks like a good option for DC who is into STEM - if we can get past the proximity and town issues others have mentioned.

I'm guessing that most major donors would prefer buildings with their names on it.

I'm not sure how you'd donate to prettify College Park anyway. Would you donate for streetscaping along Route 1? Or maybe new facades for the little stores along there? I can't see that happening.

You would do what bloomberg does with JHU - put up huge ass buildings and fund world class programs which brings talent to the area, which spurs business development, which spurs community beautification.

umd's endowment is super low for the quality of education it provides.

is it a dc thing? Becuase georgetown's endowment is also really low compared to its peers.

I am going to need to respectfully disagree that the area around the bubble of Johns Hopkins is visually appealing or, frankly, a place where I'd want to walk to my car alone after 9 pm. And yes I know the area, and I do have immense respect for the school, obv.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some UMD grads do give back. Here's an article from last month about a grad who donated major $$$ for a new computer lab at UMD. http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-new-umd-computer-science-building. I didn't go there, but this looks like a good option for DC who is into STEM - if we can get past the proximity and town issues others have mentioned.

I'm guessing that most major donors would prefer buildings with their names on it.

I'm not sure how you'd donate to prettify College Park anyway. Would you donate for streetscaping along Route 1? Or maybe new facades for the little stores along there? I can't see that happening.

You would do what bloomberg does with JHU - put up huge ass buildings and fund world class programs which brings talent to the area, which spurs business development, which spurs community beautification.

umd's endowment is super low for the quality of education it provides.

is it a dc thing? Becuase georgetown's endowment is also really low compared to its peers.

Agree that the area around JHU - a great school - leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyway, why would businesses, even STEM businesses, chose to locate in College Park instead of, say, Silver Spring or the I-270 corridor, where they can be a hop, skip and jump away from UMD? In fact UMD already does have several world class programs (comp sci, poly sci, others), along with ever more numerous huge ass buildings. Yet we haven't seen big-name businesses being drawn to College Park yet.

How far is the metro from the UMD campus, anyway? (I ride Metro all the time, but never out there.) If there's a metro stop close by, that often spurs development in the surrounding area. See Hyattsville, for example.

[Anonymous]

Good research school, but not that many people really have much affection for it. And it suffers because it's in the DC area, where people attended so many different schools and have other things to do besides watch college sports.