UMD vs UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMDCP is a very good university but I agree that the issue is College Park. It's never made sense that the surrounding town of the flagship state university in a pretty prosperous state wouldn't catch up with the school. There have been some changes and supposedly there are more to come but it won't be easy to live down the idea that CP is a gritty afterthought.

There are tons of good colleges in crappy areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMDCP is a very good university but I agree that the issue is College Park. It's never made sense that the surrounding town of the flagship state university in a pretty prosperous state wouldn't catch up with the school. There have been some changes and supposedly there are more to come but it won't be easy to live down the idea that CP is a gritty afterthought.

There are tons of good colleges in crappy areas.

Uchicago? Yale?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMDCP is a very good university but I agree that the issue is College Park. It's never made sense that the surrounding town of the flagship state university in a pretty prosperous state wouldn't catch up with the school. There have been some changes and supposedly there are more to come but it won't be easy to live down the idea that CP is a gritty afterthought.

There are tons of good colleges in crappy areas.

Uchicago? Yale?

I went to U of C. Hyde Park is light years better than College Park.

[Anonymous]

Teens make all kind of emotional decisions that are not in the best interest. It sounds like your teen wants to get far, far, far away from their parent.

[Anonymous]

A really good college or university can overcome a crappy location. But a crappy area just reinforces how people feel about an average institution, and UMD falls in that category.

[Anonymous]

UMD's undergrad enrollment is just over 30,000.
UVA's undergrad enrollment is just under 17,000.

Even if you ignore the physical look of the campuses, the campuses feel different due to the size.

[Anonymous]

UMD admissions rate: 44.3% (they don't break it down by residents/OOS)
UVA admissions rate: 36% residents, 19% non-residents

From what I'm reading, UMD can't have more than 1/3 non-residents by law and UVA agrees to the same percentage, but there isn't actually a law about it in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my DD. We live in MD. She says her first choice school is UVA and she absolutely doesn't want to go to UMD--even though she may study engineering.

Two reasons.
1. Landscaping (UVA seems like a more elegant, traditional historical university.
2. Proximity to home. She doesn't want to go a few miles away. Charlottesville is a few hours away.

In sum, it's all superficial--not based on quality of school.

Are you paying OOS tuition for those reasons?

I'm this PP. Probably not. Dd is a junior so I'm hoping it's a passing phase... (6 months ago, her first choice was Yale; a year ago it was Northwestern... )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all Va kids eligible want to go to UVA.

Yeah, right.

My DS doesn't want to go to UVA. So far he has all As in high school doing the full IB diploma. I know there's no guarantee he'll get in, but he didn't like the vibe of the campus when he toured. He liked tech better. My friend's daughter felt the same way. I know that's a small sample size, but I think pp's statement that not all eligible VA kids want to go to UVA is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what is UVa's strengths? Other than ranking by some magazine. Specifics anyone?

UVA public ivy I guess. People have this idea it's a better school.

Kids in engineering vie for exact same jobs and grad schools.

That said. UVA has a much nicer campus for many kids that is huge. I don't blame them. It's much more like a college town.

UMD is in a not nice part of town. Apartments and housing off campus routinely get broken into.

UMD is a beloved school by many and should not be discounted.

The biggest problems with UMD are the out of state numbers which UVA or schools like UNC do not accept. Getting into UMD from instate is pretty hard. UMD accepts at least 34% of out of state students with significantly lower gpa requirements. Pay full price good chance going.

Also, the Business School is a lImited enrollment program with an extremely high gpa requirement, and the University of ShadyGrove adds a whole extra level of annoyance. It's about 40 minutes away from main campus, some kids are required to take classes there. There is a pretty reliable bus system that ferries students back and forth.

UVa's 2017-18 enrollment numbers show 31% from out of state. It's not that different.

https://admission.virginia.edu/admission/statistics
[/quot. UVA’s goal is 2/3 Virginians. The rest OOS and International.

[Anonymous]

My DD graduated from Maryland and never saw her except breaks and a random sunday for a nice home cooked meal and free laundry service. She would bring friends and many still call me Mom. She still had a great college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
UMD has gotten a lot better and is a great school.

It's not because kids do not want to go to UMD for the most part they can not get it.

UMD takes a huge number of out of state kids for the revenue. Think like 39% unlike UVA..MY oldest year out of approx 600 graduating students 1/3 class got got accepted. For my last child only 36 kids from same high school got in. About a 8 year difference, but still slowly declining over the years in terms of acceptance.

Also, up until recently UMD had some freshman connection where freshman started in a program where they could not start classes until 3 in the afternoon or live on campus.They created a private dorm at the tune of $12,000 a year. That priced some kids out or some kids going to class at 3 in the afternoon not a good fit. That program has changed.

Now it's the issue for the Business school and taking a bus to the Shady Grove campus. Sorry not for my kids pain in the neck.

No it’s not exactly that they couldn’t get in. My son’s friends didn’t even apply to umd as going to your state school especially umd is ‘lame’.

Whereas my nieces in fairfax county wanted to go to UVA and so did many of her friends.

One of mine choose UVA over UMD at the time the difference was only a $1000 a year. No reason to go to UMD engineering for that small amount.

No so instead UMD kid are going to Indiana? Or Penn State ? No kid is saying UMD is lame that’s ridiculous. It’s harder for in state students to get in period!

Parent of many graduates of W school MCPS !

[Anonymous]

Out-of-state students — the majority from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — now account for 36.9 percent of the student population, according to this university’s Institutional, Research, Planning and Assessment office. UMD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMD admissions rate: 44.3% (they don't break it down by residents/OOS)
UVA admissions rate: 36% residents, 19% non-residents

From what I'm reading, UMD can't have more than 1/3 non-residents by law and UVA agrees to the same percentage, but there isn't actually a law about it in Virginia.

UMD is double the size if UVA

The state of Maryland has ~twice as many HS grads than VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMD admissions rate: 44.3% (they don't break it down by residents/OOS)
UVA admissions rate: 36% residents, 19% non-residents

From what I'm reading, UMD can't have more than 1/3 non-residents by law and UVA agrees to the same percentage, but there isn't actually a law about it in Virginia.

UMD is double the size if UVA

The state of Maryland has ~twice as many HS grads than VA.

Virginia has 2.5M people more than Maryland. That doesn't seem likely.