Anonymous wrote:UMBC. University of MD for B/C students.

Keep telling yourself that. A friend of mine had terrific scores, chose UMBC for biology with a full ride, went on to a Master's from Hopkins and a PhD from Harvard. Don't kid yourself that only "B/C" kids who "couldn't" get into UVa or UMd choose UMBC. My kid has a 4.2 average and a 35 ACT score, and we made her visit some state schools as part of her college tours. She was turned off by both UVa AND UMd. She wanted a smaller school where she wouldn't be stuck in 300 person lecture halls and dealing with teaching assistants more than professors. She ended up choosing a selective private, but UMBC stayed on her safety list while UMd and UVa were pushed further down. It very much depends on the student and what they are looking for. My DC has several friends who were accepted at both UMd and UMBC who chose to be a Retriever rather than a Terp - different kids looking for different things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

Why do you feel the need to call someone stupid because they don't think a school is the right fit for them after spending 6 hours at the school touring.
Please enlighten me as to how you are supposed to evaluate whether or not you want to attend a particular school? Is the campus visit not a part of that process? How is that f'ed up?
Maybe UMBC work for some but in this case I support DD and her decision that UMBC is not for her.

I didn't say your DD is stupid. I said her reaction was stupid. To get a better sense of school, it takes more than a tour - did she sit in one of the lectures? did she talk to students there to learn from students perspective? did she try to visit the department of her intended major?...etc. It takes some effort and planning. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

Yes, she did all of those. This was her third time on campus and she has decided it's not the right fit based on multiple factors, including the awful campus and prison like feel. Sorry if people don't agree with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

Why do you feel the need to call someone stupid because they don't think a school is the right fit for them after spending 6 hours at the school touring.
Please enlighten me as to how you are supposed to evaluate whether or not you want to attend a particular school? Is the campus visit not a part of that process? How is that f'ed up?
Maybe UMBC work for some but in this case I support DD and her decision that UMBC is not for her.

I didn't say your DD is stupid. I said her reaction was stupid. To get a better sense of school, it takes more than a tour - did she sit in one of the lectures? did she talk to students there to learn from students perspective? did she try to visit the department of her intended major?...etc. It takes some effort and planning. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

Why do you feel the need to call someone stupid because they don't think a school is the right fit for them after spending 6 hours at the school touring.
Please enlighten me as to how you are supposed to evaluate whether or not you want to attend a particular school? Is the campus visit not a part of that process? How is that f'ed up?
Maybe UMBC work for some but in this case I support DD and her decision that UMBC is not for her.

NP here. I think the PP was referring to the strength of your reaction to a large open house - something that most people realize is not the best way to judge any school. Why did you even feel the need to post on here in the first place? You weren't even asking a question but just wanted to comment on 1) the parking situation 2) how crowded it was and 3) (and the most ridiculous point) how they mentioned the win over UVA. And I just checked and it looked like you posted about this TWICE on College Confidential. WTF?!

Why do you care so much?

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Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you just attend a smaller tour on a non-Open House Day? What did you expect especially after a big, unexpected victory?

Because not everyone can take off a day from work to attend a tour during the week. You had to pre-register so they knew how many people would be there.
We did the open house at UMD and while it was crowded they had plenty of tour guides available and each group was only about 20 people.
Also, during regular tour days there is no option to meet with staff about various colleges, financial aid, etc.
If you are going to have an open house at least be prepared for the amount of people. Also, they scheduled it on the same day as several other unrelated events. The food court was a madhouse with a bunch of pre-school kids all over the place. Lines were crazy long and every table taken by little kids not there for the open house.

I agree that a school should cut off registration for an event when the crowds get too heavy. Huge touring groups are definitely a turn off, but that should not make or break one's opinion of a school. We had a miserable time at UMD both times we visited over parking - first time, we were given a flyer to park in a free lot, which was tiny and FILLED an hour before the tour started, then had to find our way to a larger pay lot much further away that was also filled - nothing like circling a parking garage for twenty minutes and paying $9 then having to speed walk to a building half a mile away with your kid arriving late because parking is nonexistent. All that being said, while it is frustrating and speaks to a lack of planning at the unversity (second time we toured, no parking flyer at all sent and had to park illegally in order to run in and get one from the admissions staff), it did not color our opinion of the school as a whole. When you attend a huge event, you have to expect there may be some snags.

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Anonymous wrote:I agree it’s a terrible campus and if anyone tells otherwise they are fooling themselves. Just because the OP reached this conclusion during an open house shouldn’t change anything. Tours can make it or break it for a lot of kids. Not every campus fits the eye of everyone. UMBC has a lot of defenders on this site.
If I had to chose somewhere other than UMD, it would be Towson before UMBC.

Towson has ZERO reputable STEM programs. No thanks

Not everyone is a STEM major. Many of the teachers who interact with your child on a daily basis have probably attended Towson.

I had a better experience with the UMBC education program than the Towson one, but that doesn't mean Towson isn't a fine school. People are looking for different things in a college. I knew one parent who urged her DD to attend Towson over UMBC because the nearby shopping was better. Really?! Wasn't an issue in the end anyway, because her kid got rejected at UMBC, but it goes to show you the value systems of some parents when looking at colleges. SMH...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

Why do you feel the need to call someone stupid because they don't think a school is the right fit for them after spending 6 hours at the school touring.
Please enlighten me as to how you are supposed to evaluate whether or not you want to attend a particular school? Is the campus visit not a part of that process? How is that f'ed up?
Maybe UMBC work for some but in this case I support DD and her decision that UMBC is not for her.

NP here. I think the PP was referring to the strength of your reaction to a large open house - something that most people realize is not the best way to judge any school. Why did you even feel the need to post on here in the first place? You weren't even asking a question but just wanted to comment on 1) the parking situation 2) how crowded it was and 3) (and the most ridiculous point) how they mentioned the win over UVA. And I just checked and it looked like you posted about this TWICE on College Confidential. WTF?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

Why do you feel the need to call someone stupid because they don't think a school is the right fit for them after spending 6 hours at the school touring.
Please enlighten me as to how you are supposed to evaluate whether or not you want to attend a particular school? Is the campus visit not a part of that process? How is that f'ed up?
Maybe UMBC work for some but in this case I support DD and her decision that UMBC is not for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

I think people are just reacting to your DD's stupid reaction based on a tour. Posters are not necessarily defending UMBC per se, they are just pointing out that you and your DD's thought processes are all f'ed up.

My high school friend went to UMBC and now has a really high paying career as a software engineer

Most important factor in salary is your major, not your school

I went to UMBC for grad school and has a great experience there. Much better than my undergrad years at Salisbury. I imagine it will be more competitive to get into for the next few years. You aren't going to get a good feel for a school at a big Open House event.

Anonymous wrote:Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Wrong. Everything written were the opinions of my DD. I don’t say anything during our tours and let her make her own comments and decisions. But if she asked my opinion I would tell her the truth.
I’m still waiting for someone who has a DV at the school to chime in. Seems like there is in person Herr who wants to defend UMBC to no end.
Did you actually attend the school? Have you even visited? Why do you seem to live it so much?

Parents job is to help kids approach things with an open mind. Not sure if OP is doing a good job at that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you just attend a smaller tour on a non-Open House Day? What did you expect especially after a big, unexpected victory?

Because not everyone can take off a day from work to attend a tour during the week. You had to pre-register so they knew how many people would be there.
We did the open house at UMD and while it was crowded they had plenty of tour guides available and each group was only about 20 people.
Also, during regular tour days there is no option to meet with staff about various colleges, financial aid, etc.
If you are going to have an open house at least be prepared for the amount of people. Also, they scheduled it on the same day as several other unrelated events. The food court was a madhouse with a bunch of pre-school kids all over the place. Lines were crazy long and every table taken by little kids not there for the open house.

Those are excuses. I get 3 personal days off per year but managed to tour the 6 or so schools that were my son's top choices.

Good for you. Do want a patent of the year award? I don’t get any personal days and I’m a single parent with young kids. Glad you had the flexibility that I don’t.

And I am a single parent too. Open Houses are huge so why were you surprised at this?

As I said, which for some reason you can’t seem to comprehend, we were expecting something similar to UMD. This was only the 2nd open house we have attended. Why are defending the school for doing a poor job? Do all schools do this poorly. Reading CC it seems as though other schools do a much better job. In our opinion UMBC did a poor job of selling the school to us. You were not even there but somehow think we did something wrong.

Do you homework first. UMBC is like the bastard sibling of UMCP. It has gotten better over the years but it isn't worth it unless you get tons of FA and your other choices are Frostburg or community college.

Thank goodness we have the $ saved for OOS. VA residents are so lucky.