You can do very well coming out of UMD but it seems best suited for kids who want to stay local. Nothing wrong in that. UVA seems to be better known nationally and internationally. Sort of like Michigan, UCLA, Berkeley, Wisconsin. Everyone knows these schools even though UMD probably fits in somewhere in between. Most people don’t pay attention to exact rankings - just general reputation. UMD is a good school although I have to admit that I find the campus and town pretty depressing. I think professors for UMD live all over the region rather than close to the school. I know 2 UMD professors and they both live in DC

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has history, architecture, and traditions that contribute to a certain mystique for some people. (Some people are pretty immune to that mystique. My dad certainly was immune. He grew up in the Northeast at a time when Southern universities were considered inferior and he never shed that view.) Those who do feel the mystique see UVA as more akin to some elite privates than to a typical public university. Maryland doesn't have that mystique (even though it has improved significantly over the past 20 years) and most state universities don't have it as well. Maryland's location, although convenient to DC, doesn't help it.

This post sums it up well. Also, College Park is just so depressing. The UMD campus is pretty ugly and badly designed too.

I disagree with this post. The UMD campus is very pretty, and the fact that it's a stop on the metro is a positive for many students: access to the DMV means the campus doesn't feel disconnected and isolated.

And praise for UMD doesn't translate into criticism of UVA, which also has a beautiful campus. Like UMD, UVA offers outstanding academic experiences.

Both universities have a lot to recommend them. Visit them, figure out what boxes they check.

I grew up in the Baltimore private school world and can confirm UVA has the mystique that College Park doesn't. It's a much older school with a longer history. Very highly regarded in the South and among elite Southern families. It was respected if you went OOS to UVA whereas College Park wasn't.

I don't think it helps that College Park is surrounded by unremarkable PG county suburban sprawl and on the unfashionable side of the metro area, while UVA has Charlottesville and the surrounding countryside. But imagine if Maryland had decided to start its great state university on the waterfront in Annapolis in 1800 instead! Too bad that never happened. College Park isn't a bad campus but it's more on the mundane side and never included in the rankings of the most beautiful campuses while UVA generally is.

Quick Snapshot Comparison:


US News Rank: UVA 28, UMD 64
US News Public Rank: UVA 4, UMD 24
Undergrad Enrollment: UVA 16,800, UMD 30,700
2018 Endowment: UVA $7 Billion, UMD $620 Million

UVA's "Peers"*: Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, UMichigan, Wake Forest, GA Tech, NYU,
UMD's "Peers"*: UConn, SMU, Loyola Marymount, UMass, Worcester Poly, Clemson

* US News schools ranked around them: 3 up, 3 down

Some pretty clear distinctions above, to answer the OP's question.

I grew up in Maryland and went to UVA. Chose UVA even though UMD would have been free based on multiple merit scholarships.

Top reasons for choosing UVA over UMD:
1. Significantly smaller school. (Even more so a few years ago. UVA has expanded their undergrad enrollment a bit over the past decade.)
2. Significantly higher ranked and more prestigious overall.
3. Significantly higher ranked Business School (and I wanted to major in business).
4. Beautiful campus (er, Grounds.). College Park has improved, but not nearly enough to compare to Charlottesville. C-Ville is an awesome college town.
5. UMD too close to home (Montgomery County). Wanted to get away from home--even though UVA was just over 2 hours away.

Had MANY friends attend UMD and visited a number of times. The schools have a very different feel. In my opinion, UMD feels very much like a BIG STATE U, while UVA feels like a large SLAC. UVA has a feel similar to the larger Ivies--like Cornell and Penn.

Not trying to flame. UMD generates outstanding graduates who do very well in their fields. Their engineering and CS programs are consistently ranked higher than UVA. But the undergrad experience is very different between UMD and UVA.

Anonymous wrote:UMD is much better in the hard majors and UVA is better in the easy majors. That's why UMD is higher ranked in every world university ranking. UMD has more Nobel, Emmy, Pulitzer, Academy Award, Fields Medal alumni and national championships than all the Va colleges put together. Incoming SAT and ACT scores are basically equal.

UMD has had 2 Rhodes Scholars. UVA has had 54.

Anonymous wrote:UMD has a very small endowment for a school of its size, even for a state university ($355M in 2018). This probably says something about alumni feelings for and dedication to the school. Granted, this may be changing recently.

UVA has a $10 BILLION endowment. I guess you could say UVA is well endowed, and UMD isn't.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I wonder why they can’t expand. Even Oxford is expanding New College over the next five years. I know UVA is an UNESCO site and all, but the University must own enough land to grow. GA, take this issue up!

Per student spending on higher education has been dropping for decades in Virginia. If you pay taxes, pay attention. They aren't funding our colleges well, which is why they rely on out of state student tuition money. The GA isn't doing their job when it comes to educating our students.

Yeah, I wonder why they can’t expand. Even Oxford is expanding New College over the next five years. I know UVA is an UNESCO site and all, but the University must own enough land to grow. GA, take this issue up!

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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.

Sorry I wrote that backwards. Yes Virginia has twice as many high school students than Maryland. They also have half as many spots at UVA than Maryland has. That’s why it seems harder to get in... twice as many kids are applying to half as many spots it’s basic math.

But any student that’s going to Virginia up for engineering over Maryland is simply doing it to get away from their parents.

One other factor is that Virginia's roster of state schools after the flagship is robust, and Maryland's is . . . not.

Compare William and Mary, Va. Tech, JMU, and VCU with Towson, Bowie State, Coppin State, UMBC, Salisbury, St. Mary's - there are a lot more palatable alternatives for top students in VA.

MD has 1/2 as many HS students why would they need so many colleges.

UMD is twice the size of UVA, UMBC is equal to VA Tech, JMU and Towson are equal.... After that are really going to argue who has better schools....

The only thing VA has that MD does not have is W&M but very few kids even want to attend W&M... MD needs to work on St. Mary's

Are you really going to argue that George Mason is better than Salisbury...

What VA residents need to fight for in VA is to grow UVA to be bigger. It is inadequate to educate VA residents. It's 1/2 the size of MD (even though MD has 1/2 as many residents), 1/4 the size of Penn State, 1/2 the size of Mchigan.

UVA cares more about USNews ranking than their residents,

I recognize this tortured writing style - it's the MD Booster! Welcome back, your penetrating analysis always adds so much to the discussion.

Not the MD booster... he always talks about national awards.

Just somebody that believes it is the duty of a state to educate their residents...I don’t understand why UVA can’t add more freshmen/students to their campus... it’s too small, it does not serve its state well.

Fight to make UVA bigger. The reason so many people like it is that it's a great state school without tens of thousands of people. Virginia has two "big state u" options in VT and JMU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry I wrote that backwards. Yes Virginia has twice as many high school students than Maryland. They also have half as many spots at UVA than Maryland has. That’s why it seems harder to get in... twice as many kids are applying to half as many spots it’s basic math.

But any student that’s going to Virginia up for engineering over Maryland is simply doing it to get away from their parents.

One other factor is that Virginia's roster of state schools after the flagship is robust, and Maryland's is . . . not.

Compare William and Mary, Va. Tech, JMU, and VCU with Towson, Bowie State, Coppin State, UMBC, Salisbury, St. Mary's - there are a lot more palatable alternatives for top students in VA.

MD has 1/2 as many HS students why would they need so many colleges.

UMD is twice the size of UVA, UMBC is equal to VA Tech, JMU and Towson are equal.... After that are really going to argue who has better schools....

The only thing VA has that MD does not have is W&M but very few kids even want to attend W&M... MD needs to work on St. Mary's

Are you really going to argue that George Mason is better than Salisbury...

What VA residents need to fight for in VA is to grow UVA to be bigger. It is inadequate to educate VA residents. It's 1/2 the size of MD (even though MD has 1/2 as many residents), 1/4 the size of Penn State, 1/2 the size of Mchigan.

UVA cares more about USNews ranking than their residents,

I recognize this tortured writing style - it's the MD Booster! Welcome back, your penetrating analysis always adds so much to the discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry I wrote that backwards. Yes Virginia has twice as many high school students than Maryland. They also have half as many spots at UVA than Maryland has. That’s why it seems harder to get in... twice as many kids are applying to half as many spots it’s basic math.

But any student that’s going to Virginia up for engineering over Maryland is simply doing it to get away from their parents.

One other factor is that Virginia's roster of state schools after the flagship is robust, and Maryland's is . . . not.

Compare William and Mary, Va. Tech, JMU, and VCU with Towson, Bowie State, Coppin State, UMBC, Salisbury, St. Mary's - there are a lot more palatable alternatives for top students in VA.

MD has 1/2 as many HS students why would they need so many colleges.

UMD is twice the size of UVA, UMBC is equal to VA Tech, JMU and Towson are equal.... After that are really going to argue who has better schools....

The only thing VA has that MD does not have is W&M but very few kids even want to attend W&M... MD needs to work on St. Mary's

Are you really going to argue that George Mason is better than Salisbury...

What VA residents need to fight for in VA is to grow UVA to be bigger. It is inadequate to educate VA residents. It's 1/2 the size of MD (even though MD has 1/2 as many residents), 1/4 the size of Penn State, 1/2 the size of Mchigan.

UVA cares more about USNews ranking than their residents,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has history, architecture, and traditions that contribute to a certain mystique for some people. (Some people are pretty immune to that mystique. My dad certainly was immune. He grew up in the Northeast at a time when Southern universities were considered inferior and he never shed that view.) Those who do feel the mystique see UVA as more akin to some elite privates than to a typical public university. Maryland doesn't have that mystique (even though it has improved significantly over the past 20 years) and most state universities don't have it as well. Maryland's location, although convenient to DC, doesn't help it.

A [b]history of slavery

[/[b]. So does Harvard and Yale. In fact most U S universities were built on the back of slaves. Learn your history. Google Harvard Yale slavery

I don't have to google it, so does Georgetown. If you want diversity and feel safe as a person of color, UVA is not your place. Nor is Harvard, Yale and Georgetown... we have not come a long way.

College Park OTOH... is in a county that is the wealthiest majority minorities in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has history, architecture, and traditions that contribute to a certain mystique for some people. (Some people are pretty immune to that mystique. My dad certainly was immune. He grew up in the Northeast at a time when Southern universities were considered inferior and he never shed that view.) Those who do feel the mystique see UVA as more akin to some elite privates than to a typical public university. Maryland doesn't have that mystique (even though it has improved significantly over the past 20 years) and most state universities don't have it as well. Maryland's location, although convenient to DC, doesn't help it.

This post sums it up well. Also, College Park is just so depressing. The UMD campus is pretty ugly and badly designed too.

I disagree with this post. The UMD campus is very pretty, and the fact that it's a stop on the metro is a positive for many students: access to the DMV means the campus doesn't feel disconnected and isolated.

And praise for UMD doesn't translate into criticism of UVA, which also has a beautiful campus. Like UMD, UVA offers outstanding academic experiences.

Both universities have a lot to recommend them. Visit them, figure out what boxes they check.

Charlottesville has about the same crime rate or slightly worse than College Park.

I don't understand why more MD kids don't seriously consider St. Mary's College of MD. While I know the rural location isn't perfect for everyone, it's a really lovely school with happy and successful alums. The campus is very pretty on the river and students get a chance to do real research as undergrads and to really get to know their professors.