The University of Baltimore

About me as an applicant: I am on a full scholarship (tuition, room, board). UMBC gives out a significant amount of merit aid and I know several other students on full rides. I had a 3.55 unweighted GPA in high school and a 1570 SAT. UMBC values grades but weights the SAT pretty high (my twin sister goes to St. Mary's and she got more money there than I did because St. Mary's prefers GPA and she had a 3.9). I am not a genius but I am bright.

About the campus: This is no St. Mary's - no waterfront, no beautiful very old buildings. However, it is well maintained, clean, and modern. I love the main academic corridor of buildings, it is lined with tall trees that were planted about 35 years ago and look great. MOST IMPORTANTLY ABOUT THE CAMPUS: This campus is encircled by "the loop" road - it is contained, easy to navigate, and so much easier to deal with than a huge campus like College Park.

The kids here and the social life: People sometimes say that UMBC is dead. That's not true. It's just that here you normally find parties on the weekends, not every freaking day. Let's put it this way - my options this past Friday night were A) watch Edward Scissorhands in a dorm room with some nice people, B) play Cranium in the common room or C) go to an off-campus party. You can party if you want to, we're just not known for it. POLITICAL STUFF - I am a political independent/moderate. This is an okay campus - I would say 65 percent Democrat/liberal but everyone is pretty apathetic so, whether you're a Dem or a Repub, nobody is ever going to preach to you or overwhelm you with ideology. Whatever party you are, you won't be oppressed.

About the dorms: They are AMAZING. You only have to share a bathroom with 3 other people. Almost no schools have bathrooms like that. I'm not going into a huge amount of detail, let's just say: the food's okay and the dorms are GREAT. One warning: It's hard to be a vegan here (I'm not a vegan), but not impossible. St. Mary's has like an entire fridge of vegan/tofu stuff, but the selection at UMBC is usually one hot vegan entree and a fridge of vanilla and plain soy milk and some vegetables.

Campus life/other: On the weekends, there are free shuttles to the Inner Harbor. UMBC is VERY SAFE because it is surrounded by the "loop" road, some trees, then some decent suburbs of Baltimore (Catonsville/Arbutus), then there's Baltimore. Baltimore is about 5-7 minutes away by car or bus. It's a great city. It has the Inner Harbor, tons of museums, good clubs, and plenty to do. Don't think Baltimore has nothing to offer - it does.

Also, I would encourage people to consider applying to the Honors College. It's easy to drop out of if you don't like it.

Top majors: It seems to be like this: a ton of computer science, a lot of the natural sciences, then political science. ALL THE MAJORS ARE GOOD HERE. THE ARTS, THE HUMANITIES, THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, are all good, not just computer science and natural science.

Overall this is a great school. It's not unbelievably awesome at anything, but the beauty of it is that there is nothing bad about it - no disadvantages. Barely any schools can say that.

Size of the school: The campus is manageably small and not sprawl-y, so it seems smaller than it is. It's a medium sized school - not so small that everyone knows your business like at St. Mary's, not so big that you're always lost like College Park. You will see lots of familiar people and faces all the time, but you will always be able to meet someone new!No school is perfect for everybody, but I encourage people to give UMBC a chance. And don't think you should go to some Northeast elite school if you have a high SAT score - consider UMBC. They might give you a lot of money and you can still get into a great grad school from here!