The University of Maryland - College Park

Date: Oct 20 2008
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to the University of Maryland a while ago, but I have to say it was probably one of the best places to train and teach me about the world outside. It provided me with a very good education, not just in the classroom, but about the world outside as well. UMD is big, but so is the world. It's a stuggle to find your niche, but once you do, one can really thrive. I am an American-born minority, and I could sense some of the other tensions that people speak about, but by the end of my four years, I learned not only about the differences of other peoples views of the status quo vs. alternative perspectives, but also learned how to interact within them. That is a very positive thing to come away with from your University years before entering the world. Academically, the courses were challenging enough, but not taxing. They did prepare me for graduate school, for which I am grateful. Socially, I wasn't of the type that parties every night, but occassionally. And it can be hard at first to find your niche, but like life later, one has to find their own way, and UMd was a very good testing group to experiment and try and find it. Life is much harder.

I noticed at other private colleges, my sister went to a private college, there might be racial diversity, but there really isn't as much socio-economic diversity. When looking at UMd as a whole, beyond Frat row, UMd is really rich, both in terms of racial divisions and socio-economic divisions. While the classes and races don't always bond, they do interact, and learning to interact productively amongst society is one of the skills one learns at University.

Before I entered UMd, I received a wonderful letter explaining that college was more than about the books, but about learning all the things around me. And while I did study and learn academically, I learned in many more ways about how to thrive in life.