The University of Maryland - College Park

Date: Jan 25 2010
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I transferred here and regret not coming here in the first place. I went to a small school where there was absolutely nothing to do. Maryland could not be more the opposite.

It has been easy to get involved on campus if you want to - there are many groups and if there isn't one you want to join you can make one. I have been able to join groups that satisfy my intellectual and social needs. It is also easy to do absolutely nothing - how busy you are will depend on how motivated you are to get involved and have a social life. There are house and apartment parties which I enjoy more than going downtown to the bars. They're cleaning up the area so hopefully the areas close to campus will improve quality and aesthetics-wise. People drink here and some will give you a hard time if you don't drink. Most people don't care and/or don't notice if you aren't drinking. There are special groups set up for transfers and freshman. You sign up, meet once a week, and make friends. The nightlife can get repetitive after a while, just like anywhere else. When it does, I hop on the metro and head to DC.

Never walk alone at night in College Park. There is crime going on around the University, so you have to be smart. Catch the bus, call the Campus night ride, do anything but walk alone.

There are also different types of fraternities - the typical social frat and the co-ed frat. The business school has co-ed fraternities that male and female students can join where you learn about business, do community projects, and do many social activies together. I've been told that there are also co-ed frats in the other colleges on campus, too, such as engineering. There are also co-ed service fraternities that do community service projects.

The professors have been very positive and you can tell that they enjoy what they are teaching. They have set office hours each week which they are always at, so if you need help in a class all you have to do is show up. Same with the TAs. All the teachers and TAs I've had are willing to make appointments to meet with you, too. This was surprising, because I thought that they would be focused on research. If you need help you will get it if you ask.

Some of the classes are gigantic (anywhere from 100 to 200 students in one lecture hall) while other ones I have taken have been much smaller and more intimate (18 in my Spanish class). Students work together in the classes and help each other learn concepts through group study. Don't be afraid to exchange emails with someone in your class - it will be helpful later. The majority of people that I have met are really nice people that are easy to get along with. The campus has a lot of diversity, but most people stick with what they know. UMD has about 25,000 undergrads, so things can get crowded - it can be hard to find a place to sit and eat in Stamp and the ERC always has a lot of people in it. You'd think that since there are so many students that they would have more places and areas to sit, but they don't. In Stamp on the bottom floor there is the TerpZone. It has pool tables, video games, and bowling as well as all of ESPN's channels projected on the wall. It's awesome.

Many students enjoy going to sporting events on campus. I wish the quality of football tailgating was better. Students (The Crew) will tailgate soccer games, which not many schools do. It's fun to go to the games and cheer on our student-athletes and dance with Testudo. The Comcast Center is gigantic and a wonderful facility to watch the Terps play. We have awesome athletic facilities for students, too - the Rec Center (ERC) is amazing with its indoor track, olympic size swimming pools, and the weight/cardio machines are in good shape, but, again, it can get crowded.

I don't need someone to tell me what to do all the time and enjoy the independence that attending a large university gives me. Some people feel like a number, but you make your own way at a school this size.