The University of Maryland Baltimore County

Date: Aug 17 2015
Major: Chemistry (This Major's Salary over time)
Going into sophomore year here. I'm an in-state student that lives on campus. My majors are chemistry and German.

It's a great school academic wise. Even the lower level classes can be challenging but you learn a lot. Most classes are set up so that you build off of what you already know so it's hard to forget the important concepts. Gotta say, not a lot of homework in my experience but that'll change if you're doing anything with the word "engineering" in it. Do homework even if they don't check it, I learned that lesson the hard way.

Almost everyone is polite to strangers (holding doors and picking up dropped items and so on). Everyone relates to how hard classes are and there's a sense of community over the suffering, lol. The social life is… a bit dead. Most students are either commuters or leave for the weekend so if you're stuck, there's not much to do without leaving campus unless you're just studying.

Consider this school if you're planning on majoring in a STEM field. Think about if otherwise. Most programs are fantastic, it's just that the required math/science classes can be difficult if you're not math/science inclined. I have two majors, one STEM and one language so I see both sides of it.

The tuition isn't that bad, it's about the same as Towson. If you're disabled, there's a LOT of stairs since it's on a big hill. They don't have the best upkeep of elevators so beware of broken ones when trying to go to class. For some reason, they neither close school for snow/ice nor put down enough salt so watch out for the winter season. The university's doctor office is actually pretty good for a school. There's a ton of resources for how to stop procrastinating, how to get organized, how to deal with stress, etc. that are available for free.

The food is… how to describe it, hm. There's a couple chain restaurants on campus- Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Au Bon Pain. There's the dining hall, the Commons, then the University Center. The dining hall's food is buffet style and has a little convenience store that's open 23.5 hours a day. The most eating places are in the Commons, with a lot of different styles of eating (you can look up the places).