The University of Maryland - College Park

Overall, the University of Maryland, College Park is a great school if you are from Maryland. If you are from out-of-state, you'll often find yourself screwed. The administration seems to tailor everything to their precious in-staters, completely disregarding their New Yorkers, New Jerseyans, and Pennsylvanians (or wherever you are from).

The University of Maryland is very much a suitcase school. It's about 3/4ths in-state. And about 3/4ths of the student population go home every other weekend. If you are from out-of-state, you'll find that there will be weekends when almost everyone you know is gone.

If you get invited into College Park Scholars, don't do it! All it is is extra work. Supposedely, it's a "living/learning program," but hat is crap. You'll find yourself in a community no matter where you live. There are lots of people in my College Park Scholars dorm who are NOT Scholars. They don't seem to be missing out on anything. In fact, I am envious of them because they dont have to do all the extra week that we have to.

The parking policy is ridiculous. No freshmen residents can park at all. There are a "limited number of spaces" for sophomores - the catch? You must provide proof that you NEED to have a car on campus (i.e. you have a job or an internship). That's where the out-of-state students get screwed yet again. Out-of-state sophomores can't park on campus without a job/internship. Yet, they cant get a job/internship without a car - It becomes a chicken and the egg situation. In-state students, on the other hand, can easily go home and get their cars on the weekends (when parking meters are not enforced). They can easily find a bull-shit job or internship. Or, in-state students can easily have their old high school employers "re-hire" them to work an hour or two a week.

Also, the room & board is a huge rip-off.. While the rooms are decently sized, they are either sizzling hot or ice-cold. There is no in-between. It seems like every dormitory has major roach infestations. They'll crawl into your room, into your closet, onto your desk, or even onto your stuff without any warning. You could be talking on the phone and when you put the receiver down, there will be a roach on it (true story, by the way). The maintenance crew seems to clean out the bathroom only once a week. The food here is alright at first. But give it a month or two and it seems like you've eaten everything there is to eat. The menu has about a million variations of a Chicken Sandwich, and you'll notice that it's offered as the "Special" two of three times a week. Finally, the meal plan is a declining point balance. You get about 933 dollars to spend a semester. But if you break it down, it's about 8 dollars a day. There is NO WAY you could spend only 8 dollars a day. The food is unbelievably overpriced. A Cheeseburger, French Fries, and a Soda costs around $7.74. Once again, they integrate into the meal plan the assumption that you are going to eat out or go home on the weekends. That is simply not true of everyone.If you like to party, you'll definitely love this school. There is an abundance of alcohol and drugs and it doesnt take a rocket scientist (no pun intended) to figure out how to get them. Most of the kids I've talked to love it here. I guess it depends on what kind of a person you are. If you partied and drank a lot in high school, you'll probably enjoy UMD. If you preferred to spend your free time shooting pool or going bowling (stuff that doesnt involve alcohol), you'll probably find yourself wishing you were somewhere else.

1st Year Male -- Class 2006

Education Quality: A, Individual Value: D

I am provided with a lot of work, which seems to be mainly focussed on keeping me busy. Tests last for hours and make you basically rewrite the book word by word. Nothing challenging, just a boring repeating of what was written. Not what you would expect of a university at all. They are extremely slow in posting results and even slower at accepting course credit from other university's despite all the promises. The teachers do not answer any question coherently.All in all, very disapointing.

1st Year Female -- Class 2013

Surrounding City: A-, Scholastic Success: F