| The town of College Park will not be an enticement for you to attend UMD. You'll find many opinions here of how run-down, unsafe, etc. it is, and the view from the car window of Baltimore Ave (Rt. 1) is not particularly scenic. I don't think it is quite as bad as some people who post here will say, but it is not comparable to the idyllic campus towns of many universities; the town of College Park will not sway you to go to UMD.
In "downtown" College Park, there are a few restaurants, a CVS, and Maryland Book Exchange (??) bookstore that are probably the most frequented businesses by UMD students walking from campus. I'm of the belief that much has to do with common sense, etc., but, in general, it is not an area where you want to be alone late at night. UMD shuttles and other night-ride options provide safe transportation. UMD campus is huge and IMO, stately and pretty... lots of students never leave campus (except to party...) However, with the campus bus to the metro options, you can get to awesome places all over the DC area, and I think that students who don't take advantage of living that close to DC are short-changing themselves. Hope this helps... |