pb32

the city of college park is extremely sketchy. the local taco bell has been robbed five times so far this year, and the local police dept sends out emails to all the students whenever a student related crime occurs in college park. robbery and theft is very common off campus. that being said, if you're careful and smart about it, like travelling in groups and not walking alone at night, you should be fine.

lindz0722

College Park is a little "sketchy", I won´t lie about it. But like whoever just posted before me said (don´t remember, sorry), if you use common sense you should be fine. I often walk a few blocks alone at night and feel fine, but I wouldn´t walk across campus or all the way down route 1.

This will be my 2nd year living off campus and I´ve not felt any more threatened or anything living off campus than I did living on campus (which was not much at all). I´m from a small town so the idea of living right by a big city, and actually having to think about things like walking alone, locking my car doors, etc. was pretty weird for me. But you get used to it.

As far as the crime alerts the police send out, I like them, it keeps me abreast of what´s going on and what to look out for. And I don´t know about Taco Bell being robbed, but that´s a good 2 miles down route 1 from campus.

groovinhard

I attended an honors thing this year and was really impressed with the school, too .

Places like Cornell, even UVa seemed stuck-up...but many people choose Maryland over Princeton, Yale, and UMD's administration doesn't have that "we're better than everyone" air. Instead they're practical, focused on improving the school, and the students are there to work hard and make a difference, not put their degree in a golden frame. The outskirts of campus aren't as pretty as the interior, but of course the honors dorms are right in the thick of things, in the most beautiful part of the campus. Gemstone and Honors Humanities sound like great programs. The resources are astounding...

I really can't wait to come to Maryland and hopefully be a part of the honors program. UMD is a really great school for an awesome price...too many in-state kids dismiss it; even the teachers at my area school say it is "no good". But everything I've seen has told me the opposite.

Further from campus parts of Route 1 are sketchy. But around the campus and campus apartments, the area is not the prettiest, but it's very safe, especially on the side with the Century apartments, Pizza Hut, etc. The area is not really "ghetto" like you would associate with some parts of inner city Baltimore. It's working class.

lindz0722

just wanted to throw another honors-related tidbit into the discussion.... honors seminars are a great way to get close with a faculty member, as a mentor, recommendation writer, or just someone to have around to talk to.

one of my favorite professors at maryland was the teacher of my honors seminar in spring 2006, and we still talk occasionally. when i studied in spain, i sent her postcards. she had me over to her house at the end of last year just to catch up, and she constantly makes herself available for academic/career-related advice. i also invited her to my sorority's scholarship dinner the semester i was in her class, and i tell you what--it felt great to have my professor in the room applauding me when i recieved an award! (and she was so excited to get a house tour.)

in my opinion, every college student should have the chance to have this sort of relationship with a professor, and the honors program makes opportunities like that much more readily available.

xtefii

can anyone shed some light on their experiences in gemstone??

scagneas

yes. i am in gemstone and also in several other programs so if you have any questions as to what gemstone's like and how it compares to others, pm me with specifics.

rablaw

My daughter is choosing between U. Rochester and U Maryland Univ. Honors program. Also interested in U Conn (not honors) and U Delaware (Honors) I can't seem to find much first hand info about the 2007 honors programs at U Maryland or Delaware, but the cost difference between either one of them and Rochester is so substantial that I may have to eliminate U Rochester as an option.
I am concerned that honors means something different at each school (e.g. all smaller classes or same classes as all students but with extra work, or a seminar, or ??)
Major is undecided (probably linguistics, biochemistry or chemistry).
She is anxious to get involved in some type of research while still an undergrad. No invite to Gemstone at UMD though.

Thank you for any firsthand advice you can offer.

somebodynew

The Honors Program at Maryland is a living and learning program. Students live together with honors students Freshmen live in Denton, Ellicott, or Wicomico, depending on if they're in University Honors, Gemstone, or Honors Humanities, respectively. Your dorm is supposed to be your "home-base," gives the small LAC feel within the larger university.

Honors offers two types of classes: H-versions and Honors seminars. H-versions are honors versions of classes with typically large lectures: calc, psyc100, gov100, etc. These are capped at about 30 students. They feature more time with the full professor--there are no TA discussion sections in H-versions. They usually count for CORE and major requirements.

Honors seminars are small, capped at 20 students. They are primarily discussion based courses on a wide variety of topics: anywhere from nanotechnology, comparative religions, and shakespeare, to the simpsons, novels, and social creativity online....they're a lot of fun. Great way to complete CORE requirements.

Basically, Honors shrinks the university for the student as much as they want. It gives students a base of peers of similar academic prowess, and connection to wonderful faculty. Also, they feature a lot of interesting activities--yoga class taught by an honors prof, a whitewater rafting trip, honors film series and photo contest, art fest, free tickets to various artsy things in D.C., ice skating events, panel discussions, lecture series, etc. Dr. Thorne, the director, is really enthusiastic about the program and really loves the students.

If you have any other specific questions about the program--I'll be glad to answer.

pmyen

Can anyone compare the Honors program at College Park with UMBC? My son prefers the smaller campus of UMBC. He will be a humanities major. Most likely history. Thanks.

pollyo

pmyen is your son in the humanities scholars program?

pmyen

He is in the regular Honors Program. He is interested in majoring in history but has interest in science as well. Too early to tell what he wants to do afterwards. He enjoys teaching but also is considering law as a possibility. He is waiting to hear back from some LACs. Probably would not have considered either UMD if not for the honors programs as he likes seminar-based learning rather than lectures. He also is on the quiet, introverted side and probably would have a natural inclination for a small colege rather than university. However, I have encouraged him to look atall possibilities carefully.

lindz0722

pmyen, we typically only take 1 of the smaller honors seminars per semester. he would be in larger classes other than that. as a history major, though, once he completed the university's CORE curriculum, his major classes would probably all be fairly small.

hinmanCEO

i love maryland =) i am in honors as well, turned down gemstone (too much commitment required)

but there is one bad thing about honors! if i knew earlier, i would take only honors seminars for my citation and not the H-versions of classes!!!

since everyone in Honors is smarter(duh) the classes have no curve. One lecturer taught MATH241 and MATH241H, which is basically Calc3 regular and honors. Both classes were graded the same, the difference in the class was the regular class was huge, and they met 4 times a week (three lectures and a recitation with a TA) and in honors we only had three lectures with the lecturer.

BUT the curve was very different. A raw score of 82% yielded an "A" = 4.0 in the regular class. I had an 77.7% but since I am in honors, I got a "C" = 2.0

So someone in the regular class got 4.3% higher than I in the same class(basically) but got DOUBLE the GPA for this 4 credit class.

I would rather get an "B" in regular than a "C" in honors.

I took 15 credits that semester(spring'06) and got all A's and that one C. That brought my semester GPA down to a 3.466. Bye bye Dean's List.

I am bitter still.

MBJ

Trying to debate between a school like UMd and ones like GW in DC. I would think that the size of UMd is a factor even with the Honors Pr.

hinmanCEO

size is good! more people = more chance you find ppl with similar interests!