<p>I can’t really comment on internships/co-op opportunities since I’m a freshman. To be honest Maryland by far (it’s not really close) has the better reputation for engineering. I think it’s in the top 15 or schools in US News engineering rankings.</p>
<p>Maryland is by far the most diverse campus. I will say that as a minority, it can get uncomfortable at Clemson. It is by far the most “whitest” school (not trying to be racist) I have ever seen. I think the latest numbers have clemson as 90% caucasian which is very surprising for a state where 27% of the people are african-american. At the Maryland about 35-40% of students are of a non-caucasian race. Clemson has more out-of-state students since it is trying to boost it’s national reputation.</p>
<p>You have to live on campus at Clemson freshman year and there are apartment options available for upperclassmen. I am not very familiar with housing at Maryland but I have friends from high school who are going there next year so I could ask them. I’m also not very familiar with course selection and requirements at Maryland. For engineering students at Clemson, core graduation requirements are simply to take 5 social studies/humanities classes (the requirements are outlined here: [Clemson</a> University : College of Engineering & Science : Humanities and Social Sciences for Engineering Curricula](<a href=“http://www.clemson.edu/ces/students/humanities_policy.html]Clemson”>http://www.clemson.edu/ces/students/humanities_policy.html))
you have to take one literature class, one non-literature humanities class, 2 social sciences class (history, economics…), and 1 other one of your choice. There’s a fair amount of choices for the core graduation requirements. The only one where you don’t have a choice is ENGL 103 but then again every freshmen college student has to take introductory english.</p>
<p>Overall, I think Maryland is by far a much better school reputation wise for engineering. However, if you do not care that much for reputation, Clemson has a very underrated engineering program that many people do not know about. Engineering courses are basically the same at all schools and as long as you get involved and participate in research, getting a job, internship or going to grad school is definitely an option. Also, if you are looking for a slightly smaller school than Maryland (Clemson is half the size) and are looking for a school not in the city, with a lot of school spirit and a school in the south with warm weather, Clemson is the place to be. My parents really wanted me to go to Purdue or Virginia Tech (they still want me to because of the reputation) but I want to be at Clemson because of the reasons above and because the fact that I believe that I can get a great engineering education anywhere I go.</p>