<p>Well, I live in the surrounding area. Its a town called Catonsville and its a pretty nice place with restauraunt and shops, but it’s not what you would call a college town. Alot of the college students go to Baltimore and there’s plenty of stuff to do.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about guranteed housing, but I’ve never heard of anyone having any trouble getting housing.</p>
<p>UMBC is not as well known to the average person as UMCP, but recruiters from the area such as NSA, NIH, etc consider UMBC highly.</p>
<p>Here are the UMBC merit scholarships that I copied and pasted from the website. UMBC is known to be quite generous.
The following awards do not require a separate application:</p>
<p>UMBC Premier Award – $15,000 per year for in-state students and $22,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>UMBC Heritage Awards – $10,000 per year for in-state students and $15,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>President’s Fellows – $5,000 per year for in-state students and $10,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>President’s Scholars – $3,500 per academic year for in-state students and $7,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>Dean’s Scholars – $2,500 per academic year for in-state students and $5,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>Students admitted to the Honors College are also eligible for consideration of the following awards:</p>
<p>Honors College Fellows – $15,000 per year for in-state students and $22,000 per year for out-of-state students for four years.</p>
<p>There are also some other scholarships such as Meyerhoff that require a separate application and I think you have to ask your guidance counselor to recommend you for it.</p>