If money is an issue, you’re sort of locked into UMD.
Working in a museum is a great career I’m sure, but I can’t imagine there’s any level of lucrativeness in the career. Perhaps I’m wrong.
It looks like UMD has a graduate certificate but perhaps you can get some classes as an elective later on or get with the advisor and help map out a good plan to cover similar material.
I think dorms - UMD isn’t known for them although maybe they’ve added some nice and don’t know about Wisconsin. Most schools have good libary(ies).
Back to your last comment about FAFSA - where do you need Wisconsin to come? It’s likely you’ll just be offered the federal loan although one never knows.
My S24 is also accepted to UMd and has some of the same interests. We looked at the same
Museum studies courses mentioned above. Also Carillon. Our feel was that UMd was ideal for anything in Museums, Archives, Non-Profits, and Government. We feel that the OOS premium to attend UMd full-board is worth the opportunities in these kinds of areas while that is not the case elsewhere (Pitt, UMass, etc) where there isn’t as much adjacency to the institutions in DC.
We have a friend who took a job in Madison right out of school. He loves the town but he has found travel back and forth to the east coast is more limited than expected. Not a ton of flights, bad weather issues, etc. So, be aware. Granted that’s just maybe 2x a semester but think about it.