The University of Maryland - College Park

Date: Dec 02 2008
Major: Mechanical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
This was my dream school and all I can say is, wow. What a horrible place. I went in declared as a Mechanical Engineering major who was confident and determined and now I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.

Let's just get this out of the way:

Positives-good engineering ranking, pretty campus

Now everything else;

People: The students at this school are just the lowest quality of people I've ever come across. Everyone is rude, self-absorbed, ignorant, and honestly dumb. I came into this place totally open minded and ready to meet people (remember, dream school) and after being here a year and a half I've met ONE person that isn't a huge tool. Everyone is so immature and party obsessed that it actually made me miss the kids from my high school. People go to classes drunk or high if they show up at all. The only conversations you hear are

oh my god i was so drunk last night i can't believe i did that chick who was passed out.

I could honestly rant on about the terrible people that plague this campus for hours but I'll spare you.

Housing: Huge problem at this university. On campus housing is horrible. Imagine living in a tiny cinder block cell and sharing it with 2 other people with no air conditioning. The food is disgusting. At least people loose weight here rather than gaining. Off campus housing is a rip off and not safe.

Advising: There is none. They don't tell you about critical information as an entering freshmen. They don't tell you about 45-credit reviews or the repeat policy or anything. You have to go digging through an unorganized website to find it on your own. Don't bother scheduling an appointment to ask an adviser because they won't know the answer to any important question.

The Classes: A huge waste of money. First you have to spend a ton of money on books that the professors write and then you're only issued online busywork. The lectures are a blur of power point presentations that the teacher reads directly from the screen. The discussions are run by arrogant TA's who monopolize the conversation and then grade you on participation or who are unable to answer your questions.

The professors: Suck at teaching. I had one excellent professor (Laskowski-Calc III). But the rest were less competent than my high school AP teachers. They also don't give a flying crap. I've had a lot of health problems since entering college and they were not willing to work with me. If I was in the hospital and couldn't turn in an assignment because of it, they wouldn't accept late work, even with a doctors note. I actually had one physics professor say

you're an adult now, you can't just make excuses.

It was the entire university's unwillingness to work with me that made me withdraw. The advisers don't care about you, your professors don't want to see you do well, and they don't care if you leave their school because guess what? There's thousands more just like you.

"Finding your niche": Doesn't happen unless you're interested in Greek life. I tried to join many musical groups because that's what I love. Turns out most groups wont take you unless you're a music major and the only group that would take me said I had to bring my own marimba to join…

Diversity: I feel like I was scammed into this school. There isn't any diversity. If you are different you're pushed into fitting in. I actually met a guy from Jamaica that faked a Maryland bro accent to get into a fraternity. It's also pretty damn segregated because of how the white kids act. The black kids sit with the black kids and the asian kids sit with the asian kids etc etc.

The town: Is disgusting. A few times when I went grocery shopping I had to ask the mall security guard to escort me because there were shady characters harassing me. It's ugly, bad traffic. I've had to swerve to avoid hitting drunk girls falling into the streets. There's no culture.

Just don't go. It's the worst decision I've made about my education and now I'm paying.