(UBaltimore) Attending UMBC is one of the worst choices I've

Educational Quality	C-	Faculty Accessibility	C
Useful Schoolwork	C-	Excess Competition	F
Academic Success	C	Creativity/ Innovation	F
Individual Value	F	University Resource Use	B-
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	A+	Friendliness	F
Campus Maintenance	C+	Social Life	F
Surrounding City	D	Extra Curriculars	C-
Safety	A+

Describes the student body as: , ' color='class=grade' > Describes the faculty as: , , , ' color='class=grade' >

Male

Bright

Excess Competition	F

Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	A+

He cares more about Friendliness than the average student.

Date: Mar 04 2008
Major: (This Major's Salary over time)
Attending UMBC is one of the worst choices I've ever made in my life. The work is not difficult - just long and annoying, and often times, vague and unclear. I've found that many of my favorite teachers here have not been in my field and only a small handful of teachers in the CMSC program were approachable and considerate of students. I've had teachers forward my e-mails immediately to the TA without bothering to even read it (for instance, if the e-mail says 'I already asked the TA') and sometimes even go ignored. The food staff is awful. The food is often poor quality and is supplied by Sodexho, who are known for being awful. The food at the dining hall is hardly suitable for consumption 90% of the time, with your best resort being cereal or toast. There is occasionally something good there, but it's all very subpar for the high price you pay for a meal plan during a semester. At the Commons, the food is slightly better but still often varies in quality. Cheeseburgers are rarely hot or fresh, bread at the sub shop is often stale and smooshed, or cut to be 3 or 4 inches instead of 6. There is a BBQ place on campus which will sometimes have good food and other times have disgusting meat that's full of fat and difficult to stomach. But what's worse than any of this is that the staff is rude. They will argue with you about what you ordered, and they will complain about a customer TO other customers. We once found a dead roach in the french fries at the burger place and the food staff only wrote it off and tried to hush us by giving us a free meal. Nothing ever changed, and the places only became worse. Many of the classes are not very difficult. You have your share of professors that read off of slides, professors that go off on tangents for the entire glass, and honestly good professors. Unfortunately, many of my classes have fallen into the first two - I've been doing well my entire time here and barely even attend most of my classes outside of when it's absolutely necessary (test or quiz, etc). Some of the teachers are nice and knowledgeable, others act as if their students are a burden on them. Some professors honestly do not know the material and will even admit it, and leave you to fend for yourself. Your mileage may vary on this, of course. If you want fun, UMBC is not the place to go. There are few events of interest here on campus, and even so, many people here aren't very approachable. You can go off campus to do things, which can be great. There are a lot of places easily accessible to you at this part of Maryland. However, the closest city is Baltimore, and while Baltimore may have a lot to do, it is also a garbage heap of a city that's very dangerous in some parts (check baltimorecrime.blogspot.com to see just what I mean). To UMBC's credit, the campus is gorgeous. There are ample trees all over the place, a pond (though it has seen better days) and ample wild life - squirrels, geese, birds and even deer. The campus itself is also very safe. Police frequently patrol around the campus and there are two police stations on or around campus (the UMBC police and the Baltimore County police). Overall, however, UMBC is a very mediocre school with poor serving staff. You can get a decent education here, but you'll likely have to do a lot of your own legwork with little help from your professors. I'd recommend looking at other options before you come here.

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