University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Sponsorship the way you would do it

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County is part of the University System of Maryland in southern Baltimore County, Maryland. It was founded in 1966 and specializes in the natural sciences and engineering.

UMBC offers 37 majors and 32 minors or certificate programs in the physical and biological sciences, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, mathematics, information technology, humanities and visual and performing arts. New degree programs include environmental science, financial economics and a B.F.A. in acting.

UMBC's Graduate School offers 27 master's degree programs, 21 doctoral degree programs and seven graduate certificate programs. Programs are offered in education, engineering, imaging and digital arts, information technology, life sciences, psychology, public policy and a host of other areas of interest. A new gerontology Ph.D. program is one of only six in the United States.

UMBC has a chess team that's beaten Harvard, which actively recruits new members and inspires the selling of chess-related t-shirts in the school store. It also is home to the Meyerhoff Scholars Program [1], which is designed to assist gifted minority students, especially African Americans, in establishing science careers.

Campus culture

Some see the campus as being somewhat bereft of character, and it is sometimes criticized for its ambiance and feel, which some describe as being closer to a community college than a resident university. The quality of the faculty and instruction are high, but the student body is sometimes criticized as being low-brow and seeking a state-subsidized ticket into the workforce as opposed to a liberal education. Considerable student diversity offers an opportunity for cross-cultural enrichment which is too often happily ignored by self-segregating groups of all ethnicities.

UMBC is predominantly a commuter school, with most of its students filtering in from the surrounding 25 miles or so.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Campus culture

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