University of Maryland
Hallmarks and Quirks
Things I'm Good At:
- Basketball. The Xfinity Center is as glorious at the throw-downs that happen on the court.
- Football. Terps football is quite the experience. Even when we lose, we still do it better than anyone else. Stop by a tailgate, and you'll see that we've got the football fan thing down pat.
- Engineering and computer science. Electrical? Mechanical? Aerospace? It's all good here. I've got plenty of strong STEM roots.
- Business. The Smith School of Business has connections with some of the biggest companies in the world, and has led to countless, truly successful entrepreneurial ventures.
- Language science. Neurobiology, psychology, education, and cognitive science all come together to form a massive international hub of research and scholarship. The School of Languages Literature and Culture, the Language House living-learning program, and the Persian and Arabic Language Flagships make me a great school for any kind of language study.
- Parties. If you want a rager, Friday night in College Park is where you want to be.
My Top 5 Must-Haves:
- A Metro Card. Even if you spend all your Friday nights on campus, when your parents visit and want to see "the sights," the sights are in DC, not CP.
- Gear for every weather you could imagine. We get it all—tornadoes, earthquakes, blizzards, and blistering heat. And that's just in one day.
- Some kind of student club. With over 35,000 students on campus, you'll definitely meet people, but clubs are where you can really get to know people. Besides, how else will you find people to play Quidditch with?
- Caffeine. You'll have lots of late nights, whether you're in the library or at a frat party, so you gotta stay awake in your 8:00AM class somehow.
- At least a little bit of free time. Both "you" time and some "cutie-over-there" time. You might want some time to get to know your professors at their office hours, too.
Why You Might Have Heard of Me:
- Research. I'm totally a top-notch research university, considered a Public Ivy.
- You might've heard about my parties. They're pretty awesome, I must admit.
- I'm basically a DC school. I mean, I'm full of Maryland pride (seriously, you couldn't get more Maryland if you were the inspiration for every character in Hairspray), but I'm also the closest thing you're going to get to DC outside of DC.
On a regular Saturday night, you can find me...
Saturday nights, I'll probably be making an appearance at about three different parties. Maybe it's a frat party, or just chilling with some friends in their apartment. When I get tired, I might just spend some time playing computer games with people. Whatever I end up doing around here, it'll be fun.
If I'm feeling in need of some culture, I might spend the evening downtown in DC after hitting up art museums, then go see some monuments...or some clubs. I might even go to The Clarice, the performing arts center. There are always plenty of plays and concerts put on by my talented students.
Favorite Hangouts:
- Stamp is a pretty fun hangout spot. There are enough spaces for some studying, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a food court—loads of stuff. Since it's at the dead center of campus, it's a great place to meet up with people and hang out.
- When you need to study, because we all do (eventually), you've got some options. McKeldin is the main library, and the second floor (Club McKeldin) is probably the most popular place to study, alone or in groups. Although, I have to admit, my favorite hidden gem for studying is the library at The Clarice. It's beautiful, quiet, and full of individual study carrels.
- Off campus has got some cool spots, too. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes in College Park on Route 1. Some of them change pretty quickly, so in your years here, you can be sure that you'll get to try out some new things.
Quirks:
- The fountain. In the middle of my mall there's this beautiful fountain, and a little known tradition among students is that before graduating, everyone has to skinny dip in this fountain—or at least take a normal dip.
- Confusing buildings. I've got a couple buildings that are rather notorious for screwing with people's minds. The Biopsych building, for instance, was designed specifically to confuse students, or so it seems. Marie Mount Hall has intermediate floors between each level. Just…why?
- Underwater speakers. The on-campus gym has two pools, one indoor and one outdoor. The outdoor pool has an awesome feature—underwater speakers. Every now and again, when there's an event going on at the pool, DJs will play music underwater so while you're diving and swimming, you can still enjoy music without having to come up.
Famous Alumni:
- Jim Henson, as well as his inspiration for Miss Piggy.
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
- Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armor.
- Steny Hoyer, House Minority Whip.
- Michael Antonov and Brendan Iribe, founders of Oculus VR.
- David Bagget, creator of Crash Bandicoot.
- Liz Lemon (alright, so she's a fictional character, but the character is a terp).