University of Maryland-College Park Top Questions

What's the most frustrating thing about your school?

Molly

The most frustrating aspect of UMD was the size of the student body and the implications it had when I initially got to school. Because it's such a large school it's typically you're in very large lecture halls with hundreds of other students. This can cause students to struggle with understamding the material because it's easy to not pay attention and many are nervous to speak up in large lecture halls. Also because the classes are so large proffessors rarely know students individially. However there are many ways to succesfully learn in this situation.

gina

The strong emphasis on athletics, and lack of readily available information on counseling services.

Olivia

The most frustrating thing about the Univeristy of Maryland-College Park, would be being a part of the Freshman Connection Program. In Freshman Connection, all of your classes begin after 3:00 pm and you can only take classes that the program provides. Although it may seem convenient, not having morning classes, I have actually found it to be a burden. My classes usually run until 9:00 pm and then I have to return and do homework until the early morning hours. This has messed up my sleeping schedule and you need sleep as a college student.

Isiah

The most frustrating thing about being at this school could vary depending on the type of student you are. Though for me the most frustrating thing is how rigorous the classes are. At UMD classes are alot harder than they are at most schools and UMD doesn't really have much to help out students.

Orlene

I am taking online classes and the platform used to support these class underwent a lot of growing pains in the earlier years. There were a lot of issues with incompatibility between the online technology and some student's computer software. There were also a great deal of outages and system glitches. Throughout the years the technology used for the online platform improved tremendously. However there are still instances when the platform is unavailable due to maintenance. This is inconvenient and at times frustrating because there is not access to the classroom.

Shawn

The professors seem to have very little time for question and answer sessions with the students. Questions in the class room were answered in a short, cryptic manor and questions through Blackboard or email were rarely answered at all.

Rachel

I have not had any professors who post grades online, so it can be very difficult to track your success through the semester and thus difficult to budget time and study periods accordingly.

Justin

I don't really get frustrated with much about the school, though the teachers are sometimes hard to understand considering some just don't speak english well. It takes a few weeks to grasp a firm understanding of their accent and by then you are already a bit behind. (remember this isn't a major problem just a small bit that can be a nuisance.)

Idris

The workload in regards to the amount of credits a course has. Oftentimes, I would spend much more time working on an assignment for a 1 or 2 credit course than some of the assignments from a 3 or 4 credit course.

Dionte

The most frustrating thing about UMD is the lack of a strong community within certain majors/courses.

Anneliese

How to deal with a large class size. I had never attended a class with more than thirty students, so to show up in a 300 person lecture hall is intimidating. It took a while to understand how professors and TA's took on these massive classes and how to study for them.

Yiqi

Some areas on campus are pretty dark withouth much lights at night so it scares me a little, not so frustrating though.

Brittany

How large it is. I am sill learning where everything is but it is new and exciting.

Jennifer

The most frustrating thing about UMD are the professors. They are very slow in grading papers and getting back to students.

Chanel

The most frustrating thing about my school is how competitive it is. I know it helps me to work harder, but with the amount of students there is and how intelligent everyone is, it is hard to not seem like you are not smart enough. It makes it harder to get into certain majors and programs. The benefit of the competition is it makes students work harder for what they want.

Hana

One thing that is very frustrating about Maryland is that all of the academic buildings are far apart and there is only one bus that runs during the day, which makes it difficult for students to get to some classes. In addition, there is no way of scheduling midterms, so professors end up scheduling midterms during the same week, which is very stressful for students.

Asia

It can be extremely difficult to achieve an A as a final grade in a class.

Eric

The Department of Transportation on Campus and the lack of available FREE parking on campus.

Justin

The workload for classes are a little extreme and some tests/exams are impossible. I don't believe a student gets much from a class when the class average is a 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} but with a curve to allow students to pass.

Mark

The town around the main campus isn't quite as lively as it could be.

Jazmin

It is a huge school, so deciding to join a sorority or extracurricular activity will be daunting!

Jennifer

There is a lot of walking because the campus is so big. But after a while you get used to it and it's good exercise.

Bri

Walking uphill. I have absolutely no complaints about my university. Some areas could be a little more well-lit and there should be more resources for these uphill walks. Other than that, no complaints about academics. There are many resources for tutoring.

Samantha

The frustrating thing about Maryland is how divided it is. I like that it essentially has many communities within it in the form of smaller schools and departments, but there isn't much unity between the different sorts of people that go here. I feel largely alienated from the students who focus on sports and Greek life, for instance, because we are not encouraged to engage with one another.

Samuel

One reoccuring problem is the dining points system. Students exchange money for points in a system that is required for all students that wish to live in a dorm on campus. These points have more value then the dollar so students get less points than how much money they put in. This would make sense if the cost of food, pointwise, was less then the normal cost of food in U.S. currency. Unfortunately, the cost of food at the University of Maryland is rather expensive, leaving many students out of points well before the end of the school year.

Jaclyn

Have to have a fake id to have a social life, which is all bars. or enjoy gross frat parties. another frustrating thing is that bus service only run at night but i still dont want to walk across campus during the day.

Jing

Too many students in a class. Not a good environment for studying.

Kerianne

They promise a small student teacher ratio with a plethora of chances for hands on research internships or externships but they don't deliver. As a matter of fact they will tell you that the school is to big for them to do things like that for any student that isn't a graduate student. EVEN THOUGH, that's why most of us came to the school. Then they give internships to students outside of the major!

Kiara

The most frustrating thing about my school is the process of selecting courses. Some students are able to sign up early for classes depending on their specific academic honors or certain programs that they are memebers of. I feel that this process hinders my equal opportunity in choosing courses. It frustrates me that I may have to choose an unfavorable time of day to attend a class and that the only available time for a course may conflict with another scheduled course. Some of my major credit classes may be full, causing me to wait to take them next semester.

Tereance

Nothing really is frustrating, except when I have to write essay 10+ pages double spaced.

Paul

The most frustrating aspect of University of Maryland is that there is limited scholarship options for me, most scholarships are available for freshmen but I haven't found that many scholarships that caters towards students like me.

Theo

people can be stand offish at times...

lynique

What frustrates me the most about the school is the parking sitautions here. Other than parking issues this university is very exciting, academically challenging, and socially engaging. I absolutely love the University of Maryland and would not trade it to go anywhere else in the world!!! I love going to a big school. The opportunites to get involved are endless and that makes for a smooth transition from high school.

Katherine

Sometimes it can be easy to get lost in areas of the school where you don't have classes.

Kathryn

The most frustrating thing about my school is that since most of the school is from in state many students go home frequently throughout the semester. For students that live close to campus they will go home for any family event or just to get away from school, at least once a month. As an out of stater this sometimes becomes frustrating, especially when it is your friends going home, however, the campus is so large that it never feels deserted.

Michael

I believe the most frustrating thing about the University of Maryland is the advising. I have been there for 2 semesters now and each advisor I've had has left and been very unhelpful. I am also planning on pursuing a medical career and the pre-med advising is very lacking.

Joanne

There is nothing frustrating.

Rafi

The fact that some times there are too many people, its hard to fit in.

Zina

The most frustrating thing about my school is the amount of financial aid that is given out to students. I have to pay for my college independly yet my financial aid did not cover my tuition and I had to pay almost $900 out of pocket.

Jaclyn

The meal plan and the food that gets old really fast.

Amanda

I think that the most frustrating part is that my school does not help students with finances. The school is very expensive and you find students dropping out or taking less classes because they cannot afford it. I think that the school is more giving to the students who reside in the state of Maryland, opposing to out- of- state students like me.

Vanamala

The registration process for classes. There are never enough spaces in popular classes and the times always seem to overlap.

Unyime

the class room sizes are very big at my school.

ngina

It would be nice to have some newer dorms and some of the teachers can be uncooperative.

Jillian

The dining halls close at 7 and do not open until 11 on weekends.

Kelly

The most frustrating thing about my school is campus parking. There are not enough spaces, and parking passes are overly priced, and tickets are expensive.

Krzysztof

The number of students who do not take advantage of all the opportunites at the University of Maryland because they either do not know how to seek them out, or because the opportunites are under-advertised.

Sandra

The most frustrating thing about my school is that they do not provide financial aid or scholarships for students who are not citizens or permanent residents.

Aisha

The only frustration I have with the University deals with my major's department (Economic department) and the lack of smaller sized classrooms. This causes students to be on very long waiting list and have lead to situations where students my not get into their course/s of choice.

Megan

After discovering that networking is the key to success, I began searching for the infinite amounts of resources that are available on our college campus. Although all the staff is friendly and helpful in answering questions or clarifying misunderstandings, it is inevitably difficult to find the right person to provide us with that information. Making enough phone calls and sending enough emails until you find an appropriate response becomes less frustrating with time, but a program that would simplify this process would greatly benefit a multitude of students here at our school.