University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (often referred to as UMBC) is an American public research university, located in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, mostly in the community of Catonsville. Established as a part of the University System of Maryland in 1966, the university specializes in the natural sciences and engineering, while also offering programs in the liberal arts.

Academics
UMBC offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a variety of areas of study. There are 54 majors, 42 minors and 20 certificate offerings in its undergraduate program. UMBC's Graduate School offers 33 master's degree programs, 23 doctoral degree programs and 20 graduate certificate programs. The university is divided into three colleges, two schools, as well as its graduate school.

Colleges

 * The College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences includes the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, and Physics.  It also home to the new Department of Marine Biotechnology.
 * The College of Engineering and Information Technology offers different areas of study in five departments: the Departments of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, and Mechanical Engineering.
 * The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences houses the most departments in the university and awards more than half of all undergraduate and graduate degrees. Among many others, it includes the departments of Ancient Studies, History, Music, Political Science, Sociology, Media and Communication studies, and Visual Arts.  Many of the departments will be soon housed in the new Performing Arts and Humanities Building.  Groundbreaking and a grand opening ceremony for the Performing Arts building was held on September 19, 2012.

Schools

 * The Erickson School of Aging offers undergraduate and graduate level programs that focuses on various aspects of aging studies, including policy and management issues.
 * The School of Social Work links with the University of Maryland, Baltimore's (UMB) School of Social work in offering undergraduate and graduate level programs.

Location
UMBC's campus is located on 500 acres. It is 15 minutes from Baltimore's Inner Harbor and 45 minutes from Washington, D.C. Baltimore Washington International Airport is five minutes away, as are AMTRAK and light rail stations. UMBC, three miles outside the Baltimore city limits, successfully lobbied the government to use 'Baltimore' as its address. While its suburban campus has minimal interaction with its surroundings, students variously consider it to be located in the towns of Catonsville (by CDP) or Arbutus (whose street grid it borders). The campus is undercut by a series of tunnels.

Research and Technology Park
UMBC Research and Technology Park is a 71 acre development on the campus hosting technology, bioscience and research organizations, many of which are engaged in partnership with the University. Research Park tenants include the US Geological Survey, US Forestry Service, CardioMed Device Consultants, Audacious Inquiry, Med-IQ, Physician Practice, Inc., Retirement Living TV, Ascentium Corporation, Solvern Innovations, RMF Engineering, Inc., Convergent Technology, Clear Resolution Consulting, Fearless Solutions, and Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center.

Campus police
UMBC maintains a 24-hour police staff of sworn officers, supplemented by non-sworn security officers and student marshals. Unlike the campus police of the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the campus police are not accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Accreditation is expected by the University System of Maryland mandated 2013 deadline. The UMBC police logs all crime reports and statistics as required by law on the UMBC Police Webpage.

Student life
The Resident Student Association and Student Events Board provide social programming during all academic semesters at UMBC. Over 200 student-run organizations exist on campus. There are many squirrels on campus who are not afraid of people.

LLC (Language Literacy & Culture)
This unique interdisciplinary doctoral program draws upon faculty from disciplines in the humanities and social sciences from eight departments and programs at UMBC: Africana Studies; American Studies; Education; English; History; Gender and Women's Studies; Modern Languages, Linguistics and Intercultural Communication;	and Sociology and Anthropology.

Greek Life
UMBC has 23 officially registered sororities and fraternities with nearly 5% of UMBC's undergraduate students belonging to one of them.

Residential life
There are ten housing areas housing approximately 3,900 students, which are: Potomac Hall, Chesapeake Hall, Erickson Hall, Harbor Hall, Patapsco Hall, Susquehanna Hall, Hillside Apartments, Terrace Apartments, Walker Avenue Apartments, West Hill Apartments.


 * Shared rooms (usually two students per room)
 * Shared bathrooms (usually four students per bathroom/two rooms per bathroom)
 * Includes basic furniture (bed, desk, chair, closet), Internet access (Ethernet), a telephone, and access to cable television
 * Special activities and events every week in the dormitories
 * Potomac Hall is open all year, including holiday breaks (called "continuous occupancy").
 * Most international students prefer Potomac Hall because it is always open. (The other dormitories close during Thanksgiving, winter, and spring breaks.)

Chess
UMBC has won the Pan American Chess Tournament 9 times in 13 years (1996–2009). The school provides substantial chess scholarships to outstanding high school graduate players at the International or Grandmaster level. Former UMBC team captain GM Alexander Onischuk has gone on to become US Champion in 2006. Professor of Computer Science Alan Sherman has been instrumental in building up the UMBC chess dynasty by recruiting players from around the world.

Athletics


The school's sports teams are called the Retrievers, with colors black and gold. The mascot of the University is the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, the state dog of Maryland, named True Grit. There is a statue of True Grit that stands in front of the Retriever Activities Center (RAC). The Retrievers participate in NCAA Division 1 as a part of the America East Conference, fielding 17 varsity sports; eight men and nine women. The Retrievers fight song is the UMBC Riser, and was written by Dr. George LaNoue, a professor of policy sciences.

In 2009, the men's lacrosse team secured their fifth consecutive outright or shared America East regular season championship and their third America East tournament championship in four years. UMBC has secured a berth in the NCAA tournament each of the past four seasons. In 2007, the unseeded Retrievers upset seventh-seeded Maryland, 13–9, in the NCAA tournament to advance to the Division I second round for the first, and so far only, time in school history.

The Retrievers won their first regular season American East Men's Basketball title in 2007-08, and also qualified for their first NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. They had previously competed in the Division II men's basketball tournament.

The Retrievers Men's Soccer Team won the America East Conference in 2010 receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament. The Retrievers won their first round game against Princeton but lost in the second round in a shootout to a ranked William and Mary team. This is the best UMBC has ever done at the tournament. Star striker, Levi Houapeu, from that 2010 team was drafted as a 5th pick in the 3rd round of the 2011 MLS Superdraft by the Philadelphia Union. He is the first UMBC player to be drafted into the MLS. The men also won the conference again in 2012, and advanced to the NCAA tournament once again. They won their first round game against Old Dominion, but lost in penalty kicks in the second round to defending champion, UNC Chapel Hill.

The Retrievers, Men's Swimming and Diving Program captured their 13th straight conference championship in the 2009-2010 Season. Since Joining the America East Conference in 2004, the Retriever Men have not lost their crown.

Retrievers Basketball games are broadcast by Paul Mittermeier and Gary Stein as well as Troy Greene and Dan Levin.

In 2010, a contest was launched to find a new logo for Athletics. In May 2010, the UMBC Athletic Department unveiled a new logo for the Retrievers created by Jim Lord.

Financial aid and scholarships
The Meyerhoff Scholarship Program at UMBC is a program focused on the cultivation of underrepresented minority scholarship and awareness in the math, science, and engineering disciplines. Other scholarship programs include the CWIT Scholars Program, the Humanities Scholars Program, the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program and the Sherman Teacher Education Scholars Program.

Rankings
The University is ranked 160th in the latest 2013 U.S. News and World Report rankings of "National Universities" across the United States, and it is ranked 87th nationally among public universities.UMBC ranks fourth among U.S. research universities in the production of IT degrees and certificates, according to U.S. Department of Education data. The data shows UMBC ranking #21 in MS, and #31 in PhD IT degree production.

In 2012, U.S. News and World Report rated UMBC as the 12th most under-performing university, citing a gap between academic reputation and performance in the academic indicators. The Carnegie Foundation classifies UMBC as a research university with high research activity.

UMBC is one of 50 public institutions in the United States recognized by The Princeton Review as a “Best Value College” offering a combination of educational excellence and affordability.The honor is the third major national distinction UMBC has received from leading higher-education rankings publications this academic year. For the second year in a row, UMBC was named America’s #1 “Up-and-Coming” national university by U.S. News and World Report.

The Princeton Review recognizes UMBC, a research university with nearly 13,000 students, for attracting serious students and supporting them with undergraduate research opportunities throughout the Baltimore-Washington region and beyond. The campus location near BWI-Marshall Airport gives students access to internships with government agencies, nonprofits and leading private-sector companies. Approximately 77 percent of students at UMBC receive some financial aid in the form of scholarships, loans and grants.

UMBC has earned an honorable mention on The Princeton Review’s recently released list: “Top Schools to Study Video Game Design for 2012.” The recognition places UMBC among schools like Georgia Institute of Technology, UC Santa Cruz, and Northeastern University.Released annually, the list features 50 schools from around the country, including their “top ten” undergraduate and graduate schools in this category. The rankings were based on a survey administered by The Princeton Review during the 2011-2012 academic year that consulted administrators at 150 schools and universities. The winning schools were judged on the quality of their curriculum, faculty, facilities, and infrastructure, as well as their scholarship, financial aid, and career opportunities.Both UMBC’s Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department and its Visual Arts Department offer programs for students interested in pursuing a career in video game development. Artists can concentrate on “Animation and Interactive Media,” while computer programmers can pursue the “Game Development” track within the Computer Science major. In addition, UMBC has a Game Development club, and has been a host site of the International Development Association’s Global Game Jam for the past four years.

Notable professors

 * Art
 * Maurice Berger - Research Professor and Chief Curator of the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
 * Irene Chan - artist


 * Aging Studies
 * William H. Thomas - researcher of geriatric medicine and eldercare.


 * Computer Science
 * Tim Finin - Author, conference organizer; winner of 2009 IEEE Technical Achievement award.
 * Anthony M. Johnson - Deputy Director of the Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment project based at Princeton University.
 * Alan Sherman - Chess team faculty advisor.


 * Emergency Health Services
 * Stephen Dean - expert in Emergency Medical Services system design.


 * English
 * Christopher Corbett - former news editor and reporter with The Associated Press, and the adviser for UMBC's student newspaper, The Retriever Weekly.


 * Gender and Women's Studies
 * Anne Brodsky - Director of the Gender and Women's Studies Program.
 * Carole McCann - researches reproductive politics, cultural politics of gender, sexuality, race and science, U.S. women's history


 * Language, Literacy, and Culture
 * Christine Mallinson - sociolinguistics scholar and co-author of Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools.


 * Media and Communication Studies
 * Jason Loviglio - radio expert and author of "Radio's Intimate Public: Network Broadcasting and Mass-Mediated Democracy"
 * Political Science
 * Thomas Schaller - talk show host and political commentator.
 * Philosophy
 * Stephen E. Braude - parapsychologist and Temporal Logic researcher.


 * Physics
 * James Franson - Quantum information science, Fellow of the American Physical Society.


 * Anthony M. Johnson - Ultra-fast nonlinear optics, Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, Past President of the Optical Society of America.

Notable alumni

 * Arts and entertainment
 * Kathleen Turner - Academy Award-nominated actress, starred in Hollywood movies Body Heat, Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, etc.
 * Tim Young - stand-up comedian, political pundit, and writer for The Huffington Post
 * Duff Goldman - Chef/Owner of Charm City Cakes, featured in the show "Ace of Cakes" on Food Network. Graduated with a degree in history.


 * Education


 * James P. Clements - 23rd president of West Virginia University
 * Ralph Semmel - Director of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory


 * Sports
 * Dan Marohl - National Lacrosse League (NLL) forward for the Philadelphia Wings.
 * Steve Marohl - NLL forward for the Baltimore Thunder and the Pittsburgh Crossefire; Major League Lacrosse (MLL) attack for the Baltimore Bayhawks.
 * Brendan Mundorf - NLL forward for the New York Titans; MLL forward for the Denver Outlaws.
 * Jeff Ratcliffe - NLL forward for the New York Titans.
 * Brian Rowland - United Soccer Leagues Second Division goalkeeper for Crystal Palace Baltimore.
 * Drew Westervelt - NLL attack for the Philadelphia Wings; Major League Lacrosse attack for the Denver Outlaws.