Often shortly referred to as UMBC, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County is a research university located in the U.S state of Maryland. UMBC was established as early as 1966 and offered 48 undergraduate majors, over 60 graduate programs.

Locations and transportation:

UMBC is located about 60 minutes from Washington, D.C, and about 5 minutes from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Although initially, UMBC was supposed to be located in Baltimore City, due to some circumstances, it now lies in the neighboring area of Southern Catonsville. Apart from providing a lot of conveniences like restaurants, bars, etc., Catonsville also offers festivals and markets around the university area.

The most common transportation around and inside the UMBC campus are the buses, which are free of cost for all the students, faculties, and the staff. The Wave ‘n Ride, however, is not free anymore.

History: A glimpse

The land where today UMBC sits was a farming land before the establishment of the university. At this point, the land belonged to Spring Grove State Hospital. However, the earliest history we know of the land was that it belonged to a prominent Stabler family in Baltimore County. 

Academics and research:

UMBC is divided into three colleges, two schools, and a graduate school, offering various courses and areas of studies including 48 majors, 38 minors, 25 certificate, and 13 Pre-Professional programs.

The three provide different areas of the studies and are categorized in terms of the departments the hold, namely, The College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, The College of Engineering and Information Technology, and The College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

The schools mostly provide graduate and undergraduate courses, not excluding masters and doctorate degrees.

UMBC has quite a name in the field of research. Not only has NASA funded research centers, but it has also been ranked among 20 US universities in NASA funding. The area of UMBC’s research focuses on environmental sciences, high-performance computation, life sciences, public policy, and social sciences. UMBC also has few of the award-winning researchers

Rankings:

UMBC has some of the interesting rankings. It has ranked 4th position in the production of IT degrees and certifications among US universities. It has also been able to secure the 12th position in undergraduate teaching nationally and 9th in innovation. Apart from these, it ranks among 200 U.S universities in the fields of research.

Some of the interesting facts of UMBC:

• UMBC has campus police maintaining a staff of sworn police officers who report crimes and statistics on the official UMBC Police webpage.
• UMBC is the first university in Maryland to be inclusive of all races.
• The mascot of UMBC is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, which is also the state dog of Maryland.
• Quad Mania is the name of the university festival of UMBC.
• Apart from having partnerships with NASA and other U.S. centers, UMBC also has a partnership with Kyushu University in Japan for computer security.
• Amongst other ratings, UMBC scored four out 5 in LGBT friendly climate index.