UMUC claims to be THE largest public Univeristy in the country. If that is the case, then why isn't there any hype to be found anywhere from anybody?? It seems like there isn't a student body. If there is, then where is everybody?:squareeyed: From what I understand most is distance learning. But I've never met anyone who has gone there. I am a student at UMUC. I graduated from a DIV 1 college. On-line suits my needs. I did 39 GRAD credits at another State school, only to not turn in my thesis. After so many years the credits expire and NO ONE (except Excelsier, but only after defending each class by class) will recognize them.
I believe are at least two students or graduates of UMUC that post on degreeinfo (plus you) - so hang around to see their posts.
My wife did her bachelor's (more like the final two years) in a mixture of online classes and more traditional studies through UMUC-Europe. Throughout Europe, they have numerous training sites on or near U.S. military installations.
I'm a grad student at UMUC. I took a few undergrad classes with UMUC while in the military stationed in Japan, but I also earned my undergrad from a Div 1 school (SIUC). I think they're the "largest public university" simply because you see them on nearly every US military base world-wide (military gets in-state tuition as well). This is probably why they don't need to advertise much, at least not to the general public. The student body is huge, but scattered around the world.
I forgot to mention; a lot of UMUC's classes delivered on bases is face to face. They offer most of the general education requirements in person taught within the education facilities on the bases. Usually it is the upper classes toward the major that are only offered online (for undergrad degrees, that is). Graduate education seems to be nearly all online, with the only face to face classes that I know of are here in Maryland.
They are a freaking big school....but not the largest by far. I've got a lot of issues with the school becasue of claims like that. They are always make some wild claims....check out this email I got from them a year or so ago.
Ouch! I wonder if UMUC feels threatened by the NA schools that are mostly cheaper. I wonder if they would pull the same argument over IACBE versus AACSB versus RA since they mention specialized accreditation...
According to Wikipedia, the largest single-campus university in the USA is ... Arizona State University with 58,371 students. When counted by total enrollment (ie all campuses of a university added together) University of Phoenix comes out on top by far with 532,672 students! Of course these don't come close to the largest universities in the world, the largest being Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan with 1,806,214 students!
Wow, that's a lot of students! I found this UMUC link which claims 190,000 online enrollments in FY2009. If that's true, then their claim of largest public university seems true when up against the Wikipedia data; well, highest number of enrollments that is for a public university.
Lewis Alum UMUC's most famous graduate is probably Ray Lewis who completed after opting out Senior season at Miami.
I did a combo of face to face and DL before finally finishing last fall. UMUC is a huge school, but I think it is because of the satellite locations and DL. At least it is better than UoP (at least I hope so).
They don't claim to be the largest school. They claim to be the largest public school, which is likely true.
Yes you do. talk to your guidance counselor and request some info from maryland. ________________________________ links deleted by moderator
I should have provided a better explanation. I was trying to point out that UMUC has made that claim for quite a while and point out the Cold War-era reference with "the free world." UMUC was a big provider of educational services to the military even back then.
Well, I have never met anybody graduated from UMUC. However, I have met some graduated from UMUC, but claim to be UMCP graduate. How do I know? Because they could not live and work oversea and earn their degrees at UMCP as the same time.
public education I think UMUC is mostly doing a lot of advertising that is local to the DC area. I hear them on the radio weekly, see tv commercials once a month, and they do local online ads (like on Washingtonpost.com). Interestingly, many of the UMUC military locations have established facebook pages, and you can look them up there. Maybe they are trying to focus their hype on the DC area and military community, since I think their out-of-state prices are a little high. I appreciate that as a public school and a member of the University System of Maryland they are often required by law to publish facts about the student body, names of professors, etc. Their newest 2010 stats from here ( UMUC Fact Book - Office of Institutional Planning, Research and Accountability - UMUC ) indicate that they have about 90,000 students enroll over the course of a year. Dividing total courses by unduplicated headcount in Europe and Asia suggests that students take just a few courses over a year at a military base that will transfer to a B&M school. You probably don't hear much about them because a lot of people evidently take courses to transfer out. For example they have a Biology major, but looking at their public course schedule (which is required to be public), it would be possible but difficult to get a really nice breadth of upper level biology courses, like you could do at UMCP. I take it as a good sign we don't hear more about them. People get the degrees and courses they need, and get a job. No fraudulent recruiting practices, doctored FAFSAs or the other items that are focusing government attention on DL-oriented schools.
I think UMUC is mostly doing a lot of advertising that is local to the DC area. I hear them on the radio weekly, see tv commercials once a month, and they do local online ads (like on Washingtonpost.com). Interestingly, many of the UMUC military locations have established facebook pages, and you can look them up there. Maybe they are trying to focus their hype on the DC area and military community, since I think their out-of-state prices are a little high. I appreciate that as a public school and a member of the University System of Maryland they are often required by law to publish facts about the student body, names of professors, etc. Their newest 2010 stats from here ( UMUC Fact Book - Office of Institutional Planning, Research and Accountability - UMUC ) indicate that they have about 90,000 students enroll over the course of a year. Dividing total courses by unduplicated headcount in Europe and Asia suggests that students take just a few courses over a year at a military base that will transfer to a B&M school. You probably don't hear much about them because a lot of people evidently take courses to transfer out. For example they have a Biology major, but looking at their public course schedule (which is required to be public), it would be possible but difficult to get a really nice breadth of upper level biology courses, like you could do at UMCP. I take it as a good sign we don't hear more about them. People get the degrees and courses they need, and get a job. No fraudulent recruiting practices, doctored FAFSAs or the other items that are focusing government attention on DL-oriented schools.