Both Forbes and Money magazines have again recognized UMBC as one of the top value universities nationwide, providing one of the best investments that students and their families can make in higher education.
The Forbes 2017 Best Value College ranking assesses which schools “deliver the best bang for the tuition buck based on tuition costs, school quality, post-grad earnings, student debt and graduation success,” using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and the PayScale salary database. Forbes ranks UMBC as one of the top 200 of all universities nationwide and one of the top 75 public U.S. universities in value.
UMBC’s Forbes profile highlights the university’s unique programs in game development, Asian studies, and naval science. It also notes UMBC’s strengths across a wide diversity of fields, from a major research partnership with NASA to the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture.
Money’s 2017 Best Colleges for Your Money ranking, released this week, evaluates 2,400 U.S. colleges and universities across 27 factors, and names UMBC one of the nation’s top 300.
Jeffrey Selingo writes in The Washington Post, “Money magazine was one of the first to use data on the employment outcomes of graduates, and its rankings remain among the best for students and parents to consider.” The measure assesses educational quality, affordability, and alumni success to identify schools that represent a “great investment.”
UMBC “is a young school, but it has built an impressive record since its founding in 1966,” Money’s profile of the university notes. It emphasizes, “UMBC prides itself on its diverse campus and student body.”
Like Forbes, Money highlights UMBC’s diverse array of academic offerings, including graduate programs in human-centered computing, atmospheric physics, and interdisciplinary language, literacy, and culture, and particularly popular undergraduate programs in biology, computer science, and the social sciences. It also highlights the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park’s strengths in the life sciences, clean energy, and cybersecurity; over a dozen research and academic centers across technology, science, policy, and the arts; and a number of living-learning communities for students.
“Professors at UMBC are truly passionate about what they teach and make it a point to help the students understand each and every topic,” notes one student, in the Money profile. Another student calls academics “really where this school shines,” commenting that at UMBC “professors are absolutely great” and the “variety of courses here is unbelievable.”
One student comment focuses specifically on UMBC’s sense of community, sharing, “This school is very much like a cultural melting pot. There are so many different events/organizations to get involved with. This university is very academically focused, however it can also be a lot of fun.”
They also note, “The brightest students in the area come to this school, which is great because you can have meaningful dialogue with people here. […] It’s easy to network and make connections with people within the school, and companies/organizations in the area (we have a great reputation).”
UMBC is joined in Money’s top 300 by three other University System of Maryland schools: Towson University, Salisbury University, and the University of Maryland, College Park.
