Applying to UMBC (Baltimore, Catonsville, College Park: middle-class, crime, dorms)

[MaggieMay78]

I plan on applying to UMBC for Fall 2009 (grad school), and would like to know if the surrounding neighborhood is a safe place to live...or what other neighborhoods nearby might be safe/pleasant. I've been down to the area and the school, but only for a brief time, and don't know much about the neighborhoods. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[barante]

Yes it is as safe as anyplace is. There are some dorms. Would you be living on campus or off?

[MaggieMay78]

Thanks for replying...I plan to live off campus.

[bawlmer]

Safe compared to what? If you are coming from Bhagdad, Beruit, yeah it's real safe. If you are coming from Salt Lake City or Denver, you might have a different idea. Depends on what you are used to and what you are willing to put up with. Folks post here a lot asking if this or that area around Baltimore is safe. Fact is, Baltimore and it's surrounding environs are not what most people would consider safe. If you read other posts carefully you will see a plethora of "excuse clauses" from proponents of Baltimore. Check out how many times you read, "crime is everywhere" or "safe as anywhere else" or "Baltimore has always had crime." If you are willing to live with and around people who have an "Oh well" attitude toward murder, robbery, rape, etc., then this is the place for you. If your standards are a little higher, I'd look around elsewhere.

[barante]

UMBC is a good school and the area is fine. You'll like it. Although the number of dorms keeps increasing, it is largely a commuter school.

[MaggieMay78]

Okay, I apologize for being vague! I will be more specific. Will I, as a young woman, most likely feel safe if I have to walk around at night by myself? Or is that simply out of the question around UMBC? I was down by all the restaurants at the Inner Harbor last year at night, and didn't feel safe, even with my husband by me (this was during the winter, and there weren't many people around at night, other than a bunch of homeless men asking us for money). I imagine it *might* be the same around the school at night, but am not totally sure.

I lived in NYC for 4 years, and currently live in Pittsburgh, PA. I've also lived in Phoenix, AZ and grew up in Buffalo, NY. If you look at crime stats online, NYC is actually considered the safest of these cities (at least as far as homicide rates, I can't remember about all the other types of crime right now). I usually felt safe walking around NYC at night, as long as I wasn't in the middle of some horrible part of Brooklyn or the Bronx. BUT, it seems to me that Baltimore just has many more unsafe areas than other cities. That is why I asked this question. I don't want to go to school somewhere that I'll be worried coming out of the library at night!!!

Thanks.

[marcnelsonjr]

Maggie, the UMBC campus is located out in the suburbs of Baltimore. It's a big planned campus surrounded by parking lots. The nearby neighborhoods of Catonsville and Arbutus are fairly safe, middle-class places.

UMBC is certainly a safer campus than UM-College Park or Johns Hopkins. You can get the crime reports here (broken link) - mostly burglaries and car thefts, although I do notice one murder on campus in 2004. If you've lived in big cities, you'll be fine at UMBC.

[bawlmer]

UMBC is known as a safe campus. As stated earlier, it's mostly a commuter school, so you won't have a ton of folks with you walking around campus at night. If you are not living on campus, I would look somewhere away from Baltimore City-especially if you were nervous about downtown.

[MaggieMay78]

Thanks everyone! Just want to research the schools that I'm applying to, and UMBC is one of my top choices. Sounds like I'll be pretty happy if I end up going there

[helenejen]

I'm a professor at UMBC and as far as campuses go, it's safe, though, as I'm sure you know, you have to be careful walking around a campus at night, whether in a city or a college town. I suggest driving around Arbutus and Catonsville to get a feel for the area when you can. UMBC, though listed as in Baltimore, is definitely not in the city, as someone already pointed out.

Also, about 4000 students currently live on campus, which is almost half the undergraduate population. But very few graduate students live on campus.