McDaniel College — Attraction in Westminster

Speaking from experience, McDaniel's graduate degree programs in education are a cash cow at the expense of Maryland school teachers. You see, school teachers in most Maryland counties are obligated to earn a masters degree in a set amount of time, and will give you an education stipend to help you reach that goal, but they have an agreement that they only pay upfront for McDaniel and Towson; since most teachers don't have that kind of money just laying around to wait to be paid back at the end of the semester, that really limits your options now doesn't it? So McDaniel hastily put-together all of these "distance learning" branches in those counties to take advantage of that stipend. Sign up for this grad program and you'll see the cracks immediately. "Professors" are just local school teachers. Most of them do take their job seriously and truly do want to help you succeed, but the problem is that they are working with a curriculum they had no hand in writing and they are getting zero support from the main College; some complained about getting nothing from the college except a list of power points and books they wanted us to buy. This led to what teachers in the state calls the "McDaniel teaching model": everyone reads a chapter from the book and summarizes it. Then go into the discussion group on blackboard and post your "aha moment", as in the thing you learned this week that made you go aha! This is the formula for every single class, and since you won't be learning anything, the only aha moment you're going to have is how much time you're wasting here. Once school districts started to pay out a lot for teachers to go to McDaniel, the price for graduate degrees there ballooned; when I first started the stipend was enough to cover a solid 3 classes at McDaniel, 4 years later the same amount of the stipend wasn't even enough to cover one. And since teachers in this distance learning setting won't be going to the main campus, they're forced to contend with McDaniels truly terrible website; where trying to do anything from access your email to paying a bill is a nightmare, and requires many different logins for different tasks. It takes a lot for a website to . And if you complete an education-related master's program through them, congratulations! You have nothing to show for it! Want to become an administrator at a school? Get ready to leave MD, since half the other teachers in the state also have a useless master's from McDaniel or Towson, and every single one of you is going to be passed over for people with degrees from Georgetown, UMD, or any other school with the slightest bit of prestige. Want to get a job in the private sector? Without a doctorate, be ready to settle for the same bureaucratic entry positions that you probably could have gotten with your bachelors degree. Want to get into a PHD program? Get ready for lots of sneers from schools at this tiny little liberal arts college that no one outside of MD has ever heard of; even most State schools carry better name recognition. If you're a school teacher in MD, working on a single income, then you really do have your back up against a wall, and McDaniel knows it. But you do have...

My daughter goes to McDaniel. She started her freshman year last fall in the middle of the pandemic and the school has been fabulous about ensuring student safety. They have frequent spot-checking with random COVID testing and have great systems in place for isolation and quarantine. Most of the classes are hybrid or totally online. This works out well because students are able to be on campus but take their classes online from their dorms. It's a good system because it keeps large gatherings to a minimum, but the students have ready in-person access to faculty as well - something crucial to success for first-year students transitioning to college life. Administration is communicative with parents.

Most of the on-campus population is first-year students, with the more experienced students able to stay off campus and use distance learning. I think that a lot of what they are doing is easier for McDaniel because it is such a small school and might not be feasible in larger schools.

Westminster is a fabulous, quaint little town with plenty of the usual college hangouts like cafes. The school is situated in a great area full of restaurants, shopping centers, etc.

All in all, we are pleased...

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FOR MS IN DATA ANALYTICS COURSE DO NOT ENROLL. Dean Vickie Mazer and chair Kevin McIntyre are highly discriminating. They fail students to steal more money from international students on name of false code of conducts. KEVIN is worst professor you will ever have and he is chair so without him you cannot pass this program 0 guidance from him to pass. This college has increased Tution fees, started charging on in residency, admin, transportation charges (even though you do not use it) and other ways to STEAL money. Vicke openly says that as you are on F1 status and it's a big favor which they allow us to work. So they do whatever they want to get money out from you. DSO is not at all expierenced as they transfered my SEVIS without my permission on different date and also created lot of obstacles to transfer at first which is totally illegal as per USCIS rules. I have reported this school to SEVP to cancel there SEVIS license. Pass on this word to friend to beware them from this trashy school before it's too late. NEVER ENROLL IN THIS CPT IN MS IN DATA ANALYTICS. IT IS NOT WORTH WITH MCDANIEL THEY ARE JUST STEALERS TO STEAL MONEY FROM ALL...