What do you think of the University of Maine? Are there any guidelines for grants or scholarships?

Question

I have a kid who has U-Maine at the very top of the list right now. As far as I can tell, it's based on wanting to live in Maine and loving winter...before we take a long, long road trip, it would be great to hear from anyone with up-close and personal knowledge of the school. Do you like it? Good education? Good job placement? Safe? Scholarships - particularly to help offset the out-of-state premium? My kid has about a 3.6-3.7 GPA and 1250 SATs, with good activites and recommendations (interested in nursing).

Answer 1

I am a 2002 graduate of UMaine, with a BA in journalism and psychology. Academically, UMaine is as good as any other school. A high school friend of mine transferred to UMaine from the Rochester Institute of Technology because he changed his mind about becoming a photographer and wanted to become a doctor. At first, he thought he would spend a year at most at UMaine before going to a more prestigious school.

But he chose to stay and graduate pre-med from UMaine because he realized the professors were just as demanding as those from RIT and other schools he had considered. What had kept him from applying to UMaine in the first place was the belief that the state school couldn't possibly be as good as any other place.

He graduated from Tufts and is now a doctor in New York state.

Another friend of mine, from southern California, chose to spend a year at UMaine on a national exchange program because she wanted to see the state. She had never been to Maine before. She was an English major and a journalism minor. She loved her experience. The only thing that kept her from transferring to UMaine was having a large family back home.

As for campus safety, the campus is safe.

But like most schools these days, the administration is a stubborn bureaucratic behemoth at the top. However, the financial aid office was always fair to me. Although she has other duties at the Financial Aid Office from when I attended the school, Mila Tappan would be a good first person to contact. I can give you her contact information privately, if you would like. Just send me an e-mail via Answers.

Useful Web pages would be:

UMaine: http://umaine.edu
Financial Aid: http://www.umaine.edu/stuaid/
Academic Programs: http://www.umaine.edu/about/academicprograms/default.htm