The University of Maryland at College Park (UMDCP) has long been a laughing stock within some circles of the CHS community, but it has been criticized for all the wrong reasons.

While it’s true that College Park isn’t the best college town in the country and UMDCP’s campus isn’t the nicest either, there is definitely one category that UMDCP wins every time: tuition.

UMDCP’s tuition price of $8,053 can’t be beat. Taking that into account, why do so many people knowingly decide to pay a steeper tuition rate at similar schools when UMDCP is cheaper and offers a comparable, and in some cases, superior education.

With the economy still in a recession one would think that everybody would be trying to save an extra buck. That’s why it’s even more shocking that students are knowingly choosing to attend inferior schools to UMDCP.

Indiana and Syracuse, for example, are two schools that are considered to be within the same academic range as UMDCP, yet several students every year choose them over UMDCP.

But here is the interesting fact: the annual tuition at the University of Indiana at Bloomington (IU) is $26,160, and Syracuse’s is $33,630.

So why, with UMDCP being significantly cheaper, do students choose to attend schools that are academically equal to or inferior to it?

According to US News and World Report, UMDCP is ranked as the 53 best university in the country, while Syracuse is 58 and IU is 71.

Despite having cheaper tuition and more prestigious academics, some CHS students still choose to attend IU and Syracuse over UMDCP.

The overarching reason why? Simply because they want to get out of Maryland or have a phobia of College Park and the surrounding area. They are afraid that their parents will be checking in on them constantly. But students fail to understand that in reality few parents actually come down to UMDCP on a regular basis.

The vast majority of parents understand that their kids need space and let them have their college experience largely on their own.

Another common complaint is that kids will run into CHS and MCPS students constantly. UMDCP has over 20,000 students, and that’s just for undergrad. Let’s assume that 150 students from each graduating class attend UMDCP. That would give us a ratio of 600:20,000, so it really is an insignificant fraction of the entire school.

It’s no secret that CHS draws from one of the most affluent suburbs in the country, and this is definitely a factor in college selection. Students considering large state schools in different parts of the country need to pay more attention to the financial aspect of a college education. Remember, it’s not just about escaping your family and having fun. In the current economic climate, every dollar counts when you are making major decisions about your future.