Colleges in Maryland

Maryland colleges and universities give residents a wide choice for higher education with a total of 57 colleges and universities. Additionally, there are more than 175 private career schools scattered across the state. This is an impressive number of Maryland schools considering it is one of the smallest states in the US in land area.

Colleges in Maryland include the University System of Maryland with 13 unique and individual institutions. Eleven of the campuses are degree-granting schools in Maryland while two campuses exist which have research and service components. These diverse institutions provide a great variety of choices for those seeking higher education in Maryland.

Students wanting to attend college in Maryland can also choose one of the state's outstanding community colleges or independent colleges. The State has many financial aide programs to assist students in furthering their education. Assistance is available in the form of grants, scholarships and student loans. The state provides financial counseling to students and families that need student loans to further their education beyond public or private high school.

Maryland has two other excellent four-year institutions, Morgan State University and Saint Mary's College of Maryland that are not part of the University System of Maryland. They have their own governing boards. The combined resources of these diverse institutions enhance the quality of higher educational programs and services in Maryland. In addition, Maryland students also have the option of attending one of the state's excellent independent colleges and universities or outstanding 16 community colleges.

Programs of study at colleges in Maryland offer a variety of educational experiences from the traditional high school to college route to adults who return for changing or upgrading their careers. The fact that almost one-third of the state's residents have a bachelor's degree or higher is testimonial to the excellence of Maryland's system of higher education. This puts the state at the fourth highest percentage for this statistic among the United States.

Maryland has several historic and renowned universities. One of the most prominent and well-known is John Hopkins University. It was founded with a grant from a Baltimore entrepreneur of the same name in 1876. The most historic of all colleges in Maryland is the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The state's first public university, it was founded in 1807. It contains the university system's only human services and public academic health programs. It is also one of only two law centers in the state. The other law center is found at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

The University of Maryland at College Park is the state's largest undergraduate institution. It was founded in 1856 as the Maryland Agricultural College. The second largest university in the state is Towson University which was founded a decade after the Maryland Agricultural College.

In addition to St. Mary's and Morgan State, there are two other self-governed and federally funded Maryland colleges, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the United States Naval Academy.

Economy and Employment in Maryland

As of 2009, Maryland boasted the largest income for families of all US states at a median household income of $69,272 annually. Howard and Montgomery are counties in the state that rank the third and tenth wealthiest of all counties in the United States. The state also claimed the nation'slowest poverty level in 2009 at 7.8 percent. Maryland's unemployment rate was 6.6 percent in 2012, a time when most every US states experienced high unemployment rates.

Economic activity in Maryland is heavily influenced by location. The port of Baltimore and related trucking and train activity is important to the state's transportation and ties in closely to its economy. The port brings in a variety of bulk commodities and raw materials such as sugar, petroleum and iron ore. These in turn are sent to manufacturing centers inland all the way to the Midwest. The port also handles several brands of imported vehicles that are distributed to many parts of the nation.

Food production is an important industry in the state. Commercial fishing takes place on the Chesapeake Bay and the state's short Atlantic seacoast. The major catches include oysters, blue crab, striped bass and menhaden. The fertile land of the state's coastal and Piedmont areas produces crops such as sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peas and watermelon. Manufacturing in Maryland includes computer equipment, electronics and chemicals.

State and local government, health care, social assistance, retail trade and technical and professional services are some of the providers of employment in Maryland. There are more than 50 research facilities and Federal agencies across the state that also help produce jobs for the state's residents. The state's largest employer is the Fort George G. Meade military installation with at least 44,530 employees.

Real estate is Maryland's largest private sector industry and controls 17 percent of the state's total economic activity. Other private industries that provide a large number of jobs include Black & Decker, Lockheed Martin, McCormick, General Motors, Marriott International, Northrop Grumman, IBM and Verizon. Federal agencies that provide a large number of jobs include the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Maryland's close proximity to the nation's capital combined with quality

higher education and large scope of business and industry is likely to help the state remain one of the nation's most prosperous states.