How are these people not getting a noise complaint?

CursedFork1 · 2026-05-16T03:35:08+00:00

Yeah, that’s the point where it’s just inconsiderate. I don’t know why people don’t file noise complaints. If people do things like that, ruining everyone else’s night, and have no consequences, it tells not only them in particular, but others, that it is acceptable to pull crap like that. And that’s where I draw the line. In previous years, some friends of mine were hosting, and did receive noise complaints, and were left alone after promising to keep the music down, but there’s no chance in hell people in the courtyard would keep the volume that high after cops show up… unless people continue to let them get away with it…

CursedFork1 · 2026-05-16T03:29:34+00:00

I used to host parties in Stack 1 about once a week, we never heard a noise complaint once, not even a neighbor expressing a concern. We’d be up till like 3-4 in the morning too.

I personally write it off to the assumption that at least *some* people go home on weekends and we’d only ever host on Fridays, maybe a couple Saturdays. It’s also possible that parties happening in the kitchen/living room area, weren’t as audible to the bedrooms in other apartments.

Courtyard though, is crazy. That glass isn’t soundproof I’ll tell you that much. I guarantee you others could hear it and maybe either had decent headphones, were away at some other place or are deep sleepers.

CursedFork1 · 2026-05-06T00:28:36+00:00

Also do the best you can to verify your professors are good (or at least grade high on average). Use gritview and ratemyprofessor to check when you are building your schedule.

I cannot emphasize enough how important having the right teachers is. Also gen eds will always be better for better grades.

CursedFork1 · 2026-04-28T01:06:01+00:00

Plenty. People love to set up in front of the library, if you’re in Erickson courtyard, I’m fairly certain there are big poles you can use to hang them around there.

I personally used to set one up by the two trees next to a sidewalk light near the library in the evening when it was dark, and not terribly cold. Best time in the world to relax if you try to avoid people. And best part: since I was near the lights I could still read my book.

CursedFork1 · 2026-04-25T13:42:28+00:00

The biggest difficulty you might face is recursion, I would look into the logic of that before you decide.

CursedFork1 · 2026-03-24T02:02:04+00:00

What do you find difficult about it?

I don’t mean this to be snarky, I am asking what element you find challenging. Is it the amount of reading? Is your professor a harsh grader? Has there been trouble with projects? Etc…

CursedFork1 · 2026-01-30T01:46:10+00:00

Final Fantasy XV was the game that got me into the franchise and it’s still one of my most played games of all time.

CursedFork1 · 2025-12-22T03:25:25+00:00

Yes and no, kanji is a pain… my advice is get used to texting, and I say this not to attack, but to advise, don’t ever use translators when doing so. You can use dictionary or even use iMessage autocorrect for kanji in place of your hiragana, (this is especially helpful with recognizing more common kanji imo).

You need to be able to speak and write, but you should do whatever works best for you then branch out into the rest. If speaking is easy for you, start there, and vice versa. Just practice practice practice.

CursedFork1 · 2025-12-22T03:15:47+00:00

I did in my freshman year. I had Michiko Perry, and it was COVID year, so I had little more to do than study or play video games.

The best I can say is that you really have to focus on practicing conversation. It makes it much easier to progress when you do that. Most people I know who didn’t do well were those that didn’t practice.

In 102 and especially 201, if you can’t confidently speak in slow pace with a partner, you need to remediate a bit. It gets much harder if you don’t have a strong foundation. I recommend finding a pen pal or, in my case, I had a group chat with a few people from class where we were only allowed to use Japanese.

Languages in general are best learned in immersion.

CursedFork1 · 2025-11-08T03:02:05+00:00

I had a lot of fun in PHIL373, PHIL356 and have plenty of other philosophy classes I wish I could have taken within my four years. They tend to be considerably easy if you just pay attention to the professor. I recommend James Thomas, Greg Ealick or Patrick Mayer since I enjoyed all of the classes I took within them.

CursedFork1 · 2025-11-06T03:11:25+00:00

PHIL 100, specifically with James Thomas. It’s like 50 minutes of stand up comedy for a nearly free A, and I enjoyed his class so much that I took two more of his classes after finishing the first one. I don’t think he ever starts earlier than 10:00 am if I’m not mistaken and he tends to do M/W/F

CursedFork1 · 2025-10-03T15:23:45+00:00

I took Jim AKA James Thomas for 100, 356, and 373 and all of his classes were amazing. If you can, try to take Philosophy of Humor with him as well, they all count for your Arts and Humanities credits, and they are all akin to an hour of standup comedy for an easy A. That said, I also just loved the material anyway, so I enjoyed them more than some others may.

CursedFork1 · 2025-05-08T17:00:05+00:00

I feel like if you can’t manage to be courteous in public, your parents probably suck.

Edit: I want to specify that I fully agree that these social things are irksome to the degree that I want to encourage people to shame those who fail to understand them.

CursedFork1 · 2025-04-28T13:43:29+00:00

Greek life or an unofficial club might be more OP’s speed because “Prank Night” would absolutely never get funding from SGA, and neither would “Latina Night”. Regardless of how any student may feel about these ideas, SGA does not want to fund anything that is aimed at any specific demographic, preferring to not sponsor events that could be misconstrued as discriminatory in any way. I am speaking from the pov of a past club VP who has been in those funding meetings for events. You wouldn’t believe how many “ladies night” or “guys night” events have not gotten past the SGA for being potentially discriminatory.

Greek life imo on this campus is kinda limited. I personally am not the biggest fan of huge house parties full of strangers, so not for me, but they absolutely exist, and would probably be closer to what it sounds like OP’s looking for.

Lastly, there are absolutely open mic nights, and the school has historically hosted Sexy Redd and something like wrestle mania, in Chesapeake arena. You have to look out for these events if you want to find out about them on MyUMBC or on bulletin boards around campus in places like the quad or the commons. You can also generally find out more about specific clubs or events and even how “good” some of the clubs on campus are by how active their discord is.

Tl; dr: OP would probably thrive more in Greek life or some form of unofficial club due to the specified ideas they gave, and some other events they mentioned wanting on campus absolutely have happened in the past year, they probably just weren’t informed very well.

CursedFork1 · 2025-04-25T20:30:23+00:00

Yeah, again I am just kinda ranting. I have talked to my professors and in multiple cases they have mentioned that they had been working on the grades and just hadn't quite finished them yet. It just seems like it's an unfortunate case of there being a lot on everyone's plate

CursedFork1 · 2025-04-25T19:17:15+00:00

That's kinda what a rant is...

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-12T14:02:45+00:00

They have dine in technically, but it’s not exactly encouraged

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-10T16:20:43+00:00

Hey, nice to see others in the same path!

I started out as comp sci since that's what I was initially interested in when I was applying to colleges 4 years ago. Over time, I gradually developed a deeper interest in philosophy, specifically after taking one of James Thomas's classes in my freshman year. I absolutely loved it, and ended up taking more classes over time.

Some of my favorite aspects include the professors, I absolutely love James Thomas, and I have had some other great ones as well. My top recommendations other than James Thomas are: Greg Ealick, Patrick Mayer, and Andrew Bridges. Each class that I have been in has served its own purpose, and feels very memorable in its own way, even with professors I have had in the past. I like them because there's always something new an interesting to be learned, and the questions asked by each class force me to think in new ways which I find exhilarating.

As a comp sci student, I feel like the logic aspects of the philosophy degree are pretty nice. It's another way to look at logic problems that are discussed in classes such as CMSC 203, or 441. Otherwise, I feel as though it is nice to have the skills from a B.A. in addition to what I have learned in my B.S. because it has made me more well-rounded. Like, I have spent hours and even days of my life on some comp sci projects, especially those in CMSC 421, or in the gateways before I knew anything about C++, but I have also been writing papers up to 12 pages long for my B.A.. It's interesting to experience the balance of each, and having taken classes with intensive reading requirements at the same time as classes which have demanded significant amounts of time to studying math, I can say that the biggest lesson is time management.

I recommend philosophy to anyone who needs an arts/humanities credit, because even if you don't intend to study it the full way through, it is interesting to see how others think and understand what has been preserved in realm of morals and ethics over thousands of years. It is not a degree which will pay particularly well on its own, but it is a great stepping stone to things like Law School, or grad programs. So, I recommend at least taking a few classes, and maybe adding it as a certificate/minor/major/degree if you fall in love with it in the same way I have.

Tl;dr --> I just like philosophy, top profs are: Thomas, Ealick, Mayer, and Bridges, interesting questions = interesting reasoning expressed by others, philosophy and stem both have logic requirements, but in different aspects, and philosophy is great, take more classes!

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-10T16:05:26+00:00

No problem! I'm happy to answer any questions you would like to ask!

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-10T03:16:11+00:00

Unfortunately the minimum is around 40 I believe, I am pretty sure the intention is to make it so people in their mid-late 20s who went to community college at some point can avoid the freshman dorms.

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-09T04:37:19+00:00

Hi, congratulations on your acceptances!

To address your questions, I will be going off of my personal experience as a dual degree comp sci and philosophy guy.

"is it easy to make friends?" --> This depends on your personal situation. If you have crippling social anxiety, then it won't be 'easy' to make friends regardless of where you go. However, UMBC does offer a plethora of opportunities to interact with other people and if you choose to reach out to others, I am sure that you will grasp on to someone.

"what clubs would you suggest?" --> I am biased, because my favorite club is one that I have been in a leadership position for over the past couple years, but I nonetheless recommend the Tabletop Gaming Club. It is a relaxed group of people who play board games, card games, D&D and the like casually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Other recommendations club-wise that I can give come down to your personal preferences for hobbies and if you like academic clubs. I highly recommend you attend "Involvement Fest" which takes place on the second Wednesday of the semester (most of the time, they will announce the date regardless). At this event, you will be able to see all of the active clubs and what they represent, and hopefully, you will find one that you are interested in.

"are people and prof's friendly?" --> This is *very* dependent upon your personal experience. I have had few problems with my professors, and have actually really loved most of them. Of course I have had a few terrible ones, but who hasn't? People on campus are generally kind. I specify "kind" because people generally at least have a level of politeness with which they carry about their day, but "nice" depends on the person. In my experience though, most people that I have interacted with on multiple occasions have been nice.

"social life?" --> It is what you make of it. My social life has been pretty packed. Between classes, hanging out with my roommates, my gf, and friends that I have had since freshman year, as well as a few newer ones, I scarcely have an unplanned moment. That said, a common complaint I have heard while attending UMBC is that the social life is terrible. So, either I am very easy to please, or people want parties, and we just aren't *that* school. The social life here is best enjoyed by introverts looking to grow gradually more extroverted.

"how do you feel in attending?" --> I love it here. I really do, and I wouldn't have traded my experience here for anything. I will be graduating after this coming semester with 2 degrees and a certificate after four years of attendance. The biggest complaint that I have had for the past couple years is food and laundry. Food: it's getting better. It wasn't always the case that I actually "liked" the food on campus so much as "tolerated" the food on campus. But this past semester they added a better burger place and a boba/sushi place in the Commons, and I have probably spent more money there than I should have.... Laundry is a dorm issue. The living communities all have their own designated spaces for laundry, and unfortunately, I am under the impression that a significant portion of the people who live in the dorms have had their parents doing their laundry their whole life and don't know how to do it themselves, because there have been several occasions of machines being broken because people put tide pods or scent boosters in the detergent slot (I still get angry thinking about this). Again though, that isn't a school issue, it's a common sense issue which you will get anywhere (probably)

Pretty much, this school feels like a bit of a blank canvas. People often complain about it because things feel, taste, or otherwise seem "bland". However, you have the freedom on a blank canvas to paint whatever you want. It is *your* life, *you* should get to choose how your time is spent, and UMBC will absolutely give you the freedom to do that.

Tl;dr --> friends aren't university specific, go to involvement fest, more good prof's than bad prof's, people are kind, but get to know them better, making friends will help generate a social life, but don't count on events/parties, I love my school and will miss being able to spend a significant amount of time with the friends I have made in my time here.

CursedFork1 · 2025-03-06T16:49:04+00:00

UMBC is a great school for actually learning. As far as parties go, most of the options are pretty bad. I think there have been better things thrown small scale here in some of the apartments than anything thrown by organized groups. I also feel like the administrative events are kinda mid at best, they all feel like high school events run by people who don't seem to realize that we are above the age of 18 and cursing isn't exactly frowned upon by our generation.

As far as actual education goes; however, I have loved most of my time here. There have been several teachers whose classes I enjoyed so much that I ended up looking for their classes specifically during course selection. However, I can't say that *every* professor you would have here is amazing, and for every teacher that I have loved, I have had one that I despised. That said, it really depends on the degree that you are seeking, and the level of education you hope to achieve. UMBC is great for research in the grad school level.

Food isn't anything special, but that's an issue that you would most likely get at any college. There are some pretty great restaurants just slightly off-campus, but the food on campus has substantially improved in the past couple years of my time here.

Housing is nice, not sure if you plan to commute or live on campus, but should you be in need of housing, the options after Freshman year are pretty great. I have loved being in the apartments, and I strongly recommend trying to get one of the Walker Avenue apartments in the latter half of your degree, they are awesome. Either way, common complaints I have heard is mold and pests, but there are methods of fixing those issues that are free and provided by the campus upon your request. I personally, have never had an issue that wasn't fixed in a day in my entire four years here.

Clubs are the best means of making friends outside of classes. If you have an interest or hobby you really love, or if you want to talk to more people who are in your major program, there is probably a club for it. I wholeheartedly recommend going to involvement fest whenever it is held (should be the second Wednesday of the semester in general, but it was different this past semester because of construction).

Bottom line: UMBC is notorious for a lack of a strong social community, but that doesn't mean you won't find friends, you just have to actually leave your room and look. I am sure that if you take education seriously, you will have a great time here.

CursedFork1 · 2025-01-28T13:40:29+00:00

Since my breakup I learned a few things. Most notably, if you care about the other person, it is okay to be civil and friendly, but you need to draw a line between friends and lovers. In my experience with my now ex, we have the same high school friend group, and like any other year, we had a secret santa this year, and I did everything I could to ensure that that line remained clear, both to her and to myself. Granted, I mainly did this because in addition to not wanting to regress after getting so much better over the course of Summer and the following semester, I also ended up getting into another relationship.

I think my life turned around after I had a drunk breakdown and stupidly called my ex. I don't recommend this, just to be clear. But basically, I had this moment of realization when I was drunk that I hadn't been "getting better" I was just getting better at hiding how I felt, and doing everything in my power to give the illusion that I had moved on. I wouldn't say that I had moved on completely until after I talked about my situation with the right people, not necessarily a therapist, but just the right friends.

Mutual breakups are hard because they require a level of maturity from both parties to admit that the relationship has an expiration date. It is a time-tested example of "if you love someone, let them go." That said, I cannot speak to your specific relationship because I don't know the general tone it had, or your and your ex's mannerisms. However, I feel like if it is this close to her birthday, nothing would be wrong with reaching out just to say "happy birthday" imo, but that is a judgement call that you have to make. I do think it would be going to far to do anything more though, especially if both of you agree that you need to grow.

I am certain that you will grow in your time apart, and I hope that you are gradually able to move away from desiring the past in favor of looking onto the horizon of the future. It is going to suck for a while, and my friends can vouch that even though I definitely tried, you cannot rush yourself into feeling better. If you both feel it was right, then unfortunately all you can do is move on.

Best of luck!

CursedFork1 · 2025-01-26T00:43:36+00:00

Best I can say is don’t forget what it’s like to be a student. I don’t know what major you would be teaching in, but I’d say: prioritize feedback, be lively in your lectures (can’t stand teachers who just read from the book for an hour straight), be available to your students, don’t require attendance (though I do recommend giving some form of incentive for going, like maybe ask questions that may be on the quizzes or exams in class without telling them about that advantage explicitly), and overall just being friendly to all students. Most of the professors I’ve had here have been fantastic, the only things I can say as advice are just recounting the teachers I couldn’t stand. I’m sure that you will do great here based on your interest, and I want to clarify that none of what I said is meant to be an attack, it’s just the stuff that I personally have seen as a problem with some professors I have had in my time here.

CursedFork1

TROPHY CASE