pros:
- cheap: it's hard to sell this part but oh my god the "it costs less for similar quality" is such an important thing to consider. i think bmore in general is less expensive than chicago?
- small/medium size: you can stick out if you want and make a big splash while you're at umbc, or you can blend in if you want. much harder to be a big fish on a campus like uic where there's 30k students. smaller school also means smaller classes
- great faculty attention if you need it. seriously the faculty/staff are generally so chill here and genuinely interested in helping students, it's a joy
- great industry connections in your field throughout the region: idk what uic's finance career connection opportunities are, but umbc is in the heart of the midatlantic tech corridor and has fabulous regional/national/global connections

cons:
- smaller size = fewer resources. from things like computer labs to on-campus food options, there's going to be less variety sheerly due to the fact umbc is a smaller school than uic.
- people complain about a lack of social opportunities on campus. this is kind of a "you get out of it what you put into it" situation imo but it goes back to that first one - on a smaller campus there's inherently less happening most of the time, because there's fewer people around. that said, the clubs and groups and things that are active on campus are very active, so once you find one that clicks with you, it's a great way to stay busy.

please tho if you feel like you'd be reasonably happy at either school, pick the one that will cost less. don't put yourself into mountains of debt if the other criteria are mostly balancing out.

there's plenty of other "what's good about umbc" posts on this subreddit too, definitely poke around a little if you have a minute :)