Letter from the Undergraduate Chairman

Dear Prospective Student,

Congratulations on your admission to UMCP’s Fall 2009 entering class!  I’m delighted to learn of your interest in Computer Science as a major.  My purpose in this letter is to ensure you can find all the answers you need to confirm your admission with confidence.

My professors, students and staff are like an extended family that gets better all the time.  Our department’s national reputation as a top place to study computer science attests to that. Nothing succeeds like success; so, you’ll find we attract a steady flow of new projects, activities and research to enrich our program. Best of all, these opportunities attract terrific people, so my family gets bigger and better!

At College Park, there’s always something to do. Yesterday I worked with students doing a study of information privacy policies in government.  Tonight when I’m done writing this letter, I’m off to meet with one of my honors teams; we’re building a mobile information system to help people with physical disabilities navigate campus more effectively.

Tomorrow I’ll be on-site with teams from my SEAM (Software Engineering At Maryland) cooperative; no sterile laboratory exercises for these students – we apply our classroom experiences to solve real problems with industrial partners. One of our on-going successes is a project in SEAM that coordinates the deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams formed by Federal Emergency Management Agency after 9-11.

That’s just a snapshot of my week. Each of my 50 faculty colleagues has his, or her, own research efforts under way as well.  Many of them support internship and research opportunities. I hope you’ll start to get to know us by looking up our projects on the web at www.cs.umd.edu.

Of course, not everything going on here happens through class. This week, our majors are preparing for the upcoming spring job fair, where recruiters from top employers come to town in hopes of snagging our students as new hires.  These companies or agencies – like Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Intel, Hughes Network, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Naval Research Lab, Verizon, NASA and NSA – are regulars here, because they’ve come to know and to trust my department’s role in launching professionals into successful careers. Nationwide the average starting salary for a CS major is $53,300; our top majors now entertain offers in the mid $70,000’s. Today’s big question isn’t whether our students will get jobs – we know the answer to that; it’s which student group will win the next Unreal Tournament. (Hey, you haven’t gamed until your LAN party is hosted by infrastructure at one of the top CS departments on the globe. Popcorn’s on us.)

I know you’ll have other questions – about our small class sizes, extensive computing resources and more – so please visit our campus and ask them!

To find out about upcoming events, please contact my undergraduate advisor, Melissa Affolter either by phone or email. Her direct campus line is 301-405-2737 and her email is melissa@cs.umd.edu.  We want to ensure all of your questions are answered!

If you are ready to confirm your admission, go to http://www.uga.umd.edu/admissions/admitted.asp and click on the red “confirm your admission” rectangle. I look forward to welcoming you!

Sincerely,

James M. Purtilo

Associate Chairman