Page 21 - Baltimore County Quality of Life Guide and Business Directory

Approximately 160,000 students attend the 25 colleges and universities in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) has three campuses and three extension centers around the county. In 2017, 62,362 students were enrolled either part time or full time, working toward associate degrees or taking remedial, noncredit, certificate or credit courses to enable them to change careers. Of the students seeking AA degrees, nearly half traditionally go on to four-year colleges, making CCBC an excellent place to start or continue higher education.
Towson University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) are both part of the state university system, offering local students affordable in-state tuition. Both universities also offer master's and doctoral degrees. Towson enrolls
about 22,300 undergraduate and graduate students, and UMBC, an honors college and research university, enrolls about 13,600. Both Towson and UMBC made U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Regional
Universities North: Towson coming in at #41 and UMBC at #86.
Two small, but distinguished, private colleges round out the higher educational offerings in the county. Goucher College in Towson is a prominent liberal arts college well known for its arts majors and its requirement that students study abroad. In 2017, U.S. News & World Report named Goucher among its top 10 most innovative colleges.
Stevenson University began life as
Villa Julie College, a two-year all-female commuter school with a heavy emphasis on career education in Greenspring Valley. Over the ensuing decades, Stevenson evolved into a four-year co-educational university with two campuses, state-of- the-art on-campus housing and athletic teams. Throughout, it has maintained
its reputation for preparing students for careers and lifelong learning, not just for
a first job. Stevenson is still located on
its original site, with a second campus in Owings Mills. Shuttles connect the two locations.
“Baltimore County has
all the amenities and resources of a large metropolitan area, with the unshakeable feel of
a small town. You are never more than two relationships away from ‘somebody who knows somebody’ that will be helpful to you and your business. My involvement with the Chamber’s subcommittees — such
as Education, Nonprofit and Legislative — allows me to interact with colleagues from different industries who share
a similar passion for our local quality-of-life issues.”
Joe Harsel, M.A. CFP Financial Advisor
VALIC Financial Advisors
DID YOU KNOW...?
• More than 89 percent of county residents over the age of 25 have high school diplomas, and 36.6 percent hold bachelor’s degrees or higher. The national average is just shy of 30 percent.
• Baltimore County’s own UMBC made NCAA tournament history in 2018
www.baltcountychamber.com 19
Flickr - Katie Simmons-Barth Photography