The 2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog has been published and is available at https://catalog.umbc.edu/.  The Undergraduate Catalog provides current and prospective students, faculty, and staff with useful information about program and degree offerings, academic policy and requirements, and programs and services. Users can favorite courses and programs or share them on social media. Archived catalogs from 1994-2024 can be accessed via the website.

Sincere thanks to the department catalog editors for their collaboration and careful timely review and update of important content.

We are delighted to announce the launch of Degrees to Succeed, a new partnership with the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC).  This partnership reaffirms our commitment to the success of our transfer students.  Degrees to Succeed builds on numerous partnerships between CCBC and UMBC including the Transfer Student Alliance (TSA) program by providing a pathway for all associates degree-completers seeking to continue their bachelor’s degree studies at UMBC. 

CCBC students committed to matriculating to UMBC after earning their associates degree will benefit from numerous Degrees to Succeed opportunities including pre-advising, joint programming, access to campus events, guaranteed admissions, and priority scholarship consideration.  Additionally, this partnership reaffirms our commitment to continue acknowledging and fully leveraging the associates degree in students’ progress to degree completion including maximizing the awarding and application of transfer credit.  We look forward to welcoming and engaging our first Degrees to Success students beginning Fall 2022.

The Degrees to Succeed initiative supports the goals of the Strategic Enrollment Plan (SEP) and the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) to enhance transfer student success and increase the number and diversity of degree completers.

Thank you to our many campus partners who were instrumental in bringing this important partnership to fruition including Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment Management.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the Degrees to Succeed Pathway, please contact Nathan Fanning, Associate Director of Transfer Recruitment, Admissions and Partnerships at nfanning@umbc.edu or x53818.

Dale Bittinger

Assistant Vice Provost

Undergraduate Admissions, Orientation, and School Partnerships

On January 5, 2022, UMBC will launch its enhanced online enrollment tools and interface to support students’ academic planning.  The enhanced tools and interface, powered by HighPoint Technology Solutions, provides critical infrastructure needed to support a more improved student enrollment experience for both students and advisors, including degree planning, class search, registration and schedule adjustments.  This improved enrollment experience further supports and promotes the goals and objectives of the Strategic Enrollment Plan (SEP) with respect to the defined Student Success Strategy.  Specifically, students and advisors will benefit from:

An Updated Look and Feel:  The new interface offers a fresh, modernized look and a more intuitive experience. Students and advisors serving as early test-drivers of the enhanced tools and interface report overall positive user experience.  

A More Integrated Experience:  Because the new enrollment solution sits inside PeopleSoft SA (our student information system), enrollment transactions will be facilitated more seamlessly from beginning to end.  For example, students can build courses into their degree planner and schedule builder, place the courses into their shopping cart, and register for the courses within the same platform. Students no longer have to move from one tool to another to complete an enrollment transaction.

More Real-Time Transactions and Updates: The unified experience and approach will allow the scheduler builder tools, that includes class enrollments, open seats and waitlist totals to be almost real-time - providing both students and faculty with timely and accurate information for academic planning purposes.  

More Robust Class Search Options:  The enhanced tools respond to feedback from students and advisors about the need for more robust search options.  Now, students and advisors can leverage more search options including the ability to search courses that meet GEP requirements without having to select additional search criteria.  Additionally, search results are displayed in an easily readable format without the need to drill down for more course detail.

For more information about the enhanced enrollment tools and interface, we invite you to review the online FAQs or contact the Registrar’s Office.

The enhanced online enrollment tools and interface represent the beginning of a series of planned enrollment enhancements to support student success.  Other planned enhancements include an improved new student onboarding (confirmation/deposit) experience and more robust degree planning  tools.

Thank you to the Registrar’s Office and the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) teams for leading, planning and facilitating these important enhancements.  Thanks, too, to our SA Academic Advisory Committee - represented by our Colleges, Office of Academic and Pre-professional Advising, Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and the Student Government Association - for providing critical insight and feedback about the student and advisor enrollment experience to help inform this project.

I am pleased to inform you that the search for the Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships position has concluded and Andrea Cipolla will be joining the UMBC community on Monday, October 5.  

As our new Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, Andrea will provide management oversight to all matters related to financial aid including administering all federal, state, and institutional policies and procedures relating to student financial aid and merit scholarships.  Additionally, Andrea will provide oversight to the planning, implementation and assessment of the financial literacy and education efforts.  Further, Andrea will work in collaboration with other key leaders of Enrollment Management, Academic Affairs, Institutional Advancement, Institutional Research, and Student Business Services, to provide leadership and support in developing, employing, and analyzing strategies to maximize use of need-based aid and merit aid in supporting institutional enrollment goals. Andrea will be responsible for preparing all federal, state, and institutional reports pertaining to aid/scholarships, and will serve as the UMBC liaison to state and federal student aid funding agencies.  

Andrea comes to us most recently from University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) where she served as Assistant Vice President for Systems for the Office of Financial Aid.  As Assistant Vice President, Andrea was responsible for the Office of Financial Aid PeopleSoft operations and led and facilitated business process improvements and re-engineering aimed at enhancing the student experience for over 50,000 financial aid applicants and operational efficiencies in the processing and administration of over $300 million in aid annually.  Andrea had direct oversight of the Federal Pell and Direct Student Loan programs to ensure compliance in the delivery, reporting and reconciliation of funds.  Additionally, as a member of the senior leadership team, Andrea was responsible for preparing and analyzing statistical data to assist with policy development, program evaluation, funding models, business process changes and budget projections. Andrea received her B.S. in Business Management at the Pennsylvania State University.  Please join me in welcoming Andrea to UMBC.  

I wish to express my deep appreciation to Dale Bittinger, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Admissions, Orientation and School Partnerships and Search Committee Chair, for his leadership and commitment to this important search. I also wish to thank the following members of the Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Search Committee:  Jill Barr, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, Fritzie Charne-Merriwether, Special Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs, Kathy Dettloff, Associate Vice President for Financial Services, Keith Harmon, Director of Meyerhoff Scholars Program, Amanda Knapp, Associate Vice Provost and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Colleen Lindbeck, Senior Associate Director of Financial Aid, Megan Rolenc, Senior Director for Development and Greg Saba, Director of Student Business Services.

Yvette Mozie-Ross, PhD

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Planning

After 40 years of serving higher education in several financial aid roles, including the State of Maryland and the University System of Maryland, Jane Hickey is retiring from her position as Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at UMBC, effective October 1, 2020.

Jane began her career first as a student assistant in the Financial Aid Office of Salisbury University, her alma mater.  After earning her bachelor’s degree, Jane worked first at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the Office of Financial Aid before being hired at Chesapeake College as director.  She later served as the Associate Director for MHEC’s Office of Student Financial Assistance for nearly six years.  She has served several Maryland Community Colleges, including Anne Arundel Community College and Prince George’s Community College as Director of Financial Aid.  Jane moved to the University of Maryland Global Campus (formerly University of Maryland University College) in 2010 where she served as Executive Director of Financial Aid.  

In February 2014, Jane joined the UMBC community as Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships.  During her tenure as director, Jane contributed immensely to the effective and efficient administration of need-based and merit-based aid.  Her contributions include successfully leading UMBC through its first Department of Education Program Review (required for Title IV aid eligibility); restructuring roles and responsibilities and establishing protocols and procedures to maximize audit, compliance and quality assurance standards; implementing an online portal to promote and facilitate the application, review and selection of hundreds of institutional and private scholarship opportunities; and, the recent expansion of the financial aid services to include financial literacy education, to name a few.  UMBC has benefited immeasurably from Jane’s depth of knowledge and expertise in student financial aid and her student-centered approach.  We will miss Jane tremendously.

Welcome to UMBC! As an honors university, we take great pride in preparing you, our student, to be successful in all of your pursuits. Managing money is an important part of your daily life and we want to assure that you are well-versed in this important life skill that many find challenging.  

Your journey to financial wellness begins now with our interactive (and entertaining) online FinancialSmarts CashCourse! This multi-module, self-paced course ensures that you are as well-prepared to manage your budgets, bank accounts, assets and debt as you are to master your academic and career interests. To enroll in the online CashCourse click here.

Once you’re enrolled in the course, you’re welcome to complete as many modules as you’d like….whenever you’d like. But here’s where financial smarts start to pay off….

●      If you complete the pre-assessment and one module, your name will be entered in our $100 drawing.

●      If you complete the pre-assessment and two or more modules, your name will be entered in our $300 drawing.

●      If you complete the pre-assessment and all modules, your name will be entered in our $500 drawing.

If selected for the drawing you will have the scholarship prize added to your billing account. This scholarship can help pay for tuition; if your bill has already been paid the award will be refunded to you to help with other educational expenses.

All drawings will take place on September 16, 2020. So don’t wait...get started now! If you have questions about the online FinancialSmarts CashCourse, please feel free to contact us at financialsmarts@umbc.edu.

Enjoy the remainder of your summer and best wishes for a successful first semester at UMBC!

Your UMBC FinancialSmarts Team 

Established in 2011 through a partnership between Enrollment Management and Financial Services, FinancialSmarts, UMBC’s award-winning financial literacy program, continues to evolve.  

Effective July 1, the FinancialSmarts program will move from its current home in the Office of Enrollment Management to its new home in the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.  This strategic move expands the scope and reach of our Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to serve all students at UMBC, beyond need-based and merit eligible students, including undergraduate, graduate and international students.  Additionally, this move positions our FinancialSmarts program to provide timely and critical personal financial management education (i.e. budgeting and saving, credit and debt management, investing and retirement planning, etc.) to our students as they engage in academic planning, including exploring options to fund their education. 

I am also pleased to share that in her new capacity as Senior Associate Director for Financial Aid and Scholarships, Colleen Lindbeck will provide day to day management and oversight of the FinancialSmarts program including direct supervision of Hannah Sadollah (’19, Psychology), Financial Literacy and Education Program Specialist.  Colleen has served as a member of the Financial Literacy and Education Committeesince its inception in 2011 and was instrumental in the development and launch of our FinancialSmarts Grant program – an initiative promoting financial capability and wellness to students with the greatest demonstrated financial need.  In her capacity, first, as the Financial Literacy Student Assistant and then as the Financial Literacy and Education Program Specialist, Hannah has been hugely instrumental in the development, planning and implementation of our signature financial literacy programs including CashCourse, CashCoach, CashClips and Money Smart Week. 

I am confident Colleen, Hannah and the Financial Aid and Scholarships team will take the FinancialSmarts program to new heights and will continue to provide our students with the resources and tools to make informed and effective financial decisions.   

Thank you to our campus partners for their continued support of our financial literacy efforts and a special thank you to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Orientation, the Registrar’s Office and the Division of Professional Studies for their generous support of this vision.

Yvette Mozie-Ross, PhD

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Planning