Countdown to Terp invasion

In less than three weeks, over 26,000 University of Maryland students, including a new class of 3,975 freshmen Terps, will invade College Park.

Good or bad—more students in town means more of a lot of things.

More cars on the road, more customers in shops and restaurants, more Maryland hoodies and Greek letters seen waiting at bus stops and trudging down route 1, more public events hosted on campus, and more late nights for neighbors who find themselves next door to this year’s “party house”.

For local businesses, returning students means better business and the end of an empty store.

“Look around, right now there is no one in here,” said Nomie Hamid, owner of Krazi Kebob on Lehigh Road.  “It never looks like this in the school year. We’re ready to have the students back.”

On campus, faculty and staff take their final vacations and make last-minute alterations to their syllabi.

For them, the return of students is motivating—after all, it’s the reason they work at the university.

“The school comes alive when they are here…that’s the whole point of the institution,” said Jeanette Snider, an undergraduate advisor at the Smith School of Business. “I’m extremely excited for the students to come back, and I’m especially excited to get to know the new students.”

Not all students skip town for the summer, some stay to take summer classes, work on campus or hold internships.

“It’s really quiet here in the summer, especially where I work in my lab,” said Ben Wan, graduate student in materials science and engineering. “I like it better when there are more students on campus.”