University of Maine Top Questions

UMaine has a reputation for turning out (pre) doctors and engineers, and this has been a turn-off for some of the more artistically inclined students. However, UMaine has an active theater program that has successfully engaged audiences with performances of Hair and Avenue Q. The Maine Masque, a drama club, also turns out its fair share of intense and energetic productions. Music recitals in Minsky Hall are frequent and regularly feature talented musicians. The other UMaine stereotype is that it's all pickup trucks and flannel, and it is true that we are a rural campus that trains farmers and foresters, but students here can be just as engaged (or disengaged) with the wider world as their more trendily dressed peers in the city. Many students take advantage of study abroad at sister schools in Europe or research opportunities at the nearby Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory, as well as attending national conferences to present their work.

The stereotypical student at umaine is a science or computer nerd. We have a lot of students who come here for the excellent science programs, but that doesn't mean everyone is here is a science major. There is a huge variety of students here, from athletes to musicians to historians.

I big stereotype for the University of Maine at Orono is that everyone that comes here only wants to party. That is one of the big draws that brings people here is that they all want to party and have a good time and assume this school is an easy school. The stereotype is very true in a lot of ways. Many freshman come here to party and many do so, even in the "chemical free" dorms the majority of the students party. It isn't necessarily a bad stereotype, but a stereotype none-the-less.

Commonly, our school possesses an evenly-distributed array of demographics, not restricted to: boring hicks, stoners and hipsters, geeks, jocks, and the invisibles, better known as indistinguishable people. I'm not sure where exactly this stereotype originated, but I'm sure that it is almost entirely accurate. As diverse as we can seem, the power of social forces and peer pressure has crafted us into what we all feared we would become; exactly what they thought we were.

One of the most common stereotypes of students here at Umaine is that everyone drinks and smokes because there's nothing else to do up here. I remember before I came up my freshman year having multiple people tell me that. I don't think that, that's true at all. I think that sure some people develop those habits, but I feel like they'd do it at any school they went to.

I think it would be hard to paint everyone here at UMaine with a broad stroke.Students here come from all different backgrounds. Aside from having instate students, we have a large group of out-of-state and International students, all of which make a great mixture of diverse personalities. Whether you are a jock, or a bookworm, you will meet a ton of great people who share you interests.

Honestly, I've grown up in Maine my entire life, and only about 30 miles from UMaine, so I figured there was a great mix of students here like most of Maine. However, you would imagine the campus to have virtually no diversity. And I figured most of the students would be into many of the schools D1 Sports teams. However, many of these aren't the case. Many students are from out of state, or even international students. We aren't the most diverse school in the US by any means, but there is plenty of other cultures to learn about through our 10,000 or so students. And not all students are totally gun-ho for our sports teams. The student sections are often packed and full of energy at football and hockey games, however you will not be left out if you don't feel like going. UMaine truly has a place for everyone, no matter what you like to do.

Though there is a plethora of fraternities and sororities on campus, there are plenty of other clubs you can join as well. For example, I was president of the UMaine Crew Club where I met most of my friends. We have a marching and pep band, a number of sports teams and intramural clubs.

A common generalization you may hear, not only about UMO but about Maine in general, is that Mainers all talk with a "wicked" bad accent. The accent entails turning words that end in -ER to a general -AH sound and taking words that end in -a giving them an -ER sound. For example: you may hear ideas referred to as "idears" or you may hear lobster pronounced as "lobstah". It is really quite entertaining and the accent births in certain parts of Maine but not others. Many people think that we all speak with this "upta camp," up north accent which is false but some obviously do! Another common misconception is that Maine is really far away from other states in New England. For example, if you talk to anyone who is not geographically familiar with the state of Maine and you tell them you are from Elliot, they may not realize that it is on the New Hampshire border. In their minds, they are envisioning you up around the Canadian border! It is okay though, Canadians are wicked nice!

A big stereotype of the University of Maine, at least from surrounding schools, is that we are all a bunch of stuck up pricks because we attend the biggest school in Maine. This is far from true. We literally have thousands of students at this school. I've met hundreds already and everyone has been warm, welcoming, and more than friendly. Everyone is accepting of anyone and I am so happy I picked Umaine... GO BLUE!