Agreed on all points re: UMD. One of my aunts is a grad of UMD; she matriculated at the Ann Arbor campus, hated it, and transferred.

I'm a fan of smaller universities for anything except for terminal degrees. When you're a med, law or Ph.D. student, you need the resources of the largest universities. However, as undergrads and non-terminal master's students, many first generation students benefit from smaller classes taught by senior faculty [[as opposed to TAs and lecturers), personalized attention, and a more human scale.