UMD Admissions from MCPS

[Anonymous]

Newbie question for a DC MCPS junior -when you apply to UMD engineering , if you don’t get in for engineering will they automatically consider you for admission to Arts and Sciences and you could possibly be admitted for non engineering or are you just rejected period? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing about many MCPS kids rejected from UMD this year with stats that would have bene likely to be admitted in years prior. Anyone asked their school's counselors about this? Rumor mill suggests many less kids admitted.

If you look at the factors UMD looks at when determining who to admit (its holistic admissions factors), you'll see that a lot of them have nothing to do with stats. Extra points are given if English isn't your first language, if you've overcome hardship, based on your socioeconomic status or family educational background, etc. For better or worse, DEI is still alive and well at UMD.
https://admissions.umd.edu/apply/admission-review-process-factors

DEI for low income students of any race is fine. Solely race based is not. Factors like overcoming hardships makes sense as it shows the commitment and grit a student has to overcome their obstacles.

People who are born on 3rd base have it much easier to achieve high stats. Not so much for people born to low income families, and especially ones where the parents don't speak English or are uneducated.

-Asian American

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What's the benefit of FC to the school?

It allows them to pack more students in with full use of dorms and classrooms. Spring students can take the place of students going abroad, and night students can use regular classrooms. Educate more students with the same facilities.

They could achieve exactly the same goals by simply admitting the FC students as regular students.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. I'm not sure you understand how class space is assigned at UMD. There are limited seats per space. Space depends on the needs of the class (intro classes are going to get priority in the Lecture classrooms. Labs need specialized spaces. There are only so many places on the UMD campus that can manage a large-scale lecture-style classroom. FC helps to offset the need for classroom spaces. Using the space at "off times" provides small classes for FC students and helps to balance out the class assignment challenges the University is trying to meet. The University’s on-grid standard class scheduling patterns allow for maximum access to class offerings for students and facilitate the most efficient use of classrooms.

Seminar Room – small classroom, generally 20 seats or fewer
General Purpose Classroom – medium size classroom, generally 21-80 seats
Lecture Hall – large lecture-style classroom, generally 81+ seats
Computer Classroom – classroom with computers for instructional use

They could have exactly the same classes at exactly the same times with exactly the same instructors, without labeling them "Freshman Connection".

What? Call it Spring Admit? I don't understand your issues with Freshman Connection.

No, just admit them as regular fall admission, instead of as fall admission with an asterisk.

If they did this they would have to admit fewer students to UMD in the Fall which would reduce the number of students accepted from school districts like MCPS. FC is a smart approach for ensuring there are more opportunities for a broad range of students.

Eh? No, they would admit more students in the fall. The ones they're currently officially admitting for fall, PLUS the ones they're actually, in reality, admitting for fall, in the "Freshman Connection" category.

Space space space space space space …
Reading comprehension issue?

What space space space space space space? A person who is on campus taking classes as Freshman Connection is taking up exactly the same space as a person who is on campus taking classes as a regular fall admit.

One method FC alleviates the classroom headcount space issue is by offsetting the times. Classes can be offered to more students by spreading out the instructional space to times that are not typically used. The classrooms are literally filled to capacity you can't fit one or more students. FC uses the spaces more wisely and allows the FC students to get through they general education classes more efficiently.

Or they could just schedule regular classes at those times, to make the same efficient use of space.

They would need to hire more professors to teach the additional class. With FC, they don't have to hire more prof.

It's not just a matter of space, but a matter of professors.

Given what they are charging for 5 classes, there is no excuse not to hire more professors. They have plenty of buildings. Many classrooms are empty at any given time.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Seems some we not only need to talk about space, allocation of professor teaching units, but also budgets and expenses at UMD. Oh and they have plenty of building empty at any given time. Do you mean midnight on a friday?!

Clearly you've never been on campus during the day. They have a huge budget.

What are you basing the "huge budget" on? They also have huge expenses.

https://finance.umd.edu/budget/facts-and-figures/operating-budget

They have a spending issue and need to cut back expenses. Also, cut out merit aid for wealthy families.

By default - Merit-based financial aid is financial aid offered in recognition of student achievements (e.g. academic, athletic, artistic, etc.). Unlike need-based financial aid, merit-based financial aid does not consider the financial need of the student or family. The vast majority of UMD merit aid comes from donor funded endowments - so its not operating or state funds.

Merit aid for rich families is embarassing.

Typically rich families don't choose UMD for the merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter just got accepted but didn't get into the chemistry program she wanted.

What did she get then?

[Anonymous]

More recent posters on this thread: Why dont you go to the COLLEGES forum with your questions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Newbie question for a DC MCPS junior -when you apply to UMD engineering , if you don’t get in for engineering will they automatically consider you for admission to Arts and Sciences and you could possibly be admitted for non engineering or are you just rejected period? Thanks!

Yes. First they admit without consideration for major. Then afterward they admit for Limited Enrollment Programs. So you can be admitted but not achieve the second bar of getting into your major.

[Anonymous]

What do undecided students go to? Or do you have to apply by a major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearing about many MCPS kids rejected from UMD this year with stats that would have bene likely to be admitted in years prior. Anyone asked their school's counselors about this? Rumor mill suggests many less kids admitted.

4.65 WGPA with 13 APs rejeted not even wait list out of Churchill last year. Some 4.7 to 4.73 rejected.

I think 4.75 WGPA and up is minimun unless a hook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing about many MCPS kids rejected from UMD this year with stats that would have bene likely to be admitted in years prior. Anyone asked their school's counselors about this? Rumor mill suggests many less kids admitted.

4.65 WGPA with 13 APs rejeted not even wait list out of Churchill last year. Some 4.7 to 4.73 rejected.

I think 4.75 WGPA and up is minimun unless a hook

Does UMD wait list?? Can you confirm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do undecided students go to? Or do you have to apply by a major?

My kid applied as undecided and was admitted to Letters and Sciences, with an honors college invitation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing about many MCPS kids rejected from UMD this year with stats that would have bene likely to be admitted in years prior. Anyone asked their school's counselors about this? Rumor mill suggests many less kids admitted.

If you look at the factors UMD looks at when determining who to admit (its holistic admissions factors), you'll see that a lot of them have nothing to do with stats. Extra points are given if English isn't your first language, if you've overcome hardship, based on your socioeconomic status or family educational background, etc. For better or worse, DEI is still alive and well at UMD.
https://admissions.umd.edu/apply/admission-review-process-factors

DEI for low income students of any race is fine. Solely race based is not. Factors like overcoming hardships makes sense as it shows the commitment and grit a student has to overcome their obstacles.

People who are born on 3rd base have it much easier to achieve high stats. Not so much for people born to low income families, and especially ones where the parents don't speak English or are uneducated.

-Asian American

If kids have overcome these hardships and excelled academically, sure. If not, they are better off in a lower tier school that matches their academic preparation. And I say that as a low income, first gen student who went to Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland has only one top-tier public program: UMD. The UMD term can be used by UM, College Park, or UM, Baltimore, which do not have overlapping degrees. While there are definitely other good public colleges in Maryland, they are markedly lower caliber. UMBC, St. Mary's, and Towson are decent options.

UMCP programs with competitive admissions generally require that you start them as a freshman, which means you cannot transfer in after attending MC. However, there are plenty of other top programs at UMCP that are not competitive or take transfer students. That can be an excellent route to save money, too.

Not true - I know students who have transferred into business and engineering in the past couple of years after a year of community college.

Did you read that some programs are limiting to 100 transfers? Information about colleges can get stale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing about many MCPS kids rejected from UMD this year with stats that would have bene likely to be admitted in years prior. Anyone asked their school's counselors about this? Rumor mill suggests many less kids admitted.

If you look at the factors UMD looks at when determining who to admit (its holistic admissions factors), you'll see that a lot of them have nothing to do with stats. Extra points are given if English isn't your first language, if you've overcome hardship, based on your socioeconomic status or family educational background, etc. For better or worse, DEI is still alive and well at UMD.
https://admissions.umd.edu/apply/admission-review-process-factors

DEI for low income students of any race is fine. Solely race based is not. Factors like overcoming hardships makes sense as it shows the commitment and grit a student has to overcome their obstacles.

People who are born on 3rd base have it much easier to achieve high stats. Not so much for people born to low income families, and especially ones where the parents don't speak English or are uneducated.

-Asian American

If kids have overcome these hardships and excelled academically, sure. If not, they are better off in a lower tier school that matches their academic preparation. And I say that as a low income, first gen student who went to Stanford.

But, "excelled" for a kid born on first base is vastly different than "excelled" for a kid born on 3rd base.

And I also say this as a child of immigrants, whose parents didn't speak any English. My kid is an academic superstar btw - magnet program, 4.0, and currently has a 4.0 as a dual STEM major in college. They acknowledged that they were very privileged compared to the way I grew up, and their academic achievements was easier to obtain because we as parents were able to give them a huge leg up. I didn't do as well academically, and they said that if I had had the privileges that they had, I'd have done just as well as them. They have some friends in college who grew up more like I did, and they talk about how they grew up. DC is aware how privileged they are, and how that translated into them being academically advanced.

Lower income kids have to work twice as hard as those who are privileged to achieve the same results. So, if they work as much as a privileged kid, and they end up with a slightly lower GPA/SAT score, to me, such a kid has achieved a lot.

The playing field for low income students, particularly those whose parents didn't don't speak English, is not even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland has only one top-tier public program: UMD. The UMD term can be used by UM, College Park, or UM, Baltimore, which do not have overlapping degrees. While there are definitely other good public colleges in Maryland, they are markedly lower caliber. UMBC, St. Mary's, and Towson are decent options.

UMCP programs with competitive admissions generally require that you start them as a freshman, which means you cannot transfer in after attending MC. However, there are plenty of other top programs at UMCP that are not competitive or take transfer students. That can be an excellent route to save money, too.

Not true - I know students who have transferred into business and engineering in the past couple of years after a year of community college.

Did you read that some programs are limiting to 100 transfers? Information about colleges can get stale.

So in the end, those kids who didn't get in to UMD and went to MC for one or two years still won't get in to UMD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter just got accepted but didn't get into the chemistry program she wanted.

What did she get then?

Division of Letters and Sciences. TBH I don't even know what that is She was in the SMSC program with a wgpa of 4.88 and 15 APs.