UMD decision 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

They have the option for CC to flagship. I know that route isn’t as popular here in Maryland, but it’s not uncommon for people to start at community college or directional universities and later transfer to their state flagship. Or if they are DCUM middle class, look for the OOS schools where they have a chance of merit and it’s not the public ivies. It might be more than UMD but it it won’t be private school triple the cost more expensive. I will also add that my co-workers are amazing and we all went to different schools including UMBC and Towson. Some people could only afford to live at home and go to a college nearby or start at community college first. That didn’t mean they weren’t smart or hard working.

Sure.

But imagine having to tell your 4.0 UW kid they need to go to MC and transfer to UMCP when their peers with lower stats got into UMCP while your kid was rejected. It stinks.

And there’s a reason we have this same conversation on dcum year after year.

[Anonymous]

Guys, every college that matters (and even those that don’t based on the opinions on dcum) doesn’t care about weighted GPAs; it all gets recalculated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for Biology major. Good MCPS high school. 4.8 weighted GPA, several 5s and 4s on AP exams. Multiple character awards for varsity sports. Accepted into Virginia Tech. Rejection is redirection!

White?

This is a trend: highly qualified/overqualified kids from mcps shut out. It prompted a scandal last year that included a professor to needlessly escalate it.

Yes, white. My daughter's friend that was rejected was Asian. The child that got in with a 3.0 was not white. I say all of this factually and without any feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

I'm a HS teacher and our counselors say that UMCP is the hardest school to predict. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but they say they are surprised every year, both by the kids who they thought were strong candidates who don't even get Freshmen Connect, and the kids who get honors who they weren't sure would get in.

But the statement that there are kids who "can't afford to send their high stats kids out of state" is confusing. My kid, who is a solid student but not good enough that applying to UMD made sense, has multiple merit offers that bring the cost of attendance below the in state COA of UMD, and that's before need based aid has been awarded.

I expect that the top is predictable admits (barring something like they applied RD instead of EA), and I believe the kids that really aren’t qualified at all are predictable. I expect once you get to that in between space it does become hard to predict because they do holistic review. And, I could imagine that how they do that holistic review is different at Blair than it is at another school in MCPS, and that would be different than how they apply holistic review with kids from Garrett County.

I can appreciate if that large middle swath feels unpredictable but again, our Naviance pretty clearly shows that there is a top line above which almost everyone is admitted, and a bottom line below which almost nobody is admitted. The middle shows more intermingling.

+1000. It was obvious on Naviance/SCOIR what that line was for both my kids at their respective high schools. They were in the unpredictable middle. Their college counselors were clear UMD was a target/low reach. I’m biased as a parent that they were good high school students, they have high GPAs at competitive colleges, but it was clear that for UMD it could go either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for Biology major. Good MCPS high school. 4.8 weighted GPA, several 5s and 4s on AP exams. Multiple character awards for varsity sports. Accepted into Virginia Tech. Rejection is redirection!

White?

This is a trend: highly qualified/overqualified kids from mcps shut out. It prompted a scandal last year that included a professor to needlessly escalate it.

Yes, white. My daughter's friend that was rejected was Asian. The child that got in with a 3.0 was not white. I say all of this factually and without any feeling.

Unfortunately, this happens at a lot of univ.

My kid was rejected at MIT: ORM male, 4.0/4.92 1580 SAT (one and done) from a magnet program. A classmate of theirs who was LGBTQ and a URM who struggled in their MVC class that they had together got into MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMCP has old, gross housing.

ICYMI: they just shut down the campus due to lack of heat and water in the prehistoric dorms.

And be sure to google recent criminal activity on Route 1. I personally know of two students who were assaulted, and I don’t even have student on campus.

Signed,

Terp alum who still attends sporting events but thinks the campus needs an upgrade

Kid rejected, huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for Biology major. Good MCPS high school. 4.8 weighted GPA, several 5s and 4s on AP exams. Multiple character awards for varsity sports. Accepted into Virginia Tech. Rejection is redirection!

White?

This is a trend: highly qualified/overqualified kids from mcps shut out. It prompted a scandal last year that included a professor to needlessly escalate it.

Yes, white. My daughter's friend that was rejected was Asian. The child that got in with a 3.0 was not white. I say all of this factually and without any feeling.

Unfortunately, this happens at a lot of univ.

My kid was rejected at MIT: ORM male, 4.0/4.92 1580 SAT (one and done) from a magnet program. A classmate of theirs who was LGBTQ and a URM who struggled in their MVC class that they had together got into MIT.

What does lgbtq have to do with it? My dd is as well and it is nowhere on the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

They have the option for CC to flagship. I know that route isn’t as popular here in Maryland, but it’s not uncommon for people to start at community college or directional universities and later transfer to their state flagship. Or if they are DCUM middle class, look for the OOS schools where they have a chance of merit and it’s not the public ivies. It might be more than UMD but it it won’t be private school triple the cost more expensive. I will also add that my co-workers are amazing and we all went to different schools including UMBC and Towson. Some people could only afford to live at home and go to a college nearby or start at community college first. That didn’t mean they weren’t smart or hard working.

Sure.

But imagine having to tell your 4.0 UW kid they need to go to MC and transfer to UMCP when their peers with lower stats got into UMCP while your kid was rejected. It stinks.

And there’s a reason we have this same conversation on dcum year after year.

Every college has a range of GPAs and unless UMD has said 100% of their class has 4.0 UW, you have to assume kids get in with less than a 4.0 and some kids with a 4.0 don’t get in. I’m not sure what you’ve been telling your kids, but we’ve been clear from the beginning that UMD is tough, and even with high stats there are no guarantees. Have a back up plan whether that’s applying to colleges where you can get into the honors program and/or merit or be willing to go to CC and transfer.

The other thing is your kid should have safety schools on their list that they are willing to attend and the family can afford. So if they truly have safeties they are actually willing to attend, they should have already reconciled that they could be at a school where other kids didn’t have a 4.0 coming in and that also might be lower on prestige than where some of their classmates with lower GPAs end up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

They have the option for CC to flagship. I know that route isn’t as popular here in Maryland, but it’s not uncommon for people to start at community college or directional universities and later transfer to their state flagship. Or if they are DCUM middle class, look for the OOS schools where they have a chance of merit and it’s not the public ivies. It might be more than UMD but it it won’t be private school triple the cost more expensive. I will also add that my co-workers are amazing and we all went to different schools including UMBC and Towson. Some people could only afford to live at home and go to a college nearby or start at community college first. That didn’t mean they weren’t smart or hard working.

They can also go to one or the other strong Maryland public colleges or universities. If they want to live away from home, and their stats are competitive for MD they can look at private options with good merit. If they want to commute from home and don’t like whatever schools are within commuting distance, they can also look at local private schools with good merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

They have the option for CC to flagship. I know that route isn’t as popular here in Maryland, but it’s not uncommon for people to start at community college or directional universities and later transfer to their state flagship. Or if they are DCUM middle class, look for the OOS schools where they have a chance of merit and it’s not the public ivies. It might be more than UMD but it it won’t be private school triple the cost more expensive. I will also add that my co-workers are amazing and we all went to different schools including UMBC and Towson. Some people could only afford to live at home and go to a college nearby or start at community college first. That didn’t mean they weren’t smart or hard working.

Sure.

But imagine having to tell your 4.0 UW kid they need to go to MC and transfer to UMCP when their peers with lower stats got into UMCP while your kid was rejected. It stinks.

And there’s a reason we have this same conversation on dcum year after year.

Every college has a range of GPAs and unless UMD has said 100% of their class has 4.0 UW, you have to assume kids get in with less than a 4.0 and some kids with a 4.0 don’t get in. I’m not sure what you’ve been telling your kids, but we’ve been clear from the beginning that UMD is tough, and even with high stats there are no guarantees. Have a back up plan whether that’s applying to colleges where you can get into the honors program and/or merit or be willing to go to CC and transfer.

The other thing is your kid should have safety schools on their list that they are willing to attend and the family can afford. So if they truly have safeties they are actually willing to attend, they should have already reconciled that they could be at a school where other kids didn’t have a 4.0 coming in and that also might be lower on prestige than where some of their classmates with lower GPAs end up.

Bless your heart.

We know this.

But you don’t understand what some of us are frustrated with when it comes to the ridiculously unpredictable admissions process at UMCP that seems to disproportionately impact a certain group of applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMCP has old, gross housing.

ICYMI: they just shut down the campus due to lack of heat and water in the prehistoric dorms.

And be sure to google recent criminal activity on Route 1. I personally know of two students who were assaulted, and I don’t even have student on campus.

Signed,

Terp alum who still attends sporting events but thinks the campus needs an upgrade

Kid rejected, huh?

Nope.

Kids had zero interest in staying local. They are out of state broadening their horizons rather than doing mcps 2.0 at UMCP.

But I follow this stuff closely for a variety of reasons (including professional reasons).

I still think UMCP offers a top notch education at a good price point. I’m definitely not a hater. In fact, we have season tix for two sports and are routinely on campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected, but dc isn’t upset. It was not a top choice and they have much better options elsewhere for their intended major. Only applied because we’re in state.

So UMD figured that out and protected their yield

There’s no way UMCP can figure that out.

The reality is plenty of Marylanders can’t afford to send their high stats kids out of state and desperately want their kids to get into our flagship.

But the reality is certain kids from mcps are simply shut out.

A college counselor I know very well says UMCP is irrationally unpredictable. Pretty much sums it up.

They have the option for CC to flagship. I know that route isn’t as popular here in Maryland, but it’s not uncommon for people to start at community college or directional universities and later transfer to their state flagship. Or if they are DCUM middle class, look for the OOS schools where they have a chance of merit and it’s not the public ivies. It might be more than UMD but it it won’t be private school triple the cost more expensive. I will also add that my co-workers are amazing and we all went to different schools including UMBC and Towson. Some people could only afford to live at home and go to a college nearby or start at community college first. That didn’t mean they weren’t smart or hard working.

Sure.

But imagine having to tell your 4.0 UW kid they need to go to MC and transfer to UMCP when their peers with lower stats got into UMCP while your kid was rejected. It stinks.

And there’s a reason we have this same conversation on dcum year after year.

Every college has a range of GPAs and unless UMD has said 100% of their class has 4.0 UW, you have to assume kids get in with less than a 4.0 and some kids with a 4.0 don’t get in. I’m not sure what you’ve been telling your kids, but we’ve been clear from the beginning that UMD is tough, and even with high stats there are no guarantees. Have a back up plan whether that’s applying to colleges where you can get into the honors program and/or merit or be willing to go to CC and transfer.

The other thing is your kid should have safety schools on their list that they are willing to attend and the family can afford. So if they truly have safeties they are actually willing to attend, they should have already reconciled that they could be at a school where other kids didn’t have a 4.0 coming in and that also might be lower on prestige than where some of their classmates with lower GPAs end up.

Bless your heart.

We know this.

But you don’t understand what some of us are frustrated with when it comes to the ridiculously unpredictable admissions process at UMCP that seems to disproportionately impact a certain group of applicants.

Of course it's frustrating for so many MCPS students and families! It's just the way it is, and it will be that way until UMBC/Towson/etc grow in regard.

I imagine people in NJ feel the same about Rutgers. They have a similar sized population and one highly regarded flagship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$400+ gas bills in winter, $600+ electric bills in summer, $15k a year in property taxes, crazy car registration fees, 3-4 soles trap mail in tickets per year, and my kid with a 4.4w/3.9 uw taking 4 aps senior year gets rejected. This state sucks.

I agree this is wrong. I’m from a state where any decent student gets into the state flagship. What MD is doing to their top students is just wrong.

[Anonymous]

In for letters and sciences but not biochem as
applied. 1370 MCPS, 3.91/4.69. Unlikely to be our first choice in the end but nice to have.

[Anonymous]

According to Bethesda Magazine, 32% of those who applied to UMCP were accepted from the top Bethesda area high schools. Compare that to my daughter's Bethesda area private school, where 54% are accepted. The sad part is the majority do not matriculate there because they are more interested in private universities and can afford them. In my opinion, UMCP should be more discriminating with private school applicants, but I suspect that is not feasible. Clearly these students are just checking the box to apply. For my daughter, Maryland was considered a "very likely" despite everyone claiming it is such a hard school to get into. Doesn't seem fair to me.