MD In-state options beyond College Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a second year at SMCM and it's been a great choice for her. We are in DC, so we are OOS, but DC TAG helps. Plus she got generous merit aid guaranteed for four years. We were looking at private SLACs, including many that were in remote locations (except they were a plane ride/rental car away). She loves the size of SMCM, the culture, her major, her teachers and advisors, the campus, basically everything. I wish that there was public transportation to DC, but now that she's older she can carpool with friends etc.

It's an excellent option if you are looking for a SLAC without the $65K price tag.

My DC is also at St. Mary's and loves it as well! There are some amazing professors there and some great opportunities. Definitely not a campus for those who love city life but it is perfect for my DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Salisbury is “much lower” than Towson?

Yes.

Test scores are much lower at Towson.

ACT . 25-75
Towson 20-25
Salisbury 20-25

Is St. Mary’s much higher?

[Anonymous]

For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match.

[Anonymous]

"For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match. "

+1

For comparisons sake, remember a 25 ACT is the 75th%ile of all ACT scores and a 20.8 is the median.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match.

great analysis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match.

great analysis

Would add that I would argue that your numbers show there aren't as many good mid tier options in MD as Towson and Salisbury are well behind JMU and CNU. A real problem if your kid does not get into UMD.
Also UMBC is such an underrated school. I hope it gets its props in the coming years. People in the academic Scientific community are more aware of it than the general public.

[Anonymous]

"Would add that I would argue that your numbers show there aren't as many good mid tier options in MD as Towson and Salisbury are well behind JMU and CNU. A real problem if your kid does not get into UMD.
Also UMBC is such an underrated school. I hope it gets its props in the coming years. People in the academic Scientific community are more aware of it than the general public."

Your comment is not wrong but some of it has to do with the 60K vs 85K difference and the resources that come with numbers.

It also downplays the idea that VA needs to have JMU and CNU because with a 28 ACT you are not going to get into the smaller W&M or UVa.

Whereas UMD is not out of the question if you chose a less competitive major and/or start in the spring.

If you want to parse issues in the ACT distributions, you might wonder about how VT can be such a highly rated engineering school with a 75%ile ACT of 30.

If you look around the web, the numbers for Towson and Salisbury have fluctuated and sometimes get reported as 21-26 even though they are now officially 20-25 as far as I can tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match.

great analysis

Would add that I would argue that your numbers show there aren't as many good mid tier options in MD as Towson and Salisbury are well behind JMU and CNU. A real problem if your kid does not get into UMD.
Also UMBC is such an underrated school. I hope it gets its props in the coming years. People in the academic Scientific community are more aware of it than the general public.

+1 I think your point of combining UVA and VT to compare to UMD makes sense and is a good point ( but UMD suffers a bit from the GMU problem that there's a large concentration of top students in the MD DC suburban area who don't want to go to school so near home. MD doesn't have another viable in-state flagship style choice that is also away from home for a concentrated population whereas VA has 3 top options away from dense population centers). The lack of another stellar school like W&M (admittedly rare anywhere) AND the lack of "mid-tier" schools (3 ACT points is a dramatic difference in a 25-75th percentile range) really do limit in-state options for these students looking for a higher end traditional residential college/university away from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Would add that I would argue that your numbers show there aren't as many good mid tier options in MD as Towson and Salisbury are well behind JMU and CNU. A real problem if your kid does not get into UMD.
Also UMBC is such an underrated school. I hope it gets its props in the coming years. People in the academic Scientific community are more aware of it than the general public."

Your comment is not wrong but some of it has to do with the 60K vs 85K difference and the resources that come with numbers.

It also downplays the idea that VA needs to have JMU and CNU because with a 28 ACT you are not going to get into the smaller W&M or UVa.

Whereas UMD is not out of the question if you chose a less competitive major and/or start in the spring.

If you want to parse issues in the ACT distributions, you might wonder about how VT can be such a highly rated engineering school with a 75%ile ACT of 30.

If you look around the web, the numbers for Towson and Salisbury have fluctuated and sometimes get reported as 21-26 even though they are now officially 20-25 as far as I can tell.

DP: VT is not just an engineering school--it offers a full suite of majors. It's just known for its engineering and admissions into the engineering school are more competitive than non-engineers. Also, you have to parse out that tech applicants may have weaknesses on verbal scores. Probably makes more sense to look at Math SAT (which more submit across the schools anyway than ACT) if you want to understand the strength of the applicant pool for VT engineering. Outside of engineering, it's about on par with JMU/GMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Salisbury is “much lower” than Towson?

Yes.

Test scores are much lower at Towson.

ACT . 25-75
Towson 20-25
Salisbury 20-25

SU SAT is a shade higher than Towson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of the complaining about MD, I am not really seeing much difference with VA, with one exception. Remembering that VA has 85,000 HS seniors compared to MD 60,000:
UMD serves the role that in VA is served by UVA and VT (State Flagship, which UVA is a little small for, and STEM center)
ACT 25-75
UMD 28-33
UVA 30-34
VT 25-30
Pretty equivalent and could go either way depending on a student's area of interest.
UMBC 24-29 = GMU 24-30 and serves a similar role with similar strengths.
Towson 20-25 and Salisbury 20-25 are, perhaps a little behind JMU 23-28 and CNU 23-28, but not dramatically different.
For kids wanting a small, liberal arts option SMCM 23-28 = UMW 22-29.
The only real niche that MD can't match is W&M, but that is a pretty unique school that no other state can really match.

great analysis

Good analysis. UMD plays a dual role. Most stats have a "University of" and a "State". UMD takes both roles. 30 years ago UMD was really an indifferent and undistinguished undergraduate school. Maryland decided to invest in it at the same time Virginia cut back on funding its system, and UMD has benefited.

I agree W&M is sui generis. I can't think of any other state that has any similar public option.

[Anonymous]

I wish my child liked SMCM better. They gave significant merit aid for in-state and it would be the cheapest of all accepted schools to attend. But, the location is a deal breaker for my kid who wants an urban setting. SMCM is a great school for the right kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Would add that I would argue that your numbers show there aren't as many good mid tier options in MD as Towson and Salisbury are well behind JMU and CNU. A real problem if your kid does not get into UMD.
Also UMBC is such an underrated school. I hope it gets its props in the coming years. People in the academic Scientific community are more aware of it than the general public."

Your comment is not wrong but some of it has to do with the 60K vs 85K difference and the resources that come with numbers.

It also downplays the idea that VA needs to have JMU and CNU because with a 28 ACT you are not going to get into the smaller W&M or UVa.

Whereas UMD is not out of the question if you chose a less competitive major and/or start in the spring.

If you want to parse issues in the ACT distributions, you might wonder about how VT can be such a highly rated engineering school with a 75%ile ACT of 30.

If you look around the web, the numbers for Towson and Salisbury have fluctuated and sometimes get reported as 21-26 even though they are now officially 20-25 as far as I can tell.

Can you apply asking for spring admission? What are the stats to make it “not out of the question?” Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish my child liked SMCM better. They gave significant merit aid for in-state and it would be the cheapest of all accepted schools to attend. But, the location is a deal breaker for my kid who wants an urban setting. SMCM is a great school for the right kid.

OP here. Thanks for the input. Do you mind sharing where you are looking instead?
Are there any restaurants or retail walkable from the St. Mary’s campus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish my child liked SMCM better. They gave significant merit aid for in-state and it would be the cheapest of all accepted schools to attend. But, the location is a deal breaker for my kid who wants an urban setting. SMCM is a great school for the right kid.

OP here. Thanks for the input. Do you mind sharing where you are looking instead?
Are there any restaurants or retail walkable from the St. Mary’s campus?

I honestly don’t think there is anything walkable. After we toured there, I looked in the GPS for restaurants and the closest was in a gas station about a mile away. There is a strip mall with typical stores (Target, grocery, fast food, etc.) about 10-15 minutes drive away. I went to an isolated college and loved it but my child wasn’t a fan. The campus is truly beautiful.

Schools accepted to include W&M, UMD, and a few smaller Catholic colleges in cities.