MC early college to UMD transfer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC graduated last year with an AS Engineering degree and is attending an out-of-state engineering program. I agree that Early College is an underappreciated program, but I think word is starting to spread. Last year they had 279 MC/MCPS dual enrollment students who earned AA or AS degrees. The ceremony is here: https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/high-school-students/dual-enrollment/degree-and-pathway-programs/early-college-program/index.html . I forget the exact breakdown of the programs, but ~1/3 were Early College, ~1/3 were Clarksburg Ptech, and ~1/3 were MC^2 from Northwood and Northwest. This list of colleges that kids are attending is pretty impressive, with a significant portion going to UMD-CP.

The college application piece wasn't very clear, partly because the Early College advisors kept getting switched around and I don't think on-site MC folk have fully distinguished Early College graduates from regular MC graduates who will go through the transfer process. Here is what I learned:

1. Until you have a high school diploma, you must apply to college as a freshman, on the normal first-year application time frame. (I confirmed this with multiple Admission officers at different universities, including UMD.)

2. The MC courses appear on your high school transcript as CE ADV <content area> according to [ur=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10ioH1EHiOHwCyEZsm7caNYS_A5avqM23PWoKTFvW0tk/edit#gid=0l]MCPS Dual Enrollment/Credit Course Codes by MC Course[/url]

3. From an application standpoint, the courses are reported just like other AP/IB/advanced courses. UMD-CP (and some other schools) have applicants complete a Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) where you input your entire transcript. There isn't a place for saying you have an Associate's degree, because at the time you apply Early Action in fall of senior year, you don't have that yet.

4. The actual process of transferring credit to the university your student enrolls in happens after you send in the deposit. It follows that school's process for AP/IB/college credit. If it is a Maryland school all of the credits will transfer. If it is an out-of-state school, the school has some sort of credit transfer process. For my DC's school, they created an account for transferring and uploaded all of the courses before they had actually committed (confirming what would transfer). Some courses had already been approved and almost all of the rest were approved.

5. UMD-CP admissions officers don't seem to fully understand Early College and that it isn't just dual enrollment. We went to a couple of events for the Limited Enrollment Programs (LEPs - Engineering and Comp Sci) - the AOs there and folks at tables couldn't fully answer questions about what courses my DC would take.

This is my 3rd kid through the college admissions process at UMD, and my 3rd time of being unimpressed. UMD's admissions process is to admit to the university first, and then to the LEP. DC3 was deferred to regular decision because they wanted to see the 12th grade fall transcript. (Not sure why - GPA for MCPS and MC was high. I'm guessing because DC retook 1 course from winter session where they were sick and didn't finish it in the 3 weeks. Didn't know they could have withdrawn.) When UMD did admit DC in the spring, they were not admitted to the Engineering LEP, even though they met requirements for either internal admission to LEP or guaranteed admission by transfer from MC. Two weeks of emails to various folks in admissions were ignored. We finally emailed the person responsible for internal transfers into engineering with DC's transcript and asked about what courses DC would be able to take. 4 hours later the admissions letter was updated to admit to the Engineering LEP.

DC did not choose UMD primarily because they were more interested in a special program at the school they are attending. The only course(s) that didn't transfer were English 101 and 102 because the school has a special combined intro to engineering/writing course required by all first year students. DC is taking a mix of freshman, sophomore, and junior courses this fall and spring, exploring a cross-section of a few majors (EE, CS, Physics, Math). Their goal isn't to graduate early. Instead they intended to complete some co-ops and dual major in 4-years.

Hopefully that helps. Despite some of the hiccups, we were overall very pleased with the Early College program and the program DC is attending now at university.

Engineering at UMD is NOT an LEP. CS, Business are LEP's. Your student will have to be accepted to the University first before being accepted to their major. If you are accepted to the University and not offered your major, in the case of engineering you would need to fulfill the degree requirements and maintain the GPA - then apply for your major. The MC early college program is not a guaranteed admission to UMD. You still have to meet the qualifications for admission.

Engineering at umd is def a LEP. Lep.umd.edu

It is not a selective review lep, meaning that if a student is admitted to umd and successfully completes the gateway requirements and policies they can be admitted to engineering. Computer science (as of fall 2024 for new students and out of state/private school students) and business are selective reviews, meaning that even with the minimum requirements and policies met they may not be admitted to thr major.

[Anonymous]

1. Just like someone posted above, early college student CANNOT transfer to UMD because early college student is still treated as high school student even though they have an associate degree. For transferring, 12 credits of college level credits is REQUIRED for UMD. (Please remember this is different for each school. I am referring UMD here) For UMD Especially, they clearly said this on the website.

"TRANSFER TO UMD

Apply as a transfer student if you are a high school graduate who has completed at least 12 semester hours or 18 quarter hours after high school graduation at a regionally accredited college or university."

https://admissions.umd.edu/apply/transfer-applicants#:~:text=the%20following%20requirements:-,High%20School,College%20Courses

Thus, early college students are using common app and SAT (or ACT) like other HS student.

[Anonymous]

As with everything else in mcps, it looks better than it actually is and you can'tbelievewhat they are telling you. Your child is never guaranteed admission into a program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for everyone with the insight on this! The whole early college/dual enrollment/virtual middle college info is so confusing!
Originally my DC (9th) wanted to do virtual middle college (DC does great with online learning), but the program coordinators at MC are giving zero info and our school counselor is not even aware of the program. Now I am rethinking this whole process. What is the point of getting an AA if you cant just transfer and have to apply as Freshman?

Think about it... is your child who has six years of education (two years high school, two years MC and two years UMD) just as educated as someone with eight years (four years high school and four years UMD)? We get that you want to save money, but this is part of a race to nowhere. Value education for education's sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for everyone with the insight on this! The whole early college/dual enrollment/virtual middle college info is so confusing!
Originally my DC (9th) wanted to do virtual middle college (DC does great with online learning), but the program coordinators at MC are giving zero info and our school counselor is not even aware of the program. Now I am rethinking this whole process. What is the point of getting an AA if you cant just transfer and have to apply as Freshman?

Think about it... is your child who has six years of education (two years high school, two years MC and two years UMD) just as educated as someone with eight years (four years high school and four years UMD)? We get that you want to save money, but this is part of a race to nowhere. Value education for education's sake.

You also develop a lot of soft skills going through 4 years of HS. These skills are important and help you be successful in your career and life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for everyone with the insight on this! The whole early college/dual enrollment/virtual middle college info is so confusing!
Originally my DC (9th) wanted to do virtual middle college (DC does great with online learning), but the program coordinators at MC are giving zero info and our school counselor is not even aware of the program. Now I am rethinking this whole process. What is the point of getting an AA if you cant just transfer and have to apply as Freshman?

Think about it... is your child who has six years of education (two years high school, two years MC and two years UMD) just as educated as someone with eight years (four years high school and four years UMD)? We get that you want to save money, but this is part of a race to nowhere. Value education for education's sake.

I’m going to put a theory out there that early college kids are no more likely to graduate early from a four year program than kids that bring in AP credits and could graduate early. Like a lot of kids bringing in a lot of credits these kids end up doing double majors and a minor, or similar configurations. Our kid is an early college student and we expect her to spend four full years at her undergraduate college.

Early college is a great way to show a kid values education for educations sake because the kids put in a lot more effort than kids that just go to their local school. In exchange they get to experience deeper learning in an area they are passionate about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for everyone with the insight on this! The whole early college/dual enrollment/virtual middle college info is so confusing!
Originally my DC (9th) wanted to do virtual middle college (DC does great with online learning), but the program coordinators at MC are giving zero info and our school counselor is not even aware of the program. Now I am rethinking this whole process. What is the point of getting an AA if you cant just transfer and have to apply as Freshman?

Think about it... is your child who has six years of education (two years high school, two years MC and two years UMD) just as educated as someone with eight years (four years high school and four years UMD)? We get that you want to save money, but this is part of a race to nowhere. Value education for education's sake.

You also develop a lot of soft skills going through 4 years of HS. These skills are important and help you be successful in your career and life.

I’m not sure what soft skills you think are learned at a traditional HS that aren’t also true in early college. Maybe there is less figuring out how to avoid bathrooms where kids are vaping?

Still group projects, still classmates and teachers, still clubs and activities, kids still play on sports teams at their home schools. They still have friendships, date, and everything a regular High Schooler would do, except maybe avoid fights in the hallway?

[Anonymous]

My DD did the MC2 program. As other posters mentioned, she had to apply as a freshman and not all credits transferred (did not go to UMD), although a significant number of credits were accepted. She did the program knowing it would help satisfy some requirements and give her some flexibility once she went to college, including: graduate early, stay for 4 years but spread out classes, get a double major, work towards a masters degree, etc. As it turned out, she went to one school and decided to take some time off after first semester then returned to a different school. She is still on track to graduate within four years since she had a large number of credits.

Agree with other posters to stay in close contact with the MC2 coordinator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As with everything else in mcps, it looks better than it actually is and you can'tbelievewhat they are telling you. Your child is never guaranteed admission into a program.

This is so true about MCPS lol!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As with everything else in mcps, it looks better than it actually is and you can'tbelievewhat they are telling you. Your child is never guaranteed admission into a program.

This is so true about MCPS lol!

When did they ever say your child is guaranteed admission into a program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As with everything else in mcps, it looks better than it actually is and you can'tbelievewhat they are telling you. Your child is never guaranteed admission into a program.

This is so true about MCPS lol!

When did they ever say your child is guaranteed admission into a program?

Just read. Don’t blame MCPS. It’s all out there. No one is promising anything. Read!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As with everything else in mcps, it looks better than it actually is and you can'tbelievewhat they are telling you. Your child is never guaranteed admission into a program.

This is so true about MCPS lol!

When did they ever say your child is guaranteed admission into a program?

Just read. Don’t blame MCPS. It’s all out there. No one is promising anything. Read!

Agreed. People who don’t understand the program have the wrong idea that early college kids can participate in the guaranteed transfer program. I’ve only heard MCPS say early college kids must still apply as freshman, which is correct. No guaranteed transfer admission.

[Anonymous]

Let's be real. Handing out AA/AS degrees to students who are going to move on to 4 year schools as freshmen is a farce.

If you want to go to EC/MC for classes like Criminology or other very specific courses that high schools don't offer, go for it and enjoy. But MCPS promoting MC handing out worthless Associates degrees and promoting a fake status of "you're going to college early because you aren't as lazy or dumb as our basement level expectations for a standard high school diploma" is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's be real. Handing out AA/AS degrees to students who are going to move on to 4 year schools as freshmen is a farce.

If you want to go to EC/MC for classes like Criminology or other very specific courses that high schools don't offer, go for it and enjoy. But MCPS promoting MC handing out worthless Associates degrees and promoting a fake status of "you're going to college early because you aren't as lazy or dumb as our basement level expectations for a standard high school diploma" is ridiculous.

What is ridiculous is how much you are complaining about an option that you aren’t forced to choose. There are many reasons why students may find going to MC in the early college program worthwhile. Just because you can’t imagine it doesn’t make it a poor choice for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's be real. Handing out AA/AS degrees to students who are going to move on to 4 year schools as freshmen is a farce.

If you want to go to EC/MC for classes like Criminology or other very specific courses that high schools don't offer, go for it and enjoy. But MCPS promoting MC handing out worthless Associates degrees and promoting a fake status of "you're going to college early because you aren't as lazy or dumb as our basement level expectations for a standard high school diploma" is ridiculous.

What is ridiculous is how much you are complaining about an option that you aren’t forced to choose. There are many reasons why students may find going to MC in the early college program worthwhile. Just because you can’t imagine it doesn’t make it a poor choice for them.

Well said.