UMD admissions - from which grade did your kid prep?

[Anonymous]

My advice would be to never do anything just for the sake of college admissions. And especially not starting to think about this in 7th grade.

My kid is CS major at UMD now and went through the SMCS magnet in MCPS. I think taking the most rigorous STEM classes, good SAT/ACT, AP scores are likely he most important things for admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to never do anything just for the sake of college admissions. And especially not starting to think about this in 7th grade.

My kid is CS major at UMD now and went through the SMCS magnet in MCPS. I think taking the most rigorous STEM classes, good SAT/ACT, AP scores are likely he most important things for admissions.

The advice you get depends on the student. There is an industry of college consultants (and their clients) with whom you will be competing. 7th grade is not too early to think about college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with getting into UMD CS is that it recently capped the number of CS students to something like 600 freshmen. It also is incredibly hard to transfer into the program from another major. So it's relatively easy to get into UMD, but exceedingly difficult to major in CS.

For fall of 2024, UMD capped direct CS admission to 600. Previous years it was 450. The biggest change is transfers into the program going from 1,000 to 100. https://dbknews.com/2023/12/06/umd-computer-science-transfer/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to never do anything just for the sake of college admissions. And especially not starting to think about this in 7th grade.

My kid is CS major at UMD now and went through the SMCS magnet in MCPS. I think taking the most rigorous STEM classes, good SAT/ACT, AP scores are likely he most important things for admissions.

The advice you get depends on the student. There is an industry of college consultants (and their clients) with whom you will be competing. 7th grade is not too early to think about college.

I did not say to not think about college. Kids should be doing things because they are interested in them. Encourage their interests not say "oh you need to do this so you can get into UMD CS".

[Anonymous]

DD: She was identified as gifted at age 3. Lots of great opportunities.

DS: did nothing exceptional to prepare until Grade 9.

[Anonymous]

For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

Is merit something the kid has to apply for like a scholarship or is that different? Do HS counselors guide you regarding the available opportunities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

Is this true? So UMD CS is easy to get in so long as you took Calc BC and took an AP CS class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

Is this true? So UMD CS is easy to get in so long as you took Calc BC and took an AP CS class?

No, plenty of people like that are rejected. It can be a bit of a lottery. Even Blair magnet students do not all get in, and they go so much higher in math than that and have lots of CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to never do anything just for the sake of college admissions. And especially not starting to think about this in 7th grade.

My kid is CS major at UMD now and went through the SMCS magnet in MCPS. I think taking the most rigorous STEM classes, good SAT/ACT, AP scores are likely he most important things for admissions.

The advice you get depends on the student. There is an industry of college consultants (and their clients) with whom you will be competing. 7th grade is not too early to think about college.

Those consultants are destroying the reputations of the colleges with AOs that get fooled by consultants. It's not good to send your kids to college with those fake kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

Is this true? So UMD CS is easy to get in so long as you took Calc BC and took an AP CS class?

It's not easy to get in, but not taking MVC or CS 3 won't be the reason you do NOT get in. It's a crapshoot, not a strict ranking with weighted factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For UMD CS, just doing the basic is enough
Good grade and test score, take AP CS, calc BC
Nothing over the top needed.
DD was offered merit (5k every year + honors college) with just the above

Is merit something the kid has to apply for like a scholarship or is that different? Do HS counselors guide you regarding the available opportunities?

It's automatic from the university.

https://honors.umd.edu/prospective-students/admissions-process/first-year/

But there are other (usually small) non-university sponsored scholarships that are not automatic.

UMD HS Math Contest is one that is from the University but not part of admissions. It gives out 3 full scholarships each year (almost all of which are declined by the student, because the winners don't go to UMD.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calc BC by sophomore year. Multi, linear equations and diff equations by senior year. Also, don't wait for AP Stats but start now at your community college with the goal that you complete the Data Science courses offered.

Take intro to coding at your local community college ASAP, something like Intro to Python, Prgramming Fundamentals, etc.

By senior year, complete the community college's CS sequence. That's why it's important to have Calc BC by sophomore year so that you can take upper level courses like optimisation algorithms, etc.

Get a 1530+ on SAT with 780+ on Math portion.

Do this and you have an okay shot at gaining acceptance.

How does the Math path work from MS to get to Calc BC in sophomore year?

DP.. here's what my kid did:

H Alg 7th
H Geom 8th
H Alg2/Trig 9th
IB Precalc 10th
AP BC Calc 11th
MVC 12th

In MCPS, you need to do Alg in 6th to get to BCCalc in Soph year. Some kids do and then take AP stats in 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the title says.

My kid is interested in CS and is in MS now.

What should my kid be doing starting 7th grade to be considered for admissions into UMD CP? Tutoring on the side? Extra curriculars? I'm looking for guidance from people whose kids got admitted.

Algebra 1 for STEM, prealgebra for non-STEM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the title says.

My kid is interested in CS and is in MS now.

What should my kid be doing starting 7th grade to be considered for admissions into UMD CP? Tutoring on the side? Extra curriculars? I'm looking for guidance from people whose kids got admitted.

Learn to program via any source (e.g. https://cs50.harvard.edu/technology/2017/ and https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2024/ or something easier like https://programming-24.mooc.fi/)

Then https://usaco.guide/ for more challenging material