Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm in Maryland. The private he is in is 10k/year. So if I pulled him, I'd save 30k. Not going to make up the difference between public and private.
Also, yes, I have to say this- I would be proud to send him to an in state public college. I am not upset that privates are out of reach for us financially. I'm just sick of being told by random family members that I have some sort of social obligation to send my DS to private college because I went, even if I can't afford it.
NP here with a junior and I get what you are saying.
- If he is interested in UMD-CP, realize certain programs are extremely competitive but all is not lost if he gets an offer for spring admissions (typically slightly lower stats) or gets accepted into Arts and Sciences rather than a LEP (limited enrollment program). If he gets a spring admission offer there is program called Freshman Connections (first come first serve to sign up) where he can still start classes in the fall but the fall classes are during the evenings. I know some kids that were spring admits that took advantage of this option. If he gets admitted in the fall but not into the program of his choice, there are sometimes achievable pathways to get into that major later on. College confidential has lots of posts on both those situations.
- You need a second MD school option, UMBC is poplar and has a science/tech bent and Towson is also popular. I work at a tech company and work with lots of folks that graduated from UMD-CP, Towson and UMBC
- Look for LAC/SLAC that offer merit aid for your son’s stats where there are good odds of getting in. This shouldn’t be a school that only gives a handful of merit awards and has a really low acceptance rate. Being open to other geographic areas probably helps. Some CTCL may fall into this category. There are also some Catholic colleges, maybe not SLACs per say, that may also have merit aid like Loyola University Baltimore, University of Dayton etc.
- Look at OOS schools that have good odds for admission and either give enough merit to be affordable for you and/or the OOS price is within what you can afford. I think cost is partly why OOS public schools are popular with kids from this area. Some of the popular choices are University of Alabama, Clemson, Pitt, University of Vermont, Penn State, University of Florida, UGA. I’m not including any public ivies because chances are if you are admitted to University of a Michigan, UNC, UVA as a MD resident, or UT Austin you were also admitted to UMD-CP.
Bottom line it won’t be able to tell your son “get into the best school you can and we can pay for it” and you can’t take the flagship as a given, but he can get in somewhere - you just have to do your research, be intentional about where he applies, and make sure he applies early action to UMD and any other school where that will give him a better chance. Oh and ignore your relatives that have their hands in someone else’s wallet. Unless they are willing to pay, they don’t have a voice in the decision.
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