UMD decision 2026

[Anonymous]

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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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Maybe another kid had a 4.8 unweighted not *just* a 4.4 (yes some schools have fewer APs)?

This comes up every year, but it doesn't make it right. Kids above a certain bar should be admitted to the state's flagship university. They could set that bar. It shouldn't be a lottery, but something that parents (taxpayers) and kids can expect. If they want to limit the number of kids from certain schools, go with the top 10% like other states.

You do realize less kids in Montgomery and Howard counties would be getting in then right?

Fewer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Here is the problem. Almost 40% of B-CCs class has a weighted average over 4.51 according to their school profile. And they are not a terribly large school or the most high performing.

My kid who really isn’t an academic superstar has a 4.8+. I think MCPS just has a lot of kids with very high GPAs and they can’t realistically admit them all.

It's because the MCPS grading system is awful and set up for inflation. 89.5 in no respected institution equates to an A. They need to fix this or else the top academic kids won't be able to differentiate themselves from the kids who are barely scraping by.

The change to the grading system will make this much easier, but I'm not sure about other counties, which might make it difficult to do a straight "top 10%" like they do in some other states. But some states use a combo of GPA plus SAT/ACT -- that would be a viable way to do it. They could also start re-weighting the GPAs to take out the fake weighting -- a lot of state college systems do that. My kid is a junior and reports that most of the kids with the highest GPAs are NOT taking the hardest classes -- if it's weighted it's only because everything is honors, they aren't taking the hard APs, so under the current dumb weighting system, there's really no extra boost for taking higher rigor.

In another thread, I mentioned that my kid’s high school college counselor seemed to use the SAT scores to informally rank the students, and took some heat for that. While it’s obvious who the top 2-3% are, there’s a cluster of kids in the top 5-15% range, so it makes sense to use the SAT scores to further pick the top 10%!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

15k in property taxes means a 1.5 million dollar or more house. That means they have tons of competition as everyone is equally smart and similar. UMD only takes so many from each school. Luckily you are rich and can afford other good schools.

NP I was thinking the same. My taxes are almost as high, but I live in a special tax area. If reg MC, that is an expensive house! Also, in my drafty tall ceilinged old house, my bills don't really exceed $200 in winter or $300 in summer. And, I don't get 3-4 speeding tix a year. (And when I do get one it's a $100 in DC). That's just a post of privilege talking.

I agree with a PP who said students can find comparable deals through merit/private. And, if money is really a hardship, there are many schools that will be similar or cheaper than UMD w/ need based aid. Even middle class. I know it stinks to not have a spot at the flagship, but it isn't owed to anyone. Privileged posters kid should have applied to Towson or UMBC or SMCM -- all decent options which taxes also pay for.

[Anonymous]

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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.

DP. Oh, please. This isn't happening. 4.0 kids with decent rigor are all getting in. It's when someone posts their weighted 4.4 as if that's a grand thing. UMD wants 4.75 and up for MCPS really. That's usually around a 3.8UW + rigor. Higher for LEPs. 4.4W is like a 3.6UW. The poster who said their kid has a 3.9UW and 4.4W seems fictional to me. With all MCPS hon classes getting a full point bump, even with lower rigor, it would be much higher. Look at the Scattergrams, People.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Here is the problem. Almost 40% of B-CCs class has a weighted average over 4.51 according to their school profile. And they are not a terribly large school or the most high performing.

My kid who really isn’t an academic superstar has a 4.8+. I think MCPS just has a lot of kids with very high GPAs and they can’t realistically admit them all.

Right- so UMDCP apparently weights the GPAs differently depending on the rigor. And AP Calc is different/better/harder to get an A in at.. Blair magnet or wherever than at BCC.

[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.

While what you say is true, this is not good for our society to send "high stats," presumably intelligent people to MC, while much weaker students have access to rigorous education for four years. The weak students are much less likely to be successful and they definitely can't take intellectual advantage of the faculty and resources available to them.

DP Are you for real? The "weak" and the "strong?" BTW Strong students can do great at MC. A good friend went back to school through MC, won a huge scholarship and major grad award at UMD. Also, a "strong" student should have many options. Stop trying to create classes w/ your kid on top. Such a Trump move. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Maybe another kid had a 4.8 unweighted not *just* a 4.4 (yes some schools have fewer APs)?

This comes up every year, but it doesn't make it right. Kids above a certain bar should be admitted to the state's flagship university. They could set that bar. It shouldn't be a lottery, but something that parents (taxpayers) and kids can expect. If they want to limit the number of kids from certain schools, go with the top 10% like other states.

I'm guessing top 10% do get in unless there's something concerning in their application. At a lot of the high-powered MoCo schools, a 4.4 weighted GPA wouldn't put you in the top 10% of the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Maybe another kid had a 4.8 unweighted not *just* a 4.4 (yes some schools have fewer APs)?

This comes up every year, but it doesn't make it right. Kids above a certain bar should be admitted to the state's flagship university. They could set that bar. It shouldn't be a lottery, but something that parents (taxpayers) and kids can expect. If they want to limit the number of kids from certain schools, go with the top 10% like other states.

You do realize less kids in Montgomery and Howard counties would be getting in then right?

Fewer.

Thank you grammar police. This is extremely helpful to the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Here is the problem. Almost 40% of B-CCs class has a weighted average over 4.51 according to their school profile. And they are not a terribly large school or the most high performing.

My kid who really isn’t an academic superstar has a 4.8+. I think MCPS just has a lot of kids with very high GPAs and they can’t realistically admit them all.

It's because the MCPS grading system is awful and set up for inflation. 89.5 in no respected institution equates to an A. They need to fix this or else the top academic kids won't be able to differentiate themselves from the kids who are barely scraping by.

The change to the grading system will make this much easier, but I'm not sure about other counties, which might make it difficult to do a straight "top 10%" like they do in some other states. But some states use a combo of GPA plus SAT/ACT -- that would be a viable way to do it. They could also start re-weighting the GPAs to take out the fake weighting -- a lot of state college systems do that. My kid is a junior and reports that most of the kids with the highest GPAs are NOT taking the hardest classes -- if it's weighted it's only because everything is honors, they aren't taking the hard APs, so under the current dumb weighting system, there's really no extra boost for taking higher rigor.

In another thread, I mentioned that my kid’s high school college counselor seemed to use the SAT scores to informally rank the students, and took some heat for that. While it’s obvious who the top 2-3% are, there’s a cluster of kids in the top 5-15% range, so it makes sense to use the SAT scores to further pick the top 10%!

What about the kids in the 4%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You must have a huge house. Quit your griping and move to bama if you want a big cheap mcmansion. Our moco house is 3,000 sq ft and we pay $6k in property taxes, $200 in electric in hottest months and around $300 in gas in winter.

It sounds like the previous poster lives in Baltimore. Property taxes in the city are insane and the old houses aren't fuel efficient. But also, I would wager moco has more McMansions than all of Alabama combined. Lord.

That's not a Maryland problem, that is a Baltimore problem and you should know that when you buy there or move to the county.

I’m the original complainer and live in Moco. I’m not whining about the property taxes per se, yes we knew what they would be when we bought. But kids of tax paying parents with 4.4w/3.9uw and 4 ap classes senior year should get into umd.

Here is the problem. Almost 40% of B-CCs class has a weighted average over 4.51 according to their school profile. And they are not a terribly large school or the most high performing.

My kid who really isn’t an academic superstar has a 4.8+. I think MCPS just has a lot of kids with very high GPAs and they can’t realistically admit them all.

It's because the MCPS grading system is awful and set up for inflation. 89.5 in no respected institution equates to an A. They need to fix this or else the top academic kids won't be able to differentiate themselves from the kids who are barely scraping by.

The change to the grading system will make this much easier, but I'm not sure about other counties, which might make it difficult to do a straight "top 10%" like they do in some other states. But some states use a combo of GPA plus SAT/ACT -- that would be a viable way to do it. They could also start re-weighting the GPAs to take out the fake weighting -- a lot of state college systems do that. My kid is a junior and reports that most of the kids with the highest GPAs are NOT taking the hardest classes -- if it's weighted it's only because everything is honors, they aren't taking the hard APs, so under the current dumb weighting system, there's really no extra boost for taking higher rigor.

Are APs a scam?:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1294379.page

Colleges don't give credit for all the APs. Some will let you to next level class with a 3 on AP test. But everyone knows students are taking APs in high school for other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Rejected. 1540 SAT, 3.5 UW / 4.5 W GPA, 11 APs, W-school, high income. Varsity sports, solid community service and leadership activities. Really bummed.

[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.

While what you say is true, this is not good for our society to send "high stats," presumably intelligent people to MC, while much weaker students have access to rigorous education for four years. The weak students are much less likely to be successful and they definitely can't take intellectual advantage of the faculty and resources available to them.

Triumph of the Will

[Anonymous]

DS got into honors college at UMD with 4.68 a few years back (taking hardest rigor APs like Chem, Bio, Calc etc). DS 2 just got into College Park Scholars with a higher WGPA but less rigorous classes (no AP Chem, Bio, Calc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS got into honors college at UMD with 4.68 a few years back (taking hardest rigor APs like Chem, Bio, Calc etc). DS 2 just got into College Park Scholars with a higher WGPA but less rigorous classes (no AP Chem, Bio, Calc).

This seems fair to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rejected. 1540 SAT, 3.5 UW / 4.5 W GPA, 11 APs, W-school, high income. Varsity sports, solid community service and leadership activities. Really bummed.

Same here. Not sure who these people are that are denying reality.