May 1st College Decision Day - Parents of HS Seniors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is really disheartening as a Terp grad (transferred OOS in the late 90s). Mine is only a sophomore but I’ve begun to accept that the chances of acceptance from our W school are low. UMBC, Towson just don’t have the same vibe as College Park.

My rising senior DS visited College Park and Towson back to back and found the vibe at Towson so much better than at College Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just affirmatively angry about the way the UMCP treats McPS grads. We pay at least as much or more taxes to support that school and they make the bar almost impossible for McPS grads. I don’t know if there is some way to put political pressure on someone to change this. I’ve seriously thought about moving to another county for senior year so my kid has a fair shot but can’t bear to make my kid move.

FWIW, my oldest is in a top private and feels extremely well prepared by McPS.

A reminder - of the 31k undergrads at UMD more 10k are Moco kids. The next two counties are Howard and PG with 3k each. There is no different treating of mcps kids. Not everyone from every W school can get in - just like kids get denied from River Hill in Howard and Eleanor Roosevelt in PG.

That doesn’t say much. I’d love to know the stats broken down by county of accepted students, then compare that to the population of the county, and of those that applied.

You can explore UMDs data here:
https://www.irpa.umd.edu/
Under reports you can find enrollment maps.

I took a quick Look at your question for in-state undergrad enrollment % compared to total population %.
Montgomery 8811 (37.5% in-state) vs. 17.1% state population
Howard 3184 (13.4%) vs. 5.4%
Prince Georges 2707 (11.5%) vs. 15.1%
Baltimore County 2232 (9.5%) vs. 13.4%
Anne Arundel 1810 (7.7%) vs. 9.5%

Montgomery county is over represented by 20% of undergraduate enrollment compared to our % of the state population. I wouldn’t be so quick to advocate for a flat % from each high school in the state being admitted to the state flagship.

I was wanting more broken down data. Naviance can be used to access your own school’s stats v acceptance but saying Moco is overrepresented is an overly simplified argument.

I don’t believe x% from each high school should be admitted, but you definitely need higher stats from certain schools than others to get offered admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids in the wealthy W schools in Moco do not want to go to UMD. Many don’t even apply. They look down on UMD. Whitman for example had the least number of kids applying to UMD out of all the Moco high schools (couple of years ago, not sure about recent numbers) and out of the kids accepted very few kids attend. So why should UMD offer admissions to W school students in the first place?
Both my kids from Whitman attended UMD but told me that the general vibe is ‘i would rather die than go to umd’. Many current students say the same thing even now.

I'm a Whitman grad and this couldn't be further from the truth. Plenty of kids from my class at Whitman applied to and got rejected from UMD, and this was in 2009. I don't imagine that it has gotten any easier to get in since then. Even looking at the decisions page for the c/o 2025, plenty of Whitman grads are going to UMD, and many of those going out of state are going to state schools that are two tiers below UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just affirmatively angry about the way the UMCP treats McPS grads. We pay at least as much or more taxes to support that school and they make the bar almost impossible for McPS grads. I don’t know if there is some way to put political pressure on someone to change this. I’ve seriously thought about moving to another county for senior year so my kid has a fair shot but can’t bear to make my kid move.

FWIW, my oldest is in a top private and feels extremely well prepared by McPS.

You all sound like cry babies. MCPS students are not treated horribly in UMD admissions, they in fact make up the plurality of the undergrad enrollment there. Let's talk about the real issue: W school and B-CC nepo baby trust fund kids with 3.9 to 4.2 wGPAs getting accepted at T20 schools over middle-class kids with 4.5+ wGPAs from Anne Arundel, Howard, and Calvert Counties by biased admissions counselors who write the latter group off boring and uncultured suburban kids and favor rich kids inside the beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People talking about GPAs don’t understand how UMD’s admissions have been strongly about test scores and rigor of courses for at least a decade. You will hear about kids with “lower” GPAs being accepted over “higher” GPAs, but you can’t see what classes they actually took and what their AP/IB scores are. You also don’t know what major they applied to. If you desperately want to go to UMD, don’t apply to an LEP program, especially CS, which will flat out reject everyone who isn’t in the top 500 (or whatever their current target is) applicants.

LEP Programs at UMD:
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Business
Chemistry
Computer Science
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Engineering
Immersive Media Design
Neuroscience
Psychology

[Anonymous]

For the Juniors out there, while UMD is more stats driven than a typical private, they still follow "holistic admissions." The application is more similar to an Ivy than you'd expect. Allow adequate time to complete the multiple essay and short answer questions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the Juniors out there, while UMD is more stats driven than a typical private, they still follow "holistic admissions." The application is more similar to an Ivy than you'd expect. Allow adequate time to complete the multiple essay and short answer questions!

There is no extra essay, just short answer questions.

[Anonymous]

Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

It's already 76% in-state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

It's already 76% in-state.

If that's the case, why isn't UMCP accepting our best and brightest? I know a lot of kids who didn't get into Maryland but got into Michigan, Wisconsin etc.,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

It's already 76% in-state.

If that's the case, why isn't UMCP accepting our best and brightest? I know a lot of kids who didn't get into Maryland but got into Michigan, Wisconsin etc.,

They are. MoCo students make up 37.5% of the in-state undergraduate population, while MoCo is only 17.5% of the population.

Also remember that many of the best and brightest are accepted but choose to go elsewhere.

Why is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that Maryland as a whole produces far more top-notch students than UMD-CP can take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

It's already 76% in-state.

If that's the case, why isn't UMCP accepting our best and brightest? I know a lot of kids who didn't get into Maryland but got into Michigan, Wisconsin etc.,

Michigan and Wisconsin - who will happily take their out of state tuition funds. Plenty of bright kids get in to umd, it’s absurd to say otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

It's already 76% in-state.

If that's the case, why isn't UMCP accepting our best and brightest? I know a lot of kids who didn't get into Maryland but got into Michigan, Wisconsin etc.,

They are. MoCo students make up 37.5% of the in-state undergraduate population, while MoCo is only 17.5% of the population.

Also remember that many of the best and brightest are accepted but choose to go elsewhere.

Why is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that Maryland as a whole produces far more top-notch students than UMD-CP can take?

You’re cherry picking data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

And yet their ranking remains similar to Ohio State. I still don’t understand why people are trying so hard to get into a 2nd tier state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that has been mentioned by several other posters, for those of us who grew up in MCPS during the 80's and 90's thought UMCP was a joke. Basically everyone who applied got in. That's not to say that they didn't have some very good programs and very bright students, especially engineering. It's very hard to wrap your mind around the huge change in admissions for UMCP. Many parents my age with kids in high school can't really get that out of their minds. Maryland really should be like other states that require the school to admit a percentage of students from the state. It's supposed to be our "flagship" school.

And yet their ranking remains similar to Ohio State. I still don’t understand why people are trying so hard to get into a 2nd tier state school.

Ohio state is rising too. But let’s see… maybe people want to go there because it’s a fraction of the cost of lesser ranked private colleges, in a blue state, close to a fun city, close to home for emergencies. Plus not to mention some top 20 programs (e.g. computer science).