Reply to UMD College Park Acceptance Rates for MCPS Students

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you really want to blow your mind, look at the average stats for admitted students:

- Weighted GPA = 4.47
- Midpoint SAT = 1445
- Midpoint ACT = 33

Also, on the 2021 common data set (I believe this is an unweighted GPA) 85% of kids have a 4.0.

Finally, there is the honors college where on an information session, they said the average GPA was 4.65, middle ACT 1480-1560, and ACT 34.35.  Mind-blowing. [/quote]

Honors college at UMD is a complete waste of time and helps zero in getting a job.  My daughter was there and graduated 2 years ago.  No one cared on her resume or in interviews.  [/quote]

Are there other benefits to honors college like social? I've looked at the choices and don't find it all that compelling and unless there's some reason would advise my kids to follow their interests instead of creating these additional hoops even if they qualify. If you are offered something like BK do you have to participate to get the scholarship?[/quote]

My kid is a current freshman at UMD CP in Honors College (Honors Humanities).

The social benefits are real.  Most of the honors colleges are living/learning communities so the students are living with a bunch of other kids that are generally interested in some of the same things (even when their majors can be wildly divergent, which is fun).  It helps build comaraderie right away.  My kid found a core group of friends in her first week there and that has been HUGE!

Honors Colleges often (possibly always?) determine dorm assignments.  So Honors Humanities is in Anne Arundel and Queen Anne's Halls -- older but centrally located dorms with air conditioning.  One of the better options out there. I think I remember her talking about University Honors being in some really nice new dorms.  Worth checking out.

The cohort of the dorms [i]tends[/i] to be a little more academically minded.  I always thought the best part of my kids' experiences in MCPS magnet programs was getting a good cohort of kids.  My kid is social sometimes, but isn't in school just to have parties all the time, so this was good for her.

I will say, the quality of the honors college specific courses, at least for Honors Humanities has been somewhat disappointing so far.  Maybe my kid just already got a lot of this material at Blair CAP??? But according to her reports there is a decent amount of busy work and then a big sort of independent study project (capstone) in the classes which makes for weird sort of split-personality vibe to the classes.  One upshot of this is the kids can bond over complaining about graded Kahoots!  Anyway, the specific Honors Humanities classes have been my kids least favorite classes so far, but one should bear in mind that her classes for her major have been SO exciting and interesting for her that this might have colored her judgement!

On the subject of acceptance rates.  My kid says she has run into a decent number of kids from New Jersey.  I don't know if some guidance counselors from that state have just picked UMD to recommend to their students, but it seems enough to have stuck out to her.  Familiar refrain she's heard... "It wasn't as if I was going to go to Rutgers!" which puzzled her since she hadn't heard that it was some notoriously awful school.

[/quote]

UMD has always drawn a very large population of NJ applicants. That was two when I went there 20 years ago so not surprised to hear that hasn't changed.

You'd be surprised to learn how much UMD is a dream school for many NJ high schoolers! Not sure why, but it is. Probably cause it's far enough away from home without being too far away.[/quote]

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