Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 14:29     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
overall admit is 44%. they are trying to overestimate their selectivity and desirability. yield is terrible


So dumb. Who the heck cares. It's a good school.
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 13:34     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I have a student in class of 2025. UMD told our school that the middle 50 percentile of SAT scores for accepted students was 1400-1520 and that their acceptance rate last year was 31 percent. They didn’t say how many applied TO though. They said this is a safety school for no one.

Our kid really wants UMD. Will end up with one B on transcript. As of end of sophomore year had taken 4 AP classes (only 3 exams) and earned 3 s on them. This year is taking 5 APs and senior year 5 more tentatively so plus MV.

SAT score is almost at the “bottom” of their range high 1300’s. Not URM.

Class of 2024 is it really that competitive? Is this a big reach for my kid?

No major ECs or sports.


overall admit is 44%. they are trying to overestimate their selectivity and desirability. yield is terrible

It's remarkably consistent though at ~23%. It's a public school without ED. What would you expect?
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 13:25     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
source: https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

and this is with test optional too. unimpressive
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 13:25     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:
I have a student in class of 2025. UMD told our school that the middle 50 percentile of SAT scores for accepted students was 1400-1520 and that their acceptance rate last year was 31 percent. They didn’t say how many applied TO though. They said this is a safety school for no one.

Our kid really wants UMD. Will end up with one B on transcript. As of end of sophomore year had taken 4 AP classes (only 3 exams) and earned 3 s on them. This year is taking 5 APs and senior year 5 more tentatively so plus MV.

SAT score is almost at the “bottom” of their range high 1300’s. Not URM.

Class of 2024 is it really that competitive? Is this a big reach for my kid?

No major ECs or sports.


overall admit is 44%. they are trying to overestimate their selectivity and desirability. yield is terrible
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 13:07     Subject: Re:UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:Problem in part is the grade inflation in MCPS. A very large portion of MCPS seniors graduate with over a 3.9 UW.


OK. If you think that is a problem then shouldn't all students have high grades? If all grades are inflated, why do kids have low grades?
Also, if everyone's grades are inflated then why are students not taking APs and scoring 4/5 on them to differentiate themselves? Why are they not scoring high in SAT/ACT?

You can't lament low grades and mediocre academic performance and at the same time crib about grade inflation. If your kid is very bright but does not work hard to get good results, what criteria should UMD choose them on? Their glowing blemish-free skin and svelte figure?
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 12:57     Subject: Re:UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Awesome stuff. Going to be part of a world-class program at a world-class school.
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 09:58     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. I just went back to this thread. My kid brought his SAT score into the low 1500s and was accepted and he has now committed to UMD Clark School of Engineering.

We honestly didn’t think he’d bring up his scores but he did.


That's fantastic! Congratulations! Hard work pays off.
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 09:52     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. I just went back to this thread. My kid brought his SAT score into the low 1500s and was accepted and he has now committed to UMD Clark School of Engineering.

We honestly didn’t think he’d bring up his scores but he did.


Congrats to your son!
Anonymous
Post 03/09/2025 09:22     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
OP here. I just went back to this thread. My kid brought his SAT score into the low 1500s and was accepted and he has now committed to UMD Clark School of Engineering.

We honestly didn’t think he’d bring up his scores but he did.
Anonymous
Post 06/13/2024 18:58     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:“ UMD told our school that the middle 50 percentile of SAT scores for accepted students was 1400-1520 and that their acceptance rate last year was 31 percent.”

Keep in mind they’ve preferred test optional as a way of pushing these averages up. UMD is playing the rankings game big time.


Who keeps spouting 31% as the acceptance rate? Their acceptance rate was 45%.
Anonymous
Post 06/13/2024 14:52     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Agree. Without SAT scores how can you possibly compare admissions difficulty? Some colleges report u/w GPA and others report weighted. All the GPAs are inflated, so with TO it’s really hard to compare colleges.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2024 14:14     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:“ UMD told our school that the middle 50 percentile of SAT scores for accepted students was 1400-1520 and that their acceptance rate last year was 31 percent.”

Keep in mind they’ve preferred test optional as a way of pushing these averages up. UMD is playing the rankings game big time.

Huh? 95% of schools are test optional. Test scores at the most, comprise 5% of rankings calculation. Appears some aren't "dinged" at all.
https://www.highereddive.com/news/us-news-rankings-dont-ding-colleges-for-lacking-sat-and-act-data-in-nod/631676/
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2024 13:56     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
“ UMD told our school that the middle 50 percentile of SAT scores for accepted students was 1400-1520 and that their acceptance rate last year was 31 percent.”

Keep in mind they’ve preferred test optional as a way of pushing these averages up. UMD is playing the rankings game big time.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2024 13:51     Subject: Re:UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Excuse my ignorance but has the SATs gotten significantly easier since the late 90s, early 2000? I looked at average scores at various colleges today and they all seem so high! No way back when I took it could that many people get scores in mid-high 1400s. Are we talking about the same test? My kids are nowhere near college age so I haven't paid attention to how the test has changed.


Yes, actual scores up about 100 points and then superscoring allows kids to use best scores on each section. Makes a tremendous difference.


+1, with super scoring the inflation is well more than 100 points. Add test optional on top of that and this just omits a lot of the scores that would bring down the average range. The ranges you see now are not at all comparable to SAT scores back in our day, so it can be intimidating to see these ranges, but you have to keep in mind that the norms are different.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2024 13:48     Subject: UMD Admissions 2024 Is it that selective now?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

Based on this data, a bit less than half of students are submitting test scores, and so that 25-70 range is ridiculously inflated. OP, your kid's score is not really at the bottom of the middle range.

NP, that's the way its been for the past 4 years. Almost half is pretty good. I've seen some 2nd and 3rd tier publics (for my child #2) where only 25% submitted scores.


So strange that colleges report ranges at all if they deem tests to be optional. I always look at the percent that report so I get a better sense of the inflation.