Anonymous wrote:The people who have said that how hard it is to get into UMD depends what major you are applying for are dead wrong. UMD first admits students to the school without consideration of their major. Once the student is admitted, their applications are then considered by the specific school with their major. If the student applies to a limited enrollment program like engineering, for example, they might get in as a direct admit to engineering or they will be put into Letters and Sciences. If they are put in L &S, they can take the gateway classes to make them eligible to transfer into the engineering school, or biology or the other limited enrollment programs. Note that it will be much more difficult to transfer into the computer science major starting next fall. So if students don’t get directly admitted into CS, the likelihood of being able to transfer in after gateway classes will be much slimmer than in the past.

I wonder how this would work for a kid who has been placed out of the majority of gateway classes. For example, I have a kid at Blair SMCS. They have 5's on both Calc BC and AP CS. They are taking discrete math and linear algebra so should be able to test out of those too. They are currently juniors, so this is hypothetical, and I'd imagine they'd be admitted. I'm mostly just curious.

The first level of competition is from within your student's high school. UMD typically takes 50% of the students applying from a particular high school. So your student has to be a standout from their high school first and foremost. They will also have spots for freshman connection - a spring start - although you can start in the Fall and live on campus.

https://reports.umd.edu/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the surest way to get into UMD is to transfer from community college. Everyone I know who was rejected when applying in HS who then decided to go to community college first were successful when applying for a transfer to UMD. Even those who were not standouts in high school at all.

That may be true but I've also heard that a very high number of CC transfers who get in later bomb out because they aren't adequately prepared.

My org chem professor at UMD and Montgomery College was the same person. Montgomery college has excellent teachers, amazing labs, and great opportunities for students who want to learn. There was no difference in the level of preparation between UMD and MoCo. The classes in Moco are smaller and professors are more accessible. It’s an amazing option for those dead set on UMD who did not get in.

Perhaps in your experience but the stats indicate a vast disparity and disconnect. The majority of CC transfers don't graduate.

Anonymous wrote:The people who have said that how hard it is to get into UMD depends what major you are applying for are dead wrong. UMD first admits students to the school without consideration of their major. Once the student is admitted, their applications are then considered by the specific school with their major. If the student applies to a limited enrollment program like engineering, for example, they might get in as a direct admit to engineering or they will be put into Letters and Sciences. If they are put in L &S, they can take the gateway classes to make them eligible to transfer into the engineering school, or biology or the other limited enrollment programs. Note that it will be much more difficult to transfer into the computer science major starting next fall. So if students don’t get directly admitted into CS, the likelihood of being able to transfer in after gateway classes will be much slimmer than in the past.

This is how UMD decides. I will say that don't want the University of MOCO and HOCO and if your kid is at a top 10 public school in the state they are competing with their high school classmates for a spot.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:
They are going on test scores

It’s gone upper 3rd big ten regarding test scores and the preppy lacrosse DC nonsense hardcore.

Can you translate please?

It’s maxing out on inside the Washington DC beltway, Chesapeake region lacrosse, richest state in the nation, small state with mountains alpine region with high snowfall, piedmont, largest estuary Crabcake central, beach with largest offshore fishing tournament, lacrosse center of the universe hall of fame home. 3rd highest SAT scores in B1G. It’s obnoxious

OMG! How about speaking English? What is BIG? I have lived in the US for 25 years and I don’t have an f-big clue what you are trying to say. English is my first language btw. Surely I’m not the only one that needs an actual plain English translator to understand the college process?

You don’t need to understand this post to understand the college process. PO is venting and using signifiers of state culture to do so. It’s a but exclusionary if you don’t know Maryland very well, but your response is rude.

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Anonymous wrote:DD has applied from an W school and as we await the results next month, I have questions! What are they looking for? Do they only want high stats? Are they looking for a well rounded student? I’ve heard over and over again how hard it is to get entry, so I’m not expecting anything (but I am hopeful). I just want to know if there’s any chance for the average/high kid- the one who hasn’t taken the most rigor and has gotten a couple of B’s.

Her chances depend on what major she applied to. If she applied to one of the limited enrollment programs https://admissions.umd.edu/academics/limited-enrollment-programs , she needs very strong academics, great stats, ECs in the field, and a lot of luck. Students who are admitted to UMD but not their preferred LEP major are placed in Letters & Sciences, where they will work with an advisor to meet the gateway requirements to earn admission to that major. As PP said, your school's Naviance will give you some sense based on the scattergrams, but since those don't capture major, it can be misleading.

In my experience with my own kids, neighbors, and as a HS teacher UMD prioritizes rigor over grades and very high test scores over ECs. Although they are test optional now, I still see that pattern with who is accepted and who isn't. MoCo just produces soooo many amazing students, and UMD can't take them all.

The data dashboard is interesting to play around with https://www.usmd.edu/IRIS/?view=UMCP

UMD accepts a lot of transfer students, so sometimes students enroll in a different University of Maryland System school with the intention of transferring. However, kids should be cautious about this because most of the in-state transfers are from the Community College feeder system (60%), and only ~10% from other 4-yr MD universities. https://www.usmd.edu/IRIS/Dashboard/Transfer/

Good luck to your DD and reassure her that she will end up at a great school, even if it isn't UMD-CP.

This appears to be because students end up satisfied with the other university, not that they are rejected by UMD-CP a second time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the surest way to get into UMD is to transfer from community college. Everyone I know who was rejected when applying in HS who then decided to go to community college first were successful when applying for a transfer to UMD. Even those who were not standouts in high school at all.

That may be true but I've also heard that a very high number of CC transfers who get in later bomb out because they aren't adequately prepared.

My org chem professor at UMD and Montgomery College was the same person. Montgomery college has excellent teachers, amazing labs, and great opportunities for students who want to learn. There was no difference in the level of preparation between UMD and MoCo. The classes in Moco are smaller and professors are more accessible. It’s an amazing option for those dead set on UMD who did not get in.

+1

MoCo has some great teachers. It’s a great launching pad to UMD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the surest way to get into UMD is to transfer from community college. Everyone I know who was rejected when applying in HS who then decided to go to community college first were successful when applying for a transfer to UMD. Even those who were not standouts in high school at all.

That may be true but I've also heard that a very high number of CC transfers who get in later bomb out because they aren't adequately prepared.

My org chem professor at UMD and Montgomery College was the same person. Montgomery college has excellent teachers, amazing labs, and great opportunities for students who want to learn. There was no difference in the level of preparation between UMD and MoCo. The classes in Moco are smaller and professors are more accessible. It’s an amazing option for those dead set on UMD who did not get in.

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the surest way to get into UMD is to transfer from community college. Everyone I know who was rejected when applying in HS who then decided to go to community college first were successful when applying for a transfer to UMD. Even those who were not standouts in high school at all.

That may be true but I've also heard that a very high number of CC transfers who get in later bomb out because they aren't adequately prepared.

Seems like the surest way to get into UMD is to transfer from community college. Everyone I know who was rejected when applying in HS who then decided to go to community college first were successful when applying for a transfer to UMD. Even those who were not standouts in high school at all.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMD is pretty stats driven and cares about weighted GPA.

I think they recompute GPA using their methods since, in MCPS, every grade level class these days is honors and gets a 5.0. This redners weight GPA meaningless.

I don't think they do. I think they use weighted because it makes their overall GPA of admitted students very high (due to all the full Point honors weightings).

UMD definitely recomputes GPA per their own criteria. That’s why they have you type in your full transcript data. It’s the only way to compare across different districts who calculate WGPA differently. And each LEP will use a subset of the data for their own internal scoring of candidates.

And UMD may be test optional, but that doesn’t mean they ignore test scores. They absolutely prioritize high scores. If you have them, submit them. If you don’t, there needs to be something else outstanding and unique in your application, because again, there are so many high stat applications they don’t have to look hard to fill a class.

+1 I heard a podcast were one of the AO's said that they recalculate the GPA and use weighted, when available.

The people who have said that how hard it is to get into UMD depends what major you are applying for are dead wrong. UMD first admits students to the school without consideration of their major. Once the student is admitted, their applications are then considered by the specific school with their major. If the student applies to a limited enrollment program like engineering, for example, they might get in as a direct admit to engineering or they will be put into Letters and Sciences. If they are put in L &S, they can take the gateway classes to make them eligible to transfer into the engineering school, or biology or the other limited enrollment programs. Note that it will be much more difficult to transfer into the computer science major starting next fall. So if students don’t get directly admitted into CS, the likelihood of being able to transfer in after gateway classes will be much slimmer than in the past.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They are going on test scores

It’s gone upper 3rd big ten regarding test scores and the preppy lacrosse DC nonsense hardcore.

Can you translate please?

It’s maxing out on inside the Washington DC beltway, Chesapeake region lacrosse, richest state in the nation, small state with mountains alpine region with high snowfall, piedmont, largest estuary Crabcake central, beach with largest offshore fishing tournament, lacrosse center of the universe hall of fame home. 3rd highest SAT scores in B1G. It’s obnoxious

OMG! How about speaking English? What is BIG? I have lived in the US for 25 years and I don’t have an f-big clue what you are trying to say. English is my first language btw. Surely I’m not the only one that needs an actual plain English translator to understand the college process?

I don't know what that person is saying but B1G is the Big Ten conference, which really has around 17 teams in it now. Those teams are spread across the country. UMD will basically never win a football championship because they are in a league now with Michigan. I don't care but some do.

But that person must really be a bot because they wrote gibberish.

They want kids from wide range of counties. Their AOs have said, "We are not the University of Montgomery County."

If you have high scores, submit them. But you are not dinged if you go TO.

They do want high GPA and around 1,000 of the kids who have stats for the Ivy League. These 1,000 or so get into the honors program. These extremely high stats kids usually end up on honors BUT you can be high stats and not get into honors due to lack of room or maybe they want a CS major and your kid is a business major or vice versa.

I attended UMD. One of my freshman year friends transferred to Yale in the spring semester...

They want variety. They don't want a school or honors program or LLC of just two majors or one or two parts of the state or just students from Maryland.

They want kids in band with musical talents. They want kids who can act in the theater program. They want talented CS majors and business majors. They definitely want people in the AGNR school. They want students who have spirit and like football games. They want diversity and seem to like students from India because there's around 1,000 per year that are accepted or attend...can't remember which.

They want student who are ready to contribute to the UMD life and culture in some way or other.

UMD has some faults but they do seem to hire people who are willing to fix problems, and that's important in any large organization.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They are going on test scores

It’s gone upper 3rd big ten regarding test scores and the preppy lacrosse DC nonsense hardcore.

Can you translate please?

It’s maxing out on inside the Washington DC beltway, Chesapeake region lacrosse, richest state in the nation, small state with mountains alpine region with high snowfall, piedmont, largest estuary Crabcake central, beach with largest offshore fishing tournament, lacrosse center of the universe hall of fame home. 3rd highest SAT scores in B1G. It’s obnoxious

OMG! How about speaking English? What is BIG? I have lived in the US for 25 years and I don’t have an f-big clue what you are trying to say. English is my first language btw. Surely I’m not the only one that needs an actual plain English translator to understand the college process?