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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:It was the same for the class of 2024. DS graduated from a W with a 4.6 weighted GPA and SAT score above 1400. Was rejected by UMD. Attended an OOS top 50 private university this year, earned good grades, and was accepted to UMD as a transfer student for this fall. According to him, and the information published by UMD online, it's a LOT easier to get in via transfer than as a freshman.

This is truly shocking. I’ve heard how bad it’s gotten, but these stats are my junior son from Blair’s exactly and I’d really like him to go to UMD (and he’d like to go there!) and it’s upsetting. Crazy!

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was the same for the class of 2024. DS graduated from a W with a 4.6 weighted GPA and SAT score above 1400. Was rejected by UMD. Attended an OOS top 50 private university this year, earned good grades, and was accepted to UMD as a transfer student for this fall. According to him, and the information published by UMD online, it's a LOT easier to get in via transfer than as a freshman.

Other than OOS private universities are more expensive, is UMD higher ranking in academic or achievement than other great OOS private universities? I am not talking and comparing to those the top 5 like Harvard, Stanford, MIT.

USNews ranks UMD #44 among national universities, which is a bit higher than these private universities: Lehigh, Wake Forest, Case Western, Northeastern, and Villanova.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never knew UMD is that competitive. What are other better 4 year college choices in Maryland if get rejected by UMD?

UMBC and Towson

The rising tide raises all boats, and UMBC and Towson are more competitive today than they were 10 years agom

Anonymous wrote:It was the same for the class of 2024. DS graduated from a W with a 4.6 weighted GPA and SAT score above 1400. Was rejected by UMD. Attended an OOS top 50 private university this year, earned good grades, and was accepted to UMD as a transfer student for this fall. According to him, and the information published by UMD online, it's a LOT easier to get in via transfer than as a freshman.

The minimum gpa threshold is lower for transfer students, but the number of slots for transfer students make it more competitive than people realize. Factor in guaranteed admission via MTAP for MD community college students and how difficult the transition to college can be for some, it’s def not a slam dunk for kids that go out of state or to other non Md cc’s.

Anonymous wrote:It was the same for the class of 2024. DS graduated from a W with a 4.6 weighted GPA and SAT score above 1400. Was rejected by UMD. Attended an OOS top 50 private university this year, earned good grades, and was accepted to UMD as a transfer student for this fall. According to him, and the information published by UMD online, it's a LOT easier to get in via transfer than as a freshman.

Other than OOS private universities are more expensive, is UMD higher ranking in academic or achievement than other great OOS private universities? I am not talking and comparing to those the top 5 like Harvard, Stanford, MIT.

It was the same for the class of 2024. DS graduated from a W with a 4.6 weighted GPA and SAT score above 1400. Was rejected by UMD. Attended an OOS top 50 private university this year, earned good grades, and was accepted to UMD as a transfer student for this fall. According to him, and the information published by UMD online, it's a LOT easier to get in via transfer than as a freshman.

It's a new world. Many parents don't recognize it until after their first gets rejected. To the up and coming parents, be warned!

A lot of parents of college applicants grew up when UMD was a safety for every moco kid.

I didn’t even apply to UMD and I was a middling student (though had a great SAT score) and my guidance counselor got me admitted somehow (I ended up OOS).

UMD is competitive to begin with why do people act like it’s a bottom feeder school?

Jeezus. This is scary.

Anonymous wrote:Never knew UMD is that competitive. What are other better 4 year college choices in Maryland if get rejected by UMD?

UMBC and Towson