Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 12:13     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does UMD care about EC, such as leadership, sports, etc? Is it friendly to high stats students without much EC, especially from good public high schools in MD?

I know CS in UMD is very competitive. How about EE? Is it a bit easier to get in?




They are also good at sussing out who would likely be accepted at an Ivy and giving them scholarship offers. Kids who can't afford the Ivy route come to UMD and the school (and state probably) benefits.





Does it mean that EC is more related to scholarship while solid stats are more important for admission?

Can we say that UMD doesn’t play yield protection?

Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:01     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does UMD care about EC, such as leadership, sports, etc? Is it friendly to high stats students without much EC, especially from good public high schools in MD?

I know CS in UMD is very competitive. How about EE? Is it a bit easier to get in?


They like to scoop up as many students from the top 10% as they can. If your child is in the top 10% of their class, they have a good chance of gaining admittance. If they are valedictorian, their chances increase by a lot.

One of mine was accepted and ECs were good but not tippy top, but they were top 10%.

They are also good at sussing out who would likely be accepted at an Ivy and giving them scholarship offers. Kids who can't afford the Ivy route come to UMD and the school (and state probably) benefits.

UMD, scooping and sussing the tippy top.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 06:40     Subject: About UMD
UMD looks at the Math scores for Engineering.

780 and up and u a very good chance
Anonymous
Post 10/29/2025 23:40     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My Terp is graduating this year. Academically when she applied in 2022, she was likely bottom 25% of the accepted class. Her HS grades were good but could have been better and she took mostly honors rather than AP. But, she offered a tremendous background in leadership and community service. When she was accepted and many peers with better academic credentials were not, it occurred to me - big schools need students who will be involved in campus, too. So an applicant like my Terp was probably appealing for that reason. And she has been very active these past 4 years and contributed in lots of ways to the UMD community. So in our experience, ECs can make a difference if they stand out enough.


Females have a better chance in STEM mainly because there are still few females.


True at Michigan women and engineering and stem
Anonymous
Post 10/29/2025 23:39     Subject: About UMD
23:08 - SHE is the furthest thing from a STEM major. So what you say may be true, I have no idea, but it doesn’t apply to my Terp. I was answering OPs question about whether ECs matter or not in the admission process based on my daughter’s experience.
Anonymous
Post 10/29/2025 23:08     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:My Terp is graduating this year. Academically when she applied in 2022, she was likely bottom 25% of the accepted class. Her HS grades were good but could have been better and she took mostly honors rather than AP. But, she offered a tremendous background in leadership and community service. When she was accepted and many peers with better academic credentials were not, it occurred to me - big schools need students who will be involved in campus, too. So an applicant like my Terp was probably appealing for that reason. And she has been very active these past 4 years and contributed in lots of ways to the UMD community. So in our experience, ECs can make a difference if they stand out enough.


Females have a better chance in STEM mainly because there are still few females.
Anonymous
Post 10/29/2025 23:02     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does UMD care about EC, such as leadership, sports, etc? Is it friendly to high stats students without much EC, especially from good public high schools in MD?

I know CS in UMD is very competitive. How about EE? Is it a bit easier to get in?


Yes, based on my kids' good public high school in Maryland for HS class of '25. My kid had very average ECs but top academic rigor and high stats (very high GPA, very high SAT, very high AP).

He was admitted to UMD engineering with Honors & merit as an Asian male. Engineering is also limited enrollment there, but I'm not sure if it's an easier admission than CS. It might be, just because there are more engineering students, but I don't know how many people apply for CS vs eng. This past cycle, UMD received a total of 66,000 applications!

Your kids will be mostly compared to those from their high school, so if you have Naviance or something similar, you can at least check general trends for UMD.


Congrats! Your should be proud. It’s not easy to get merit there. Based on my kid’s school, it is not hard to get into UMD. I saw many average GPA got in. If my son would go with other majors, there is no worry. The issue is with CS.

I actually wonder, if someone’s 3 desired majors in common app are: CS, EE, ME. But he is not strong enough, will UMD just reject him or put him in a different major that he didn’t specify?





Your kid might be in a school with low competition.

In MoCo, it's quite difficult to get into UMD. Lots of good students and competition.

Anonymous
Post 10/29/2025 23:00     Subject: About UMD
Anonymous wrote:Does UMD care about EC, such as leadership, sports, etc? Is it friendly to high stats students without much EC, especially from good public high schools in MD?

I know CS in UMD is very competitive. How about EE? Is it a bit easier to get in?


They like to scoop up as many students from the top 10% as they can. If your child is in the top 10% of their class, they have a good chance of gaining admittance. If they are valedictorian, their chances increase by a lot.

One of mine was accepted and ECs were good but not tippy top, but they were top 10%.

They are also good at sussing out who would likely be accepted at an Ivy and giving them scholarship offers. Kids who can't afford the Ivy route come to UMD and the school (and state probably) benefits.