Anonymous wrote:I know kids that turned down Ivies to attend Maryland state schools. A full ride at state was way better than a half ride at Ivy. Ivy is for wealthy, wealthy most of the time.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

I’m a professor at UMD, a liberal arts department. This is bonkers to me. There is no way that some of the students I have in intro courses could have these high school grades and stats. Some of them can barely write a coherent paragraph.

Not even a Spring admit?

I'm sorry, but a 4.3 is not hard to get in MCPS, if that is the school district.

She's not in MCPS. What's wrong with those grades?

I suspected. Is she in a private? Our kid coming from a Catholic HS could not compete with the GPAs coming out of public schools, and was rejected by UMCP.

Yes, Catholic HS

OK, that puts the weighted GPA in context. How many AP classes? Did your DD apply to a specific major or just general Arts and Sciences? It's just hard to figure out exactly why your DD didn't get in without more specifics. Many of the Catholic high schools in the D.C. suburbs have highly tracked classes. Was your DD on the highest track? Do you know how many students from DD's class applied? What kind of yield rate does the high school have for UMD? (Do students generally use UMD as a backup or do a high percentage actually attend if admitted?). I'm trying to figure out if your DD is a shining star on the highest track of a big Catholic high school or if DD attends a small Catholic HS with few AP's. If DD had the opportunity to take many AP's but didn't, that's a red flag. Ditto for an IB program, if that's available.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

I’m a professor at UMD, a liberal arts department. This is bonkers to me. There is no way that some of the students I have in intro courses could have these high school grades and stats. Some of them can barely write a coherent paragraph.

Not even a Spring admit?

I'm sorry, but a 4.3 is not hard to get in MCPS, if that is the school district.

She's not in MCPS. What's wrong with those grades?

I suspected. Is she in a private? Our kid coming from a Catholic HS could not compete with the GPAs coming out of public schools, and was rejected by UMCP.

Yes, Catholic HS

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Anonymous wrote:Wow, just wow. Good for UMD. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Maryland consistent tops the league tables for high school academic achievement. For example, Maryland had the highest PSAT threshold this year, higher than California and New York.

Wow. We should have moved to Alabama before kid took the PSAT! Lol!!

yea, I was joking about this with a neighbor. Did we screw our kids by moving into a high performing school? Big fish, little pond and all that.

Definitely! Folks need rethink privates if it’s primarily for admissions. Same percentages from top MCPS HS and Big 3 into great and good schools! The privates marketing and sales departments are feeding you a lie. Why did privates eliminate AP courses around the same time studies pointed to better success on AP exams then privates…hmmmm. Save your money and use that account as your “scholarship fund”

As a parent of children who have attended private since preschool, I totally agree with you. I honestly think if selective college admissions is your only objective that you have a better shot in public school to get into some of these top schools. However, for us, it is about the journey.....the teachers, the peer group and the classes they are exposed to. If they don't get into UMD or an ivy, that's ok. We still think it is worth the money spent on education, which is a top priority for us. But if you are only looking at colleges admission, I would encourage you to strongly consider staying in public school. I do think that "privilege" is seen as a negative to the admissions offices of colleges. Then again, they need some to pay full freight, so full pay can be a hook.

Skipping publics - especially in this area with well regarded public schools (in the eyes of higher institutions) - is simply the equivalent of sheltering your kid. MCPS, FCPS etc are just microcosms of life and how to interact with diverse thoughts, diverse backgrounds (social and other), and diverse relationships. Unfortunately, privates are out of favor for the appearance on non-inclusivity and privaledge. The exceptions are maybe the religious schools, of course..

The word is privilege.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. 1440 SAT. 4.2 WGPA. Full IB diploma.

Total BS!

UMD admission comm has a deep knowledge of area public schools.

It depends on what major the candidate above applied to.

UMD is hard to get in some of the majors. Especially CS. Howard and Montgomery county schools are full of super high performing students and there are huge benefits of getting into UMD for the hard sciences at least.

DP... not to be mean, but for an IB student, 1440 and 4.2 WGPA are not very high stats. I would expect better numbers. But, yes, major also matters.

DP: Why? IB diploma is very rigorous and 1440 is 97th percentile. Why would you expect higher.

Because it is or should be a rigorous program, which means if the student managed to get the diploma (you have to pass all six IB exams), then they should have better test scores, period.

An IB student would be compared to other IB students, not the general student population.

This sounds completely wrong to me. I’d like to hear from an admissions counselor.

You know how Asian Am kids are compared to each other? IB kids from the same area are looked at as a group, and compared wthin the group.

If UMD looked at all MD students in one bucket, something like 80% (ok, maybe not 80% but some other ridiculously high numbeer) of the kids would be from MoCo . I heard a UMD admission officer say that.. "UMD is not the University of Montgomery County".. ie, we look at all MoCo students as a group, and compare the MCPS students with each other.

I don't know where ^^PP student is from but in MCPS IB program, 1440 would not be very high. It's below the median (1500), and many have a 3.8+ GPA, unweighted. You can imagine what their weighted GPA looks like.

If that ^^PP's kid is from MoCo, that's the type of scores that kid is competing with -- 1500+, 4.2+ GPA, weighted.

Maybe they are from a different county/state, but in MCPS, a lot of IB students usually have much higher scores/grades.

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Anonymous wrote:Wow, just wow. Good for UMD. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Maryland consistent tops the league tables for high school academic achievement. For example, Maryland had the highest PSAT threshold this year, higher than California and New York.

Wow. We should have moved to Alabama before kid took the PSAT! Lol!!

yea, I was joking about this with a neighbor. Did we screw our kids by moving into a high performing school? Big fish, little pond and all that.

Definitely! Folks need rethink privates if it’s primarily for admissions. Same percentages from top MCPS HS and Big 3 into great and good schools! The privates marketing and sales departments are feeding you a lie. Why did privates eliminate AP courses around the same time studies pointed to better success on AP exams then privates…hmmmm. Save your money and use that account as your “scholarship fund”

As a parent of children who have attended private since preschool, I totally agree with you. I honestly think if selective college admissions is your only objective that you have a better shot in public school to get into some of these top schools. However, for us, it is about the journey.....the teachers, the peer group and the classes they are exposed to. If they don't get into UMD or an ivy, that's ok. We still think it is worth the money spent on education, which is a top priority for us. But if you are only looking at colleges admission, I would encourage you to strongly consider staying in public school. I do think that "privilege" is seen as a negative to the admissions offices of colleges. Then again, they need some to pay full freight, so full pay can be a hook.

Skipping publics - especially in this area with well regarded public schools (in the eyes of higher institutions) - is simply the equivalent of sheltering your kid. MCPS, FCPS etc are just microcosms of life and how to interact with diverse thoughts, diverse backgrounds (social and other), and diverse relationships. Unfortunately, privates are out of favor for the appearance on non-inclusivity and privaledge. The exceptions are maybe the religious schools, of course..

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

I’m a professor at UMD, a liberal arts department. This is bonkers to me. There is no way that some of the students I have in intro courses could have these high school grades and stats. Some of them can barely write a coherent paragraph.

Not even a Spring admit?

I'm sorry, but a 4.3 is not hard to get in MCPS, if that is the school district.

She's not in MCPS. What's wrong with those grades?

I suspected. Is she in a private? Our kid coming from a Catholic HS could not compete with the GPAs coming out of public schools, and was rejected by UMCP.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

Are you in a MD public school district?

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Anonymous wrote:In OOS with 28 ACT 3.5 weighted.

Congrats - which state is he/she from?

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Actually the math section of the SAT has a strong correlation with intelligence.


Nope.

Not if you have adhd, and it's the last section on a 6 hour test!

Also, not if you've taken prep classes and tutoring geared to teaching how to do well with the content.

Also, not in a host of other circumstances. Just no. The SAT tests how well you take the SAT. Intelligence is only 1 of many factors.

This is beyond ridiculous. PP is suggesting math correlates to intelligence, as opposed to English/reading? Lol. My DS scored perfect on English/reading (did not miss a question), so 99%. That does not indicate intelligence? Btw, he scored 96% on math. I don’t think these scores do anything other than indicate he is a smart kid who a has better natural facility for humanities than math, and that he is good at standardized tests.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. 1440 SAT. 4.2 WGPA. Full IB diploma.

Total BS!

UMD admission comm has a deep knowledge of area public schools.

It depends on what major the candidate above applied to.

UMD is hard to get in some of the majors. Especially CS. Howard and Montgomery county schools are full of super high performing students and there are huge benefits of getting into UMD for the hard sciences at least.

DP... not to be mean, but for an IB student, 1440 and 4.2 WGPA are not very high stats. I would expect better numbers. But, yes, major also matters.

DP: Why? IB diploma is very rigorous and 1440 is 97th percentile. Why would you expect higher.

Because it is or should be a rigorous program, which means if the student managed to get the diploma (you have to pass all six IB exams), then they should have better test scores, period.

An IB student would be compared to other IB students, not the general student population.

This sounds completely wrong to me. I’d like to hear from an admissions counselor.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

I’m a professor at UMD, a liberal arts department. This is bonkers to me. There is no way that some of the students I have in intro courses could have these high school grades and stats. Some of them can barely write a coherent paragraph.

Not even a Spring admit?

I'm sorry, but a 4.3 is not hard to get in MCPS, if that is the school district.

She's not in MCPS. What's wrong with those grades?

Neither do paid colleges counselors and privates. Take responsibility and work with your child and use common sense!

I suspected. Is she in a private? Our kid coming from a Catholic HS could not compete with the GPAs coming out of public schools, and was rejected by UMCP.

We don't know yet if the PP's child is coming from a non-MCPS public or a private. Based upon my experience with MCPS, a 4.3W is low for public school. I typically see parents of kids with 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 bragging of admits on these message boards. The kids in MCPS can take honors everything except for PE, beginning foreign language, and algebra, I believe. Beginning art is non-Honors, but a talented kid can skip the lowest-level class. My kid happened to skip Spanish 2.

For the PP with the 1400/4.3W, is your child coming from private or public? How many AP classes has she taken? How many 4's and 5's did she have to report? No, UMD doesn't mandate that students report their AP scores, but great scores certainly don't hurt.

As far as I know, legacy status doesn't count at all at UMD. It stings, but that's the truth. Also, what major did your daughter indicate she wanted? The competition for slots in CS and engineering can be brutal. Perhaps in business as well.

For those who mentioned that UMD takes gender into account, I would assume that this is within majors. A young woman might still have a slight edge applying to CS or engineering. A young man might have a big edge applying to study Russian literature or English. Overall, UMD is around 50/50 male/female, which I see as a plus.

UMD really likes to report the average weighted GPA for its incoming freshmen, whereas a lot of other schools report the average unweighted GPA, which is more uniform across school systems around the country.

Do AP scores get reported on college applications?

Candidate chooses to submit or not. Like other testing, it’s optional, but if you score well you submit of course. If you don’t submit it’s assumed they didn’t score well. You won’t hear that from admissions however when they describe “test optional,” common sense tho

I have a kid in college and have no recollection of a place where AP scores are reported on the application. Perhaps I am not remembering correctly?

My student reported her strongest scores two years ago, but I do not remember where on the application they went. We might have just sent a College Board report. Unfortunately, public school guidance counselors just emphasize that you don't HAVE to submit.

You usually report after you get accepted, not as part of the application process. I wasn't aware that people sent them before that.

Because public school guidance counselors don't give great advice, often.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. In state, legacy, 1400 SAT, 3.7 uw, 4.3 w
I am so pissed.

To add: applied Arts & Sciences

I’m a professor at UMD, a liberal arts department. This is bonkers to me. There is no way that some of the students I have in intro courses could have these high school grades and stats. Some of them can barely write a coherent paragraph.

Not even a Spring admit?

I'm sorry, but a 4.3 is not hard to get in MCPS, if that is the school district.

She's not in MCPS. What's wrong with those grades?

I suspected. Is she in a private? Our kid coming from a Catholic HS could not compete with the GPAs coming out of public schools, and was rejected by UMCP.

We don't know yet if the PP's child is coming from a non-MCPS public or a private. Based upon my experience with MCPS, a 4.3W is low for public school. I typically see parents of kids with 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 bragging of admits on these message boards. The kids in MCPS can take honors everything except for PE, beginning foreign language, and algebra, I believe. Beginning art is non-Honors, but a talented kid can skip the lowest-level class. My kid happened to skip Spanish 2.

For the PP with the 1400/4.3W, is your child coming from private or public? How many AP classes has she taken? How many 4's and 5's did she have to report? No, UMD doesn't mandate that students report their AP scores, but great scores certainly don't hurt.

As far as I know, legacy status doesn't count at all at UMD. It stings, but that's the truth. Also, what major did your daughter indicate she wanted? The competition for slots in CS and engineering can be brutal. Perhaps in business as well.

For those who mentioned that UMD takes gender into account, I would assume that this is within majors. A young woman might still have a slight edge applying to CS or engineering. A young man might have a big edge applying to study Russian literature or English. Overall, UMD is around 50/50 male/female, which I see as a plus.

UMD really likes to report the average weighted GPA for its incoming freshmen, whereas a lot of other schools report the average unweighted GPA, which is more uniform across school systems around the country.

Do AP scores get reported on college applications?

Candidate chooses to submit or not. Like other testing, it’s optional, but if you score well you submit of course. If you don’t submit it’s assumed they didn’t score well. You won’t hear that from admissions however when they describe “test optional,” common sense tho

I have a kid in college and have no recollection of a place where AP scores are reported on the application. Perhaps I am not remembering correctly?

My student reported her strongest scores two years ago, but I do not remember where on the application they went. We might have just sent a College Board report. Unfortunately, public school guidance counselors just emphasize that you don't HAVE to submit.

You usually report after you get accepted, not as part of the application process. I wasn't aware that people sent them before that.

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Anonymous wrote:Rejected. 1440 SAT. 4.2 WGPA. Full IB diploma.

Total BS!

UMD admission comm has a deep knowledge of area public schools.

It depends on what major the candidate above applied to.

UMD is hard to get in some of the majors. Especially CS. Howard and Montgomery county schools are full of super high performing students and there are huge benefits of getting into UMD for the hard sciences at least.

DP... not to be mean, but for an IB student, 1440 and 4.2 WGPA are not very high stats. I would expect better numbers. But, yes, major also matters.

DP: Why? IB diploma is very rigorous and 1440 is 97th percentile. Why would you expect higher.

Because it is or should be a rigorous program, which means if the student managed to get the diploma (you have to pass all six IB exams), then they should have better test scores, period.

An IB student would be compared to other IB students, not the general student population.

This sounds completely wrong to me. I’d like to hear from an admissions counselor.

There is more to the story on this candidate. Likely no hooks, so grouped with general pop. IB is built into weighted grades - similar to any other honors classes that weigh 5.0. So, it’s a great specialized program but no extra cookies for completing it except weighted consideration for the classes.

Agreed. Likely the lower unweighted GPA was glaring. But, like PP said, likely more to story including others from school had better numbers.