Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

This is just incorrect, period. I have two high-stats kids (one from Blair magnet, 1600 SAT), one at our W home school. Both were admitted and attend/will attend. Older DS is a junior, younger DS was just admitted and will attend. Many families absolutely want UMD because it is excellent value: great education, affordable, nearby.

Absolutely. My high-stat kid is from PHS SMCS. Another reason to select UMD was the network of peers that already existed for him comprising of the DMV high-stat kids - Blair, RMIB, Centennial, TJ etc who were competing with him at local, state, national and international arena for Robotics, Chess, Debate, Science and Math, swimming etc in HS. They are now his college classmates and dormmates. If a MoCo kid is going to UMD, he is not leaving a small town in the middle of USA to find his "tribe" in UMD. He is already with his "tribe". The benefit of UMD is that it also attracts a lot of students from East Coast and the rest of the world. So his network has only increased.

Besides, the network of mentors that he had locally because of the internships, workshops and research he had done in HS, has allowed him to find other opportunities while in college. So, he has been interning since Freshman year during summer and research assistantship during the school year at the University. So, it is a win-win.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

NP. Interesting though, it looks like TJ sends 30+ kids there a year. My CS major also from FCPS (non-TJ) runs into them regularly.

That ^PP is on crack or something.

UMD admits a lot of magnet students, not all, but a lot.

My own MCPS magnet kid is there as a CS/math major, and they see several magnet kids there, too. They all also applied to the usual T10 for CS, and most were rejected. All high stats kids, my own included.

UMD doesn't yield protect.

Maybe UMD has taken note of the "diluted" criteria of the magnet admissions by MCPS since a few years, and the "everyone's special" magnet crowd is now applying for college?

Still, I believe that the cream will always rise to the top. The best students who have worked hard for years will always get in. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. The best students are not bleeding.

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Anonymous wrote:I’m a member of the UMD parents group and there is almost a revolt among those with high scoring SATs with perfect or near perfect GPAs who didn’t get Honors. My kid is one of them.

It’s irritating to read about all the TO kids who got Honors.

I'd feel the same way, not remotely fair.

Why do you want UMD so badly if your stats are that high? You could probably get into a much more competitive school. Is it a cost thing? Because top schools usually have really strong endowments and are MUCH more generous with financial aid.

My kid did get into the Honors College, just empathizing with parents of non-TO kids who didn’t. Wanting UMD is not rocket science. For a donut hole family, elite colleges cost 3x as much!

I think UMD PUNISHED TO kids more. My TO kids friends with same or lower GPAs with high standardized scores got in. Same exact GPA and ECs her best friend my kid but she got 35 ACT and my kid did TO. So my kid did not get in. My daughters friend is super nice, but she did take SAT like 4 times and bombed. Then did ACT several times with Prep and tutoring got a 35.

So in her case scores helped. UMD should have been clearer how they weight Test scores for SAT and ACT. Some kids may have submitted a lower test score and got peanlized or some kids like my kid did TO and did not realize she should have submitted test. Either way my kid wanted in for bragging rights but was not going to go as she wants to go away to school.

But it seems crazy 4.7-4.85 WGPAs from W schools got straight up rejects cause did TO or submitted a test score they should not have.

The TO kid I advise got in + Honors.
Reject w/ 4.7 does not surprise me. Also, how many 4.85 are getting rejected, and what was the actual rigor of those kids?

Many magnet kids with Weighted GPAs around 4.85 were rejected. 12-14 APs, mostly 5's or 4's

What school?

My kids who’s a senior says many from Poolesville were rejected. My kid attends a different high school.

That is correct. Some who are perfect on paper were rejected including a senior who published a book, a Robotics club winner and an Olympiad winner. I told my daughter who got in to not whisper anything as it is an emotional time. Many magnet kids are upset as UMd was their safety and now they are unsure about their chances in the T20 that they applied to.

If these "magnet kids" treated UMD as their "safety," then they deserve the deferrals.

Please explain the logic?

DP here. The "logic" is that their own kid is not magnet and they celebrate any setbacks any magnet kid suffers.

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Anonymous wrote:Not sure ANY school with a 45% acceptance rate can be classified as a safety regardless of major. We looked at it as a target/match.

Even moreso for limited enrollment programs like CS, engineering and business. Acceptance rate is much lower for those.

as far as I can tell UMD doesn't admit by major - we are talking just to get in to UMD.

Yes it absolutely does. There are many limited enrollment programs like those mentioned before: CS, engineering, business

First you are accepted to UMD, second you are accepted to your major. You could be accepted to UMD and not accepted to CS - there is a very slim chance you will be allowed to transfer into CS. For business and Engineering you could be accepted to UMD and not the major - if you meet the gateway courses you can transfer in- however Business is a competitive LEP - still no guarantee you'll be accepted. Engineering - if you meet the gateway requirements you will be accepted to the major.

People drop out of CS and Engineering because they are not easy. So, you will be allowed to transfer to CS if you have the credentials.

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Anonymous wrote:I’m a member of the UMD parents group and there is almost a revolt among those with high scoring SATs with perfect or near perfect GPAs who didn’t get Honors. My kid is one of them.

It’s irritating to read about all the TO kids who got Honors.

I'd feel the same way, not remotely fair.

Why do you want UMD so badly if your stats are that high? You could probably get into a much more competitive school. Is it a cost thing? Because top schools usually have really strong endowments and are MUCH more generous with financial aid.

My kid did get into the Honors College, just empathizing with parents of non-TO kids who didn’t. Wanting UMD is not rocket science. For a donut hole family, elite colleges cost 3x as much!

I think UMD PUNISHED TO kids more. My TO kids friends with same or lower GPAs with high standardized scores got in. Same exact GPA and ECs her best friend my kid but she got 35 ACT and my kid did TO. So my kid did not get in. My daughters friend is super nice, but she did take SAT like 4 times and bombed. Then did ACT several times with Prep and tutoring got a 35.

So in her case scores helped. UMD should have been clearer how they weight Test scores for SAT and ACT. Some kids may have submitted a lower test score and got peanlized or some kids like my kid did TO and did not realize she should have submitted test. Either way my kid wanted in for bragging rights but was not going to go as she wants to go away to school.

But it seems crazy 4.7-4.85 WGPAs from W schools got straight up rejects cause did TO or submitted a test score they should not have.

The TO kid I advise got in + Honors.
Reject w/ 4.7 does not surprise me. Also, how many 4.85 are getting rejected, and what was the actual rigor of those kids?

Many magnet kids with Weighted GPAs around 4.85 were rejected. 12-14 APs, mostly 5's or 4's

What school?

My kids who’s a senior says many from Poolesville were rejected. My kid attends a different high school.

That is correct. Some who are perfect on paper were rejected including a senior who published a book, a Robotics club winner and an Olympiad winner. I told my daughter who got in to not whisper anything as it is an emotional time. Many magnet kids are upset as UMd was their safety and now they are unsure about their chances in the T20 that they applied to.

I hope that PHS SMCS kids do not take UMD as a safety. It has never been a safety, and they need to have the rigor, grades, SAT, ECs, to get into CS, Engineering. It really depends on their major. They need to apply to other CS adjacent majors. They can always do a double major.

Anonymous wrote:4.65 10APs from W school in state straight up reject

For what major? What was the SAT like? unweighted GPA? What demographic?

Anonymous wrote:According to this MoCo has currently over 10k students at UMD, so I think this narrative of "our kids don't get in" is overblown. Clearly they do get in and go there. Perhaps they are trying to increase other counties to be more in line with the state? MoCo is about 17% of the state but seems to have about a third of the in state students.

https://reports.umd.edu/tableaupublic/1824

Naviance is self reported, so give the kids a minute to report it.

Interesting chart. The 10k refers to both undergrad and grad students. If you click on "undergrad" it is 8811 from Montgomery--still a great many and the top county by far, but not as high as 10k.

According to this MoCo has currently over 10k students at UMD, so I think this narrative of "our kids don't get in" is overblown. Clearly they do get in and go there. Perhaps they are trying to increase other counties to be more in line with the state? MoCo is about 17% of the state but seems to have about a third of the in state students.

https://reports.umd.edu/tableaupublic/1824

Naviance is self reported, so give the kids a minute to report it.

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Anonymous wrote:Not sure ANY school with a 45% acceptance rate can be classified as a safety regardless of major. We looked at it as a target/match.

Even moreso for limited enrollment programs like CS, engineering and business. Acceptance rate is much lower for those.

as far as I can tell UMD doesn't admit by major - we are talking just to get in to UMD.

Yes it absolutely does. There are many limited enrollment programs like those mentioned before: CS, engineering, business

First you are accepted to UMD, second you are accepted to your major. You could be accepted to UMD and not accepted to CS - there is a very slim chance you will be allowed to transfer into CS. For business and Engineering you could be accepted to UMD and not the major - if you meet the gateway courses you can transfer in- however Business is a competitive LEP - still no guarantee you'll be accepted. Engineering - if you meet the gateway requirements you will be accepted to the major.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

This is just incorrect, period. I have two high-stats kids (one from Blair magnet, 1600 SAT), one at our W home school. Both were admitted and attend/will attend. Older DS is a junior, younger DS was just admitted and will attend. Many families absolutely want UMD because it is excellent value: great education, affordable, nearby.

Exactly!

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

This is just incorrect, period. I have two high-stats kids (one from Blair magnet, 1600 SAT), one at our W home school. Both were admitted and attend/will attend. Older DS is a junior, younger DS was just admitted and will attend. Many families absolutely want UMD because it is excellent value: great education, affordable, nearby.

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

Delusional. LOTS of magnet kids at UMD. Most graduate in three years or double a double/triple major- that is a lot of money saved and then they either go into the workforce or they go to grad school BEFORE any of their counterparts who went somewhere way more expensive.

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Anonymous wrote:Parents are pissed rightly so that MoCo has very high income taxes and people with kids with high GPAs get rejected the only from UMD and need to pay an extra 60k to 100k to another’s states flagship to send their kid to school.

Unlike VA or NY with only one flagship and one with not strict limits like North Carolina etc on mainly excepting in state a ton of spots giving away to OOS students and tax payers are blocked from going.

In my case costing me $80,000 this rejection

Agree that it is very frustrating that the families of magnet kids with stats and rigor higher than the majority of students accepted to UMD have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars more for college. And that this wouldn't be the case if the kid went to almost any other high school.

While it’s frustrating the reality is that your kid is evaluated in the context of their high school. It would be unfair for UMD to penalize a kid a kid at a school that didn’t offer as many honors/APs and was the top student at their public school. So when someone say it’s 4.7 weighted who knows if that’s typical for the school or extraordinary without some additional info about the school. And that doesn’t get into the holistic aspect of activities, essays, recommendations.

I agree that that it feels like the state of Maryland has enough comparable options like UVA/VT/W&M, Pitt/Penn State, UMich/Michigan State etc. UMD is almost 70% in state, so I don’t know that raising it to 80% in-state or moving to a system with auto admit would solve the issue when there are only a limited number of seats and almost every high school student wants the option of their flagship.

For some of these majors, like CS, none of these schools (except for MICHIGAN, which gives no money and costs 60,000 a year) are as good as UMD, or as cheap. Most CS kids of course apply to VT, Pitt etc…. But career wise, and money wise, UMD is better.

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just mad that UMD no longer a safety option.

You didn't send your kids to a tough magnet or drive them to all those robotics tournaments so that they could go to UMD.

UMD knows that your high-stats kid at the high-performing school isn't going to choose them, so they didn't choose them either...

NP. Interesting though, it looks like TJ sends 30+ kids there a year. My CS major also from FCPS (non-TJ) runs into them regularly.