Anonymous wrote:My Blair student as accepted to the Honors College, but I'm confused - now DC needs to select an honors community? Are those competitive applications too? On the acceptance letter it mentions the Robert H Smith School of Business is the advising college. Does that mean that DC would be in the Interdisciplinary Business Honors college? Not a former Terp, so this is all very confusing.

Anonymous wrote:My Blair student as accepted to the Honors College, but I'm confused - now DC needs to select an honors community? Are those competitive applications too? On the acceptance letter it mentions the Robert H Smith School of Business is the advising college. Does that mean that DC would be in the Interdisciplinary Business Honors college? Not a former Terp, so this is all very confusing.

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Because you're being careless with your claims. You are saying 1500 is considered low in MCPS IB. It's NOT in MCPS IB. You're talking about the IB magnet program at ONE school, Richard Montgomery, which is a very very small, very competitive IB program which takes students from the whole county. Other high schools have regular IB programs, which are NOT the same as RM. They are not competitive to get into (though the classes are demanding), and any kids can participate in them. You'd expect RMIB to have a high median SAT score, because kids had to test even to get INTO the program. It's only high-achieving kids who test well (and many who have parents who send them to test-prep programs.)

shrug.. I don't know what the other IB diploma students SAT scores are since, as you said, they don't publish them. So, I can only go by what RMIB publishes. But, colleges do compare a student to their cohort, whether that be county, specific HS, or IB diploma graudates. If the student has an IB diploma, that would indicate that the student is pretty high achieving.

Also, many non magnet students also go to test prep program, and many manget students do not go to test prep programs. Neither my RMIB kid nor their friends did. They did take several of the free online SAT practice tests via the college board and khan academy. Who's to say that the prior poster's IB kid didn't go to a test prep tutoring program?

FWIW, my kid has never gone to an after school tutoring program, neither has my other DC who is not in a magnet and doesn't want to be.

NP: Colleges, including UMD, do not compare IB students across high schools or at the county level just like they don't compare kids at different STEM magnet schools in the same city or county, e.g. Poolesville vs Blair. As a state institution, UMD considers kids in the aggregate at the county level to ensure that the university is geographically diverse across counties. There is no IB cohort within MCPS. How do I know this, because as a professor I sat on faculty academic committees that advise admissions policies, participate in grad admissions, and I am friends/colleagues with admissions staff.

As the PP noted, you made a blanket statement about RMIB data and tried to apply it to all of the county IB programs. Depending on the school, a 1440 in an MCPS IB program other than RMIB may be average or about the mean. You are right that we don't have this data but I have seen data from other school systems similar to MoCo with IB programs and 1500+ was not the median. IB diploma does not equal 1500+ SAT scores.

OK, so no one really knows what the median SAT scores are for MoCo IB students other than RMIB. But as you stated, UMD will look at students across the county, not just RMIB vs RMIB. So, an IB student at BCC would be compared to an IB student at RM, if they are looking at the county level? That's even worse for the IB diploma kid who has a 1440 SAT.

Even so, weight 3.84 is low for an IB diploma grad. The thread started with both the SAT and weighted GPA being low.

Oh good lord no. The BCC IB kids won't be weighed against the RMIB kids. They are in a magnet that the admissions folks are familiar with, like the Blair magnets. The BCC IB kids will be weighed against the other BCC kids, other non-magnet kids across the county.

Now I'm really confused. I thought the ^PP stated that UMD (and all colleges) look at the students in the entire county as one group, but now you are saying that they would look at RMIB kids as a group, and the rest of the non magnet students in a group? So, the magnet kids are compared to each other, and the non magnet kids are compared to each other? Those would be two different groups from the same school district.

As far as I know just about everyone from Blair Magnet applies to UMD and is accepted. So I don’t think UMD places any limits on the number of students accepted from a particular school. They might otoh limit how many students they accept from the county as a whole in order to achieve geographic diversity.

Anonymous wrote:He did - but I think we messed up and didn't send the official SAT scores until after Nov 1, so maybe he is being treated as Regular Admission...

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Because you're being careless with your claims. You are saying 1500 is considered low in MCPS IB. It's NOT in MCPS IB. You're talking about the IB magnet program at ONE school, Richard Montgomery, which is a very very small, very competitive IB program which takes students from the whole county. Other high schools have regular IB programs, which are NOT the same as RM. They are not competitive to get into (though the classes are demanding), and any kids can participate in them. You'd expect RMIB to have a high median SAT score, because kids had to test even to get INTO the program. It's only high-achieving kids who test well (and many who have parents who send them to test-prep programs.)

shrug.. I don't know what the other IB diploma students SAT scores are since, as you said, they don't publish them. So, I can only go by what RMIB publishes. But, colleges do compare a student to their cohort, whether that be county, specific HS, or IB diploma graudates. If the student has an IB diploma, that would indicate that the student is pretty high achieving.

Also, many non magnet students also go to test prep program, and many manget students do not go to test prep programs. Neither my RMIB kid nor their friends did. They did take several of the free online SAT practice tests via the college board and khan academy. Who's to say that the prior poster's IB kid didn't go to a test prep tutoring program?

FWIW, my kid has never gone to an after school tutoring program, neither has my other DC who is not in a magnet and doesn't want to be.

NP: Colleges, including UMD, do not compare IB students across high schools or at the county level just like they don't compare kids at different STEM magnet schools in the same city or county, e.g. Poolesville vs Blair. As a state institution, UMD considers kids in the aggregate at the county level to ensure that the university is geographically diverse across counties. There is no IB cohort within MCPS. How do I know this, because as a professor I sat on faculty academic committees that advise admissions policies, participate in grad admissions, and I am friends/colleagues with admissions staff.

As the PP noted, you made a blanket statement about RMIB data and tried to apply it to all of the county IB programs. Depending on the school, a 1440 in an MCPS IB program other than RMIB may be average or about the mean. You are right that we don't have this data but I have seen data from other school systems similar to MoCo with IB programs and 1500+ was not the median. IB diploma does not equal 1500+ SAT scores.

OK, so no one really knows what the median SAT scores are for MoCo IB students other than RMIB. But as you stated, UMD will look at students across the county, not just RMIB vs RMIB. So, an IB student at BCC would be compared to an IB student at RM, if they are looking at the county level? That's even worse for the IB diploma kid who has a 1440 SAT.

Even so, weight 3.84 is low for an IB diploma grad. The thread started with both the SAT and weighted GPA being low.

Oh good lord no. The BCC IB kids won't be weighed against the RMIB kids. They are in a magnet that the admissions folks are familiar with, like the Blair magnets. The BCC IB kids will be weighed against the other BCC kids, other non-magnet kids across the county.

Now I'm really confused. I thought the ^PP stated that UMD (and all colleges) look at the students in the entire county as one group, but now you are saying that they would look at RMIB kids as a group, and the rest of the non magnet students in a group? So, the magnet kids are compared to each other, and the non magnet kids are compared to each other? Those would be two different groups from the same school district.

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Anonymous wrote:Lots of instate students with all kinds of GPA and SAT scores get into UMD. Very tippy top students get into Honors college for coveted majors like cs, engineering.

Honors College is for all majors. Tippy top students apply to a variety of majors!

Lol, Tippy Top Poster- I’ve missed you!

Anonymous wrote:My DS hasn't gotten an EA admissions decision yet. Anyone else not heard? He submitted everything in October.

Anonymous wrote:How can I learn more about the Carrilon communities?

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Anonymous wrote:Can we get back on topic?

My DC got into the honors college and wants to major in physics. I am thrilled and think UMD would absolutely be the best choice for him (their physics dept ranks 14 in the country on at least one ranking I saw.) But he doesn't want to go to school so close to home. I'm biting my tongue for now, till we see where else he gets in, and how much aid he's offered. But it will be hard not to pressure him to go to UMD even if can afford the other schools (with help from his grandparents) because it really makes sense to choose the less expensive option. Interested in hearing people's experience with the honors college. (Seems he has to submit his preferences as to which one he wants to be in. We know little about them.)

Yes, I am trying to get DD excited too. The Honors Colleges look terrific. But, she really wants to go somewhere different. I get that. Right now, this is her only acceptance (rejected SCEA), but hopefully there will be others in RD. The challenge will be if UMD offers a Banneker/Key or a bunch of merit. I've told her the money is hers. If she saves it by going to UMD, she can have it for grad school. But, she is welcome to invest it in another experience if she gets accepted. We should get some aid at top schools, so we'll see if she has a happy problem.

Just so you know, if your DC majors in physics, grad school will be paid for.

Could you elaborate?

Yes. All the top graduate programs are fully funded. They pay your kid to go to their school. MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, etc. Free.