We discovered something unhappy during last year’s application to Maryland. If you have 30 community college credits and 3.0 GPA after high school, you are guaranteed admission under the MTAP program. However, if you have 31 credits of engineering curriculum classes with a 3.85 GPA from dual enrollment during high school, UMD admissions will not consider it at all.
This is pretty obviously wrong and should be corrected. Dual enrollment is becoming more popular and these students need to be treated fairly. It’s a big advantage to complete a college year in high school and graduate in 3 years.
If you agree this needs to be fixed, please contact Gov. Hogan’s office at their contact website and also email president@umd.edu
Can you provide more details? I don’t understand what is being said about 30 credits vs. 31 credits and if engineering curriculum is a key factor. Also, what does it mean that admissions won’t even consider it? Is there some sort of freshman vs transfer admission thing going on that limits credits to 30 for freshman?
I don’t understand either. If the CC path is preferable, what is stopping your student from enrolling in the CC with the transfer agreement? Most Associate’s require 60 credits, so there is probably something to take there if they would prefer to be treated as a transfer student.
The Maryland Transfer Advantage Program (MTAP) guarantees UMD admission to community college students who earn 30 credits and a 3.0 GPA. But it specifically excludes those who earn the identical credits during high school via dual enrollment. You can Google MTAP for the details.
Our kid vastly exceeded the MTAP requirements in high school (plus high SAT, extracurriculars etc.) but was not admitted. We don’t think that’s fair and believe it should be changed.
This isn’t going to get changed. The program is for transfer students. Dual enrollment students aren’t transfer students. I doubt you’d find a different policy in any state.
Sorry your son didn’t get in. UMD admissions has gotten very competitive.
What exactly is the difference between a “transfer” student with 30 CC credits / 3.0 GPA and a “dual enrollment” student with 30 CC credits / 3.0 GPA. Certainly the dual enrollment student is a year ahead.
Don’t be too sorry for us. Our kid is at a top Big Ten school on an academic scholarship. We are concerned about the principle and the next crop of dual enrollment students.
They say you can’t fight city hall, but I have seen less ridiculous rules changed by citizen activism.
Most high school students with college courses taken while in high school prefer to apply and enter as frosh rather than transfer. Also, most high school students taking college courses while in high school tend not to choose them with the goal of fulfilling transfer or major preparation requirements, unlike those who have graduated high school and are transfer-intending matriculated students at community colleges.
Yes, there can be some high school students who took college courses while in high school to match transfer and major preparation requirements and prefer to enter a four year college as transfer students, but these students are relatively uncommon. Perhaps universities can change their qualifications for transfer programs like MTAP to be based only on fulfillment of transfer and major preparation requirements, and allow high school students with college courses the option (not requirement) of applying as transfers if they choose.
It would not be the governor’s office that would change this, but the board of regents or other supervising agency of the university system.
It is not the UMCP is ignoring the credits and won’t give your son the credits. He applied as a freshman and is in that admissions pool, but once he starts he’ll be a sophomore by credits and get all the perks of a sophomore (class registration priority, for ex.)
Do the community college transfers get all the perks of a freshman applicant? Guaranteed major? Scholarships like the Banniker Key? Live in a dorm?
The point is our kid wasn’t admitted at all while the identical MTAP student was guaranteed admission.
The key to change is the number of people appealing for it. The Gov office could pass the appeals to the Board of Regents. Contacting them directly would be fine too.
Frankly I’m shocked your student didn’t get admitted with that GPA. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t get their desired major depending upon what they chose because of limited enrollment but I would have expected getting admitted and at least placed into the Letters and Sciences major. Unless you’re out of state or didn’t apply EA.
You can’t submit a transfer application if you haven’t graduated from high school, no matter how many transfer credits you have. Our kid applied as a freshman but submitted his college credits and grades.
I’m not sure why you would torture yourself with weed out math and science classes if you weren’t working towards a degree. Our kid completed the entire freshman engineering sequence with a 3.85 GPA, including the near unprecedented feat of A’s in Calculus 1, 2 and 3 in high school. A record that would put him in the top 10% of the UMD engineering class ahead of his and on the Dean’s List.
It’s the same system in California. Kids who want to go to Cal or UCLA who aren’t accepted out of high school have the option of going to community college and transferring after 2 years
States/university systems want students to use the community college systems so this is a way to get them in, and frankly it boosts the gpa of community colleges and gives them some stature as really good college aged students are taking classes.
Schools have all kinds of systems for accepting students and of course they don’t seem fair to those who don’t get in. Texas accepts students from around the state and the guy from Brownsville (top 6% of his class) may not have gpa and scores as high as the girl who didn’t get in from Austin (not top 6%). I know UMd med school used to give a boost to students from counties on the eastern shore or way over by WV with the hope that those new doctors would return to their ‘homes’ and serve those citizens. It’s not always just scores and gpa.
Unprecedented feet of Calc 1, 2, and 3? That’s quite an exaggeration.
Many students get a 5 on Calc BC and as such get credit for Calc 1 and 2. And while taking Calc 3 is less common, it is far from unprecedented. There are quite a few students who take MVC either as DE or in their high school.
It probably should not be too surprising that high school students who get to calculus 3 (two grade levels ahead) are among those who are the best in math and more likely to get A grades in it. Even AP calculus BC (approximately calculus 1 and 2 material) scores are heavily skewed toward 5, unlike AP calculus AB and AP statistics scores.
Now, it may be uncommon in some schools for students to be two grade levels ahead in math in order to reach calculus 3 in high school. But that is different from being surprised that a high school student who does get to calculus 3 can earn an A grade.
Are you talking about PLTW (Project Lead The Way) Engineering credits earned in High school that you can receive college credit for?
If so, students need to research which colleges will accept and value those PLTW credits. There are colleges that understand the rigor of those courses in the admissions process. There is an entire list of schools who will accept those credits and/or award the credits. For Engineering, many colleges still want to see the students participate in their unique sequence of engineering courses.
For Maryland, it looks like the average GPA for Enginneering admissions is over a 4.0 weighted. And last year was a very competitive year.
Instead of thinking about this years decision as a rejection, be glad your state has a guaranteed admission program (many do not and for some it isn’t really guaranteed). Your son can be a UMD graduate, he just needs to apply again next year as a transfer using his existing coursework. Maybe do a year abroad with some additional community college courses mixed in.
I should have used the words “somewhat rare” instead of “near unprecedented”. But I have been interviewing interns and recent grads for a large aerospace company for a long time and GPA’s over 3.8 are pretty rare.
Ohio publics have pathways through some CCs or their regional campuses. Everyone is aware (or should be if they are paying attention) that to get one of the coveted freshman spots at Ohio State there are no guarantees. About 10% of our hs class graduates with associates degrees (60+ credits). The typical path begins dual enrollment in 10th grade though some begin as early as 7th grade. There wouldn’t be enough spots in the dorms if they admitted every Ohio hs student with 30 or more credits and a 3.0 gpa.
Maryland has more than 13,000 students participating in dual enrollment. UMD had more than 50,000 applications for 4,600 spots. I don’t think you’ll have much luck getting the policy changed. The more likely outcome is that eventually they end up shutting the door to the CC students or modifying it to require completion of an AA. I imagine most at the CC didn’t have the option to attend another Big 10 on an academic scholarship like your student and have tighter financial constraints dictating their college options.
At the end of the day, the reason your student isn’t attending UMD is because they had a better option and took it. Kudos.