This is the info originally posted in 2012 by astrophysicsmom (who is no longer active on college confidential), with just a few minor updates. The info is still the best advice ever! Welcome to Terp Nation!
If you are remotely considering attending UMD, sign up for housing NOW. Don't wait until you decide if you are going to go (or if you are waiting to hear from other schools). If you wait until the last minute, you most likely will end up in a triple. Even rooms that are planned to be a triple are a tight squeeze. If you decide not to attend UMD, you will need to cancel your housing request IN ADDITION to telling the office of admissions that you're not going to attend.
After accepting the admit offer, Sign up and get your UMD email and UID sooner than later. You'll need it to register, I think you'll need it to take the math placement exam, and it is amazing how many people arrive at their orientation/registration in the summer with no idea that they were supposed to have done this.
The UMD.edu website can be cryptic at first, but get familiar with pages that pertain to you....your major, your department, any special programs you are in, requirements for taking the Math placement exam and what it means, and get extremely familiar with Testudo (http://www.testudo.umd.edu) ...look at the schedule of courses for courses offered in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 so you can start getting an idea of what courses are offered, etc.
As soon as you confirm that you are going to attend UMD and get the info from the Orientation Office, sign up for an Orientation session this summer. The spots are limited by each Dept/College, and DO get filled. DO NOT ASK for a special Orientation session. They hear all the excuses, reasoning, etc., but if you can't make one of the summer sessions, you'll need to go at the end of the summer. You'll still have classes to choose from, but they won't be at the most convenient times, nor with the most preferred professors.
Check out OURUMD.com, an awesome student-created website that is what most students refer to when checking out professors (much better than RATEMYPROFESSOR)...it has actual distributions of grades for courses by that professor, etc. NOTE that this site has NOT been updated with new info for the past few years, so many newer profs have no info...however, the info on those profs that have been there for a while is still helpful. Take it with a grain of salt in the sense that only those motivated by a really positive or really negative experience are likely to have commented. Try to read between the lines because what is a problem for one student may work well for another.
Thanks @maryversity. I know your son was in Scholars. Do you know of any resources rating the different programs? My son has narrowed it down to four, but would love to hear opinions from students who have been in them.
@maryversity Can you sign up for housing without officially accepting and putting down a deposit? My daughter was accepted into the Carillon communities. From everything that I read, it appears she would be placed into Easton Hall.
Should she be concerned about signing up for housing early? I know she would prefer a double over a triple room.
@wheatonmom - Yes, you can sign up for housing without paying an enrollment deposit. The housing form does NOT require any payment at all. UMD uses it for planning purposes
@Twillsmomnp I don’t know if there are any ratings but I know students use reddit a lot. What four is he considering and what is his major?
I remember that there were a few that were “competitive” to get in because of the high demand and limited space. One was the business program and one was STS and I forget what the other one was but may have been SDU (Science Discovery and the Universe?)…I seem to remember one did a mock rocket launch (or something really cool) that made it really popular, haha
@maryversity, he is planning on computer science for his major. He’s considering STS, Science and Global Change and Media, Self and Society. Environment, Technology and Economy looks less appealing now that we looked at which dorms had A/C :). I will tell him to check reddit. Thanks!
@SoofDad Where is the housing sign-up form? I checked my daughter’s coalition checklist and the only thing on there was her Honors college preference form.
@adlgel - That I do not know. Under the old UMD portal, it was another link that appeared when the decisions were released. I assumed, incorrectly it seems, that it would appear on the Coalition portal. This may be another thing that UMD has changed this year.
Since freshmen don’t really pick dorms, it’s main use was to differentiate commuters from those who want to live on-campus. It also included a meal plan selection in the past.
@Twillsmomnp Haha - I hear you about the dorms and A/C. However, my son did survive without A/C (he was in Chestertown), so honestly not that big a deal. When deciding between which scholars program, one way is to not only look at the description, and special lectures/field visits, but the courses that are approved to fulfill the electives… the options are found in the lower half of the citation requirements - you have to open each one. https://www.scholars.umd.edu/citation-requirements
Then use https://ntst.umd.edu/soc/ to look up what each course designation stands for.
So, for example, the first optional course in SDU is ANTH222. If you look it up on testudo, you will see it’s an anthropology course entitled Introduction to Ecological and Evolutionary Anthropology and they give you this brief description: An introduction to the evolution of human physiology and human behavior, the relationship between hominid and non-hominid primates, and the study of relationships between a population of humans and their biophysical environment.
Hope that helps. @lifegarding - you may find this helpful as well…
Hi everyone! Just some updates on the tips for Terps (from a current freshman Terp)!
A CS student here at UMD is working on a new teacher reviewing site called planetterp, since ourUMD is no longer updated. It’s been currently updated with grades data and has a bunch of cool features (with more to come! It’s an ongoing project!) Check that out here: https://planetterp.com/
Also, I highly recommend checking out the blog umdexplained (I’m not sure if CC will let me link it, so I’ll just let you all google it)! It helped me a lot as a high school senior from the west coast with no one to help me understand what UMD is like. It’s slightly outdated, but gives good tips (ESPECIALLY for orientation).
And don’t worry too much about getting UMD t-shirts. Maybe get one to wear around high school, but, trust me, you’ll collect a TON of shirts here after going to a few UMD events like football games, soccer games, or events sponsored by the STAMP student activities center. I swear, most of my closet is composed of UMD shirts right now.
On our acceptance letter, it says you sign up for housing after submitting your decision. @maryversity Do you know when they give packages? I’m not sure if my son will get an offer, but it will definitely influence whether or not we can afford the school (we’re out of state).
I paid the down payment and accepted the decision, what’s my next step? I got my UID in the acceptance letter, how do i make my UMD email? if i was accepted into the honors college and filled out my honors college referencing form for my Living Learning Community, do i still need to fill out a housing form??
Yes, @maryversity the information was very helpful! It answered many questions my DD and I had, including one I asked on another thread :). Thanks again!
@futureterp22 Yes, I talked to the Residence Life department and they said you still need to fill out a housing form. There is a button on the website called “apply to housing” which is where the form is located. However, you need your UID and password. The UID you got with your decision, the password I don’t know. Did you have to make an account to accept the decision? If not, I would email them to ask how you make your password.
@futureterp22 - Yes, you need to fill out the Housing Form so that UMD knows that you want to live on campus instead of being a commuter, or living off campus. Your LLC will actually determine which dorm you are in