My son was accepted at UMD. I know nothing about the AA experience and am hoping they offer an accepted student program specifically for URMs.
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Congrats to your kid and yours too @pinkslee !
My son was also accepted EA.
I met my husband there almost 31 years ago. OUr experience was amazing! When we attended in the 1990s, there were more AA than the entire population at Howard yet our proximity to Howard allowed us to socialize with Howard kids, attend their parties and so much so that years later, people SWEAR we went to Howard. 
After the landmark Podperesky v. Kirwan and later Hopwood v. Texas Anti-Affirmative Action decisions in the late 1990s, followed by a president, President Loh, who I feel prioritized pure numbers (stats) over diversity, the AA population dropped precipitously during his tenure to at one point, something like 340 out of 4300, which was abysmal!
Also, around this time, I think they were trying their hardest to become the Berkley of the East, a lofty goal the university had back when my husband and I attended and I suppose finally came into fruition in the late 2010s.
Also, compounding or assisting this shift was the fact that a lot of Northern VA, Montgomery,County students attending very competitive schools and who are very high stat kids started to apply in high numbers and get in, and this further drove up the median GPA/ACT/SAT and made it hard to get into.
Around this time, I think Asian American students became the majority group.
Since then, the newest president Pres Darryl Pines, who is Black, has recommitted to balancing the class and once again trying to foster a more inclusive and well rounded community.
I live close to the campus and I have noticed a return of URMS. A lot of my friends kids, who are also AA, have gotten in and chosen to go! There is a thriving community. The Black Greek life is active. They even have a few new multicultural greek organizations.
There is Nyumburu Cultural Center which is to the left of the student union which is a vibrant meeting location, event space for Black Students. I will post a link to videos of the Homecoming to give you a sense of the vibes. We go every year. The friends your kids make will last a lifetime as I know that was the case for us.
I think your kids would be fine.
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Thank you so much! We live in Northern VA (and I grew up here, too) but itās amazing how little I know about UMD. I found what you said about the drop in AAās so interesting. I went to UVA in the '90s when it was around 12% AA and I was so disappointed to see that the percentage of AAs had dropped to 6.5%.
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Was you child invited to the EDGE program? My son received the email with the invitation in January 31, but just shared it with me tonight.
Mine was and he opened the email but never told me about it until I saw you post. Thank God for this forum lol
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Thanks for your insights on UMD.
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Itās getting really interesting over here - my daughter got accepted into Vanderbilt today with the Chancellorās scholarship - leaves us with appox 30K COA per year. We werenāt expected a decision until late March since she applied RD in Nov. She was also awarded the Morehead-Cain scholarship on Friday.
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Fantastic news all around!
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Congratulations! Would you mind sharing her stats! We are also looking at Vandy!
Sure, her stats are: UGPA 4.0, WGPA 4.5, 35 ACT, didnāt take SAT, AA Recognition Award, 7APs, 2DE, 2nd in class, 5 honor societies, Girl Scout Gold Award recipient, several school and community leadership roles, runs girl empowerment summer workshop, lots of community service hours with long term projects, and works part time as choreographer for local dance studio and theatre company.
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DD is now a Robertson Scholar finalist for UNC. Iām wondering which program is a better fit. Both offer the same monetary support and similar mentoring services. Iām aware that she can take classes at both Duke and UNC with the Robertson. However, Morehead-Cainās alumni network is expansive.
She was also admitted to Smith College today and selected as a Dora Windes Zollman Scholar.
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DD received the Robertson Scholar award for UNC and the Cheatham White from NCAT. She was also admitted to Wake Forest. No scholarship provided in that decision letter, so thatās a non-starter given that weāre full pay. Iām ready for her to make a choice and move on.
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Thatās wonderful news!! It would be very difficult to turn down such an opportunity.
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Two fantastic opportunities! I can see why sheās having trouble deciding.
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Sheās deciding between an HBCU were sheās 3rd gen and admin is really putting on the hard sell of their āsoft benefitsā and a PWI where she may not get the same nurturing. If she chooses UNC, Morehead-Cain and Robertson have similar programs, but the Robertson would allow her to double major - one at UNC and the other at Duke. All scholarship offers have early April deadlines. We are praying for guidance. 
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Update from DS. So far, heās gotten a good number of full and near full tuition scholarships from most of his schools and weāre still waiting on 4 more including Howard which he applied to RD. So far, so good. Weāre really excited about his options and are now preparing to pull out a spreadsheet to consider the following factors:
Closeness to home.
Graduation rate.
Complexity of classes.
Retention of POCs.
DEI
Percent of black students.
Graduate schools students attend.
Reports of racial incidents on campus.
Percentage of black students in the departments he enroll
Student satisfaction with the school.
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Congratulations! I may need to add a few of these items to our spreadsheet.
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Definitely a good list! I would also add how the administration handles any racial incidents. There are some places where they attempt to sweep such matters under the rug. The awful incident at Georgetown comes to mind.
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I canāt believe how fast time has flown by and wanted to see where our DC decided to attend? After getting into Yale early, my kiddo decided not to apply elsewhere so they will be attending there in the fall. I am hopeful that all our kids will have amazing and positive experiences as they start their next chapter!!
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Hi. I know this is an older post. May I ask what engineering program you ultimately chose and why? My teen is also interested in engineering programs. There are so many and I am kind of at a loss.
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