<p>My daughter 95 GPA, 9 APS 31 ACT, 3 years INTEL research semi finalist. Research in lab which gave her a phenominal rec, didn't even get deferred to the regular pool, flat out rejection @University of Maryland. She laughed/cried with anger of their suggestion to attend a two year community college get her GPA up and reapply as a transfer student, I tell you, I am disgusted with the whole process. NOTHING is worth this. </p>
<p>Me thinks the GC screwed her over. Left out significant Yearbook Editor info, mentioned she cheers on her fellow students, a rather lack luster rec. Left out her Math AP Calc teacher rec.OOPs, how did THAT happen? YOu know moms get that gut feeling about the 20 something age GC vibe for lack of affection for a reserved kid?Meanwhile the professor she worked with is getting her self designed research project published for her, or at least submitting it.
Daughter is just about ready to quit school, or drop all her classes and just go to gym and AP Lit. Can't blame her.</p>
<p>1) did she apply by umd's priority date? i've heard it makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>2) more important than dwelling on this disappointment -- asap can you get gc to send a corrected rec to schools from which she is still awaiting decisions?</p>
<p>3) vent here, then calm down and help your d learn to deal with disappointment and move on. she will undoubtedly end up somewhere wonderful that she will love.</p>
<p>Good lord, I'd be more than head scratching. I'd be wanting to tear someone's hair out! How upsetting. I hope she has some other good schools in the RD round, because surely someone will recognize what a great student she is. Hard as it is, she needs to keep up her coursework for those RD schools. I'm sure you're giving her lots of hugs and encouragement. My sympathies and cyber hugs to you.</p>
<p>Heres the common data set if you wanted to look at it. CDS-C gives you#'s</p>
<p>It's absolutely their loss. The lack of the teacher rec certainly did not help. I also wonder how GC filled out the GC rec. This could be a real problem. I would just go in (both parents and student) and talk to the GC in general. This way you can gage the GC's opinion.</p>
<p>Yeah she did the priority deadline, but again THAT was another bee in the proverbial bonnet with this GC. Due date December 1st, GC is OUT the 3 days at end of November, college apps in full swing, so daugheter can not verify the GC sent it out, so November 30th she FINALLY sees GC, GC is like "oh, ummm, it never went out", daughter calls me in tears,so I know then the scramble to get it out by that afternoon, resulted in a shoddy rep missing, copy and pasted rec from some "solid young man" in my daughters class.</p>
<p>As for other schools, the others are financial safeties, academic safeties, nothing that thrills her, although she is a pretty go with the flow type of kid.</p>
<p>If it weren't for her brother coming up the pike this GC would be topic of conversation at the next BOE meeting, not that doing such would make any difference. In fact, may demand a change in GC for son when he gets to HS level.</p>
<p>there was a report or article that came out a few months ago, i think, -- there may even be some old threads about it. it concluded that most college students ended up being happy at the school they attend even if it wasn't the school they wanted to attend. </p>
<p>none of the other schools may "thrill her" now -- but when they want her and she looks at them again with the view point of knowing they want her and deciding where she wants to be, some thrill may stir.</p>
<p>you can't undue the sting of what has happened -- and not to minimize the disappointment -- but you and she will get past this and in all likelihood she will end up with a happy college experience. do what you can to help your d get there.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She laughed/cried with anger of their suggestion to attend a two year community college get her GPA up and reapply as a transfer student....<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Something doesn't add up here. I assume her GPA of 95 is 95 out of 100, right? If that's the case, what are they hoping or expecting her to pull her grades up to? </p>
<p>Where does a 95 place her in terms of class rank or percentile? Maybe I'm missing something here, but their suggestion for her to raise her grades doesn't fit with what appears to be an already high GPA. Is there a possibility of a case of mistaken identity here? That they mistakenly sent someone else's rejection letter to your daughter? Because their reasons given do not square with the facts.</p>
<p>Sorry, OP. That was sabotage , or at least it might as well have been. Take your pick- total incompetence or malice. </p>
<p>"cheers on her fellow students" as they do things of importance. Jeebus. What a throat slitting that was. Secret GC/ADCOM code for "one of life's bystanders"? </p>
<p>Leave out leadership position when there might not have been that many for a "reserved kid", leave out a good rec, put in some crap line that sabotaged the app. Yeah. I'd be having a chat.</p>
<p>Oh Im sure she'll get there.YOu know the stages of grief still have to be felt and dealt with, anger to resolution. ALmost like the boy you have eyes for and then the guy that is adorning you with affection, you always pine for the unobtainable one, or one who doesn't know you exist. No value on the one chasing you. </p>
<p>Just me beefing about this, and honestly, I think parents should be in TOTAL control of transcript/rec sending, whose future is being compromised with a scew up at the school level? Not the GCs.</p>
<p>CBK: Quite a shocking turnout, IMO.....If you want any satisfaction, you should probably make more than just the GC aware of what is going on.....with a school like UMD, it may be hard to get a straight answer, but a principal, superintendent or, even, head of guidance department may be able to help....While UMD has gotten much more competitive, I can't imagine that they can give you that "standard" reason for this; If for nothing else, you may want to explore further to find out about some unknown weakness in the app so you are prepared for RD in other schools (like a lousy GC rec, or a missing teacher one......)</p>
<p>Our guidance office has very limited relationships with college admissions offices; not sure about yours, but it is at times like these, that would really be of assistance....Do your legwork and let us know if you need anymore ideas from here.....</p>
<p>Holy s**t!!!!! Please excuse my, er, asterisks.</p>
<p>This is terrible. Is this the only GC available to upcoming brother? If not, time to go the principal at the very least, IMO. Demand that corrections be made and phone calls and letters full of mea culpas (sorry Latin speakers who know the correct construction) sent to UMd.</p>
<p>Even if this is the only GC, she needs to know that her performance is under scrutiny and that she has to clean up her act. So, I'd consider going to the higher ups in any event.</p>
<p>Hey. I went and looked at the CDS (thanks sax). Something is off. They are VERY stats oriented. There really could be an error here. </p>
<p>Nutshell: 12apps for every 5 acceptances. 75th% 680/710, the only top box criteria - grades, course rigor,test scores.</p>
<p>Percent in top tenth of high school graduating class 62%<br>
C10 Percent in top quarter of high school graduating class 84%<br>
C10 Percent in top half of high school graduating class 97% Top half +<br>
C10 Percent in bottom half of high school graduating class 3% bottom half = 100%<br>
C10 Percent in bottom quarter of high school graduating class 0%
(only 39% submitted rank)</p>
<p>Percent who had GPA of 3.75 and higher 64.84%<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74 15.05%<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 3.25 and 3.49 10.78%<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 3.00 and 3.24 6.26%<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 2.50 and 2.99 2.84%<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 2.0 and 2.49<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA between 1.0 and 1.99<br>
C11 Percent who had GPA below 1.0 0.23%<br>
Totals should = 100%</p>
<p>"Something doesn't add up here. I assume her GPA of 95 is 95 out of 100, right? If that's the case, what are they hoping or expecting her to pull her grades up to?"</p>
<p>It was a standard form letter, think everyone of the rejected kids got the same, just a formality.</p>
<p>Her 95 is with AP weight, no Honor weights given by school but honors courses since 7th grade, our school only weights .5 for an AP of 90 or greater. This year she has 5 aps last year 3 sophmore year 1. She is 25 out of 220. so in the first 10% I guess. Not sure what the heck happened, but honestly, don't think she would even go after the slap/sting. But none the less, a lesson learned. </p>
<p>Yeah being cheer leader for her peers! I recall being a bit dumbfounded by the GC response to me when I mentioned how d sought out the research thing, designed her own topic spent 3 years doing it, and GC response to me was "Well I got kids doing things all over the place, I find out, the things the other kids were doing were paid courses, not taking away from their initiative, but self seeking/design 3 year project versus a 2 week paid writing course, sort of a big difference, but what the heck do I know?</p>
<p>Yeah even my d said "Did ya like the cheering on fellow students" line?</p>
<p>This has got to be a mistake. No way would UMD turn down an Intel semifinalist with such good grades. Last year, my daughter, with a 92 average and solid SATs, was admitted to the UMD Scholars program with an $8,000 a year scholarship. If the GC is no help, have your daughter call. I think that would generate some empathy. Besides, admissions people know to expect calls right after the decisions go out. Best of luck!</p>
<p>The one anomaly I do see is that she submitted the ACT and 98% of applicants submitted the SAT. Not enough ACT kids to even list the numbers it appears. But by concordance her 31 is exactly the same as the sum of their 75th% scores. 1390ish. Then again, they say ACT is just fine for admissions.</p>
<p>I'm with LurkNessMonster and some others. This must be a mistake. And UMD being a state school will have some sort of admission appeals process in place. I would go through that process. And if that process calls for it -- i.e. calls for another recommendation from the GC or confirmation of what he wrote, I would absolutely work through the administration and make it very clear that the GC did shoddy work that was extremely damaging (potentially) to your daughter's admission chances. Holding your tongue because you have a son coming through the system seems like it will just enable this guy to screw a lot of other people. And can't you have your son designated to a different GC eventually?</p>
<p>Agree with Bedhead. This has got to be a clear-cut mistake. Public universities virtually always have some sort of appeals process. Maybe the calc teacher could call, rather than the GC?</p>
<p>To me, this isn't a had scratcher at all...there was most certainly some mistake. I'm only a student, but I'm from Maryland, and I know the range of students who get in...your daughter should have been in, probably to the honors program plus money. The GC was incompentent and it sounds like they failed to send important things. Have you checked the transcript to make sure it's even right? </p>
<p>Anyway, as others have said, you really should appeal the decission. If it's possible you should swtich GCs, if not, than be ON TOP of the GC to make sure they send everything needed on time this time.</p>