Hello, my son was accepted to electrical engineering. He was also offered scholars. Today we received an email for him to apply to Virtus. Can you tell me the difference between scholars and Virtus.? Thanks for your time
My son was accepted to the Clark School of Engineering, undecided. Was the offer for scholars in the admission letter or a different mailing?
Congratulations on his admission to both UMD and to Clark! The offer for scholars would be included in the admission decision that was online.
@jaynewvu Here’s an old thread I wrote about this - see my post #3
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1455365-attn-engineers-special-living-learning-program-for.html#latest
@PundergradA19 To be honest, there probably isn’t much variety. When it comes to gluten free dining, there may be some options but they probably aren’t great. Dining halls are run by aramark and meals are hit or miss, the more fancy or restrictions you have, the more difficult you may find it to get variety. With that being said there is always a salad bar with fruit available.
@jaynewvu maryversity knows much more about that program then I do, it is engineering specific for one year and any questions you may have can be answered directly by them or at one of the admitted students days. Essentially you get to live (and struggle) with other engineering students in your dorm. Congrats and best of luck!
What’s Freshman Connection like?
@kellyr0ma - It’s like being a Fall admit student, except that your classes are in the afternoon/early evening. My D has a good friend who was in Freshman Connection
Did she enjoy it? @SoofDad
Thanks. I’m 100% sure she’ll be happy at the school who wants her and she chooses, but truly appreciate your input!
Want to buy any UMd sportswear?
@kellyr0ma I’ll let soofdad respond about his daughter’s friend in fc, but in general, it’s the same experience that every other freshman has. Like @SoofDad said the only major difference is the time of your classes. This is especially true now with there being on campus housing for some or all of fc students. My daughter has friends that were in fc and friends that were regular fall admits, and there really isn’t any distinction between the two groups. People don’t sit around and ask/talk about whether you are a fc student or not. So when you ask what is fc like or did any particular person like it, you’re likely to get the same answers if that same question was asked of fall direct admit students. Freshman year is freshman year. There are going to be all the normal highs and lows of being away at college for the first time. Really the only downside is taking later classes, and many wouldn’t even say that’s a downside.
This is my perception of fc from my daughter’s friends that were in it. If I’m missing something or just plain wrong, please jump in anyone.
Why does Maryland offer Freshmen Connection? I guess I don’t understand why, if the ONLY difference is later classes, they don’t just admit the spring kids in the fall? Housing can’t be the issue since they are now offering housing. Is there a cap on how many spring admits they will allow to do the FC? There doesn’t seem to be any downside whatsoever to the Freshmen Connection and wonder why they just don’t accept them for fall?
@jaynebe That’s an excellent question! From what I can tell it’s a matter of space in the classrooms. Prior to this year it was also an issue of too little housing. They now have enough housing for the fc students. There is still an overload of students taking classes during the peak hours. Having fc allows students to be accepted, but they must take classes during non peak times.
@mdhelp Am I wrong in thinking that lack of space is the primary reason for fc?
Actually I think- just a guess of course- it’s also a stats issue…??? Maryland is getting increasingly competitive and is very stats driven…but I think only stats of “fall admits” are reported for selectivity purposes (not spring admits and not transfers)…so if, for example, a student happens to have a high gpa but is not a great test taker and therefore doesn’t quite meet the preferred range for standardized test stats, a “spring admission” is a way to get around that and be more holistic in admissions…the freshman connection program is the loophole that allows the same start time but on paper is different (same semester but later class times) …that’s why I think spring admits should not differentiate their acceptance as “less wanted”…they absolutely are wanted and this workaround was created to make their admission happen! Remember, this is just my personal guess and could be totally off base!!! @mdhelp hopefully can shed some light on this…
@maryversity - I believe that you are correct. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun several months ago about schools such as Maryland offering Spring admission to some students. This article was specifically about what you stated above - being able to admit students whose stats weren’t quite as impressive and not having them “count” for that year’s admissions statistics.
I totally agree @maryversity. I guess I thought that that was understood. The applicants that were most desirable get fall admission, and those that are slightly less desirable for whatever reason are offered fc. My point was more to the fact that these students are still within UMD admission requirements but they just don’t have the room for everyone to take classes during the peak times.
Can offers be rescinded after sending final grades? I just heard that the decisions are final and they will not be changed for a lower grade. Just wanna make sure on this
@kellyr0ma - Sorry for the late reply. Yes, she liked it. It was pretty much as @terpmom7 described in post #70 - a regular freshman year. With my D and other friends, she went to football and soccer games, social events and parties… ate at the Diner and 251… went to the Epply Rec Center… had a room in Denton Hall (air-conditioned)… moved in the same day my D did…
I also think that havin Spring Admits has something to do with the students who graduate in December… I don’t know how many that is, but it must be a fairly good number.
Someone I know just posted the you got in terps sticker, I know her gpa is 2.6 and sat around a 1500, she applied for journalism, how is it possible she got in? Isn’t Maryland really selective and the Average gpa a 4.0
@mdhelp thanks a lot for all the help.
I posted earlier and on your advice wrote a very convincing email to around 6 people from the Honors committee, describing my interest in Entrprenuership and how I’ve been a creator and an innovator and how desperately I want to be in EIP.
Today, I was finally admitted to the Honors College at UMD. My chosen program shall obviously be EIP. I wanted ask you if you knew anything about the Residence, the program(I’ve read the website though) and the peer-group ?
As I’m expecting people who’re really keen on startups and Technology and Innovation !
Thanks again for your help.