Residence: Baltimore, Maryland
Demographic: Black (African American)
Income: Lower middle class
Cumulative gpa: 3.83
SAT: Test optional
Highschool Academics: Private institute, College prep, IB program
AP classes: 3 APs
AP Lang comp- 4 score
AP comp principals - no score report
AP Lang and Lit- taking right now
EC:
Pep squad 9th: kind of like cheerleaders
Art club 10th - did decorations and such
NHS 11th and 12th: raised money for charity etc
Awards:
Academic recognition all 4 years
Art honor society 10th
Essay: wrote about true crime and how it interests me 6/10
LOR: they should be good I hope because they started to write them last year. From Alg 2 teacher 11th grade. Counselor rec had all 4 years.
Volunteer service: 80 hours at a camp for homeless youth.
Major: Comp Sci
UMD accepts about 60% of students from my hs each year.
I know that all prob be accepted as undecided and I’ll have to transfer. Thank you!
Is that your unweighted gpa?
Comp Sci is probably a stretch to be accepted into initially but you already know that.
It’s my weighted, my unweighted is 3.73 my school doesn’t offer many APs only 6 sadly.
I think you would have a good chance. Why did you say you’d need to transfer?
UMD has a process where they admit people into their school without looking at their major. Then they look at your major to decide if it’s an limited enrollment program (LEP) and computer science is an LEP and generally those admitted as freshman into computer science have high stats and while I have okay stats they might not be high enough so they will put me in undecided and I’ll have to transfer to comp sci my sophomore year.
Is Computer Science LEP for only first-year students or also for sophomores, juniors, seniors?
The major is an LEP. Doesn’t matter your level. Anyone entering the major must be accepted.
Then it accepts few people into CS for the first-year but then after that, many who are interested in CS are accepted into the major?
That’s probably most accurate. They are apparently very selective for freshman admission. After that it states if you meet the gateway requirements you can be admitted.
https://cmns.umd.edu/undergraduate/admissions/new-faqs-computer-science-limited-enrollment
You should be able to get decent advice from your private hs GC.
Anything stem related in your background? (Your academic level and ECs. Any advanced math or science?) Any activities done more than 1 year? (They seem light and you didn’t list anything stem, but say you’re interested in CS.)
I have been in a Women in technology program for all 4 years at my hs which is like a club in itself and I took comp sci courses all 4 years. My school doesn’t really have many comp sci related ECs since my school is all girls and it is relatively small. Also I just took regular math and science classes science for 3 and math for 4 and I’m doing pre calculus for my senior year.
That page says that “All students who successfully complete the gateway requirements will be admitted to the major.”
It links to https://lep.umd.edu/cs-lep.pdf which indicates that those transferring into CS must earn at least C- grades in CMSC131, CMSC132, and MATH140, and earn at least a 2.7 overall college GPA. Frosh direct admits have the same requirements to stay in the major, except needing only a 2.0 overall college GPA.
So it does not look hypercompetitive to get into CS after enrolling as undeclared like it would be at some other colleges like UIUC. Of course, it could change in the future.
2 Likes