Chances at University of Maryland Honors program

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>hi all.</p>

<p>Asian male
Prospective major - Engineering
High School Type: Good Public(Maryland Howard Co.)
GPA - 3.7(UW)
SAT I - 1410 (V:610 M:800)
New SAT- 2010 (V:640 M:770 W:600)
SAT II - 740 iic, planning to take chem or physic in october
EC - Math Team, Translation club, Chess club,
Work experience at pizza store this summer( avg. 25 hours a week)</p>

<h2>also i found this on their website</h2>

<h2>Acceptance into the University Honors Program is by invitation, based on each student's complete application to the University of Maryland. Applicants' records are individually evaluated on the basis of academic achievement in high school, test scores, the application essay and letters of recommendation. Students invited for fall 2005 had an average weighted gpa of 4.23, and the middle 50% of SAT scores was between 1360-1470. For best consideration, students are strongly encouraged to apply for admission to the University by December 1 for the following fall. </h2>

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<p>B
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<p>c' mon people... UMd is the only univ i will be attending because of my financil situation.... i've looked through their website but i couldn't find the requirements for honors.... can anyone tell me my chances for honors? As in my original post it says middle 50%.. does that mean it's avg. score?</p>

4

<p>that means their average is 1415. You have a shot, but you need to present yourself well. If I'm not mistaken UMD has various levels of honors but maybe I'm wrong.</p>

5

<p>your verbal and writing is a little low, work on that</p>

6

<h2>that means their average is 1415. You have a shot, but you need to present yourself well. If I'm not mistaken UMD has various levels of honors but maybe I'm wrong.</h2>

<p>you're right, from what i heard there are 3 honors programs in UMD
i don't know why they have separated them like.. anyway my question is... what does it take for one to be invited to honors programs?
is that just the test scores? are ec's or essays that important in this big state University? any experiences or thoughts?</p>

7

<p>Ooh, ooh, ooh! I was just at UMD on Friday, and spoke extensively with a recruiter about the honors program. I have her name and number, if you would like it. She was really nice, and you could probably contact her anonomously (sp?) with questions. However, I think she was specifically a "College of Chemistry and Life Sciences" recruiter... but I'm sure she'd still have good info, or could give you the number of an engineering recruiter. Good luck pinning her down for any numbers, though. My friends and I hammered her for average SAT score for full ride, and she couldn't have been more evasive.</p>

<p>I think she said that they disregard the SAT once you're in the pot as a contender--everyone has good enough SAT scores and they go on rec's and EC's. She suggested no less than five rec's, and said they really like ones from employers/coaches and teachers in your prospective major. She mentioned it was done by a committee. Also, they don't require SAT-II scores, and though she said they could help, she seemed like they weren't worth too much. Umm... AP scores were really big, esp. AP Calc and courses for your major. She said that, for the lower honors program, A's and B's, but for the higher one and the large scholarships, there should be VERY few B's. </p>

<p>I also got to speak with several kids in the honors program. They had nothing but positives. (Except for one boy, who thought it was stupid. But there's one in every group, and it was interesting to get a negative perspective.) One guy mentioned that he was in the higher honors program with a scholarship, and that he turned down Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon, if that gives you any idea.</p>

<p>Oh, and she mentioned that they like to see involvement at UMD, so they know that the university isn't just a back-up for Penn State or somesuch. </p>

<p>She said that they don't use the writing score.</p>

<p>Can't think of anything else... good luck!</p>

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<p>Did it seem like there was any chance for out of staters to enter the program???</p>

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<p>I don't know; none of the students were out-of-state, and the recruiter didn't mention it. But I don't think Maryland colleges are like Virginia ones, where a certain percentage of students must be in-state. Not sure about that, though. </p>

<p>Here's the name of the recruiter, if anyone is interested. (Her card was upstairs, and I was too lazy to get it earlier.) She's just for Chemical and Life Sciences, I think, but she seemed to know a heck of a lot about the honors program.</p>

<p>Eden M Garosi
301-314-8375
life-inquiries(at)umd.edu (replace (at) with @)</p>

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<p>recruiter...recruiter.... does that mean you've talked to the person who is responsible in selection of honors students? 0_0
and you said it's "done" in committe...hm.....</p>

<p>well. .. how exactly can there be "lower" honors?</p>

11

<p>They have like three different levels of honors. There's one program called Gemstone, where the students are grouped into teams according to prospective major and housed together, and they have special "team-building" courses they go through together. Then, they choose a research project and work closely together and with a sponser to accomplish it. The projects seemed pretty varied--one kid said that his group was making a website where UMD musicians could put their music up for download, and another said that they were working on 3-D imaging of some sort of special protein. </p>

<p>Then, there's another honors program that comes with a full scholarship. In that program, there's a lot of special courses, so those students don't have the 450-kid lectures, and the labs are special. She said that, for example, the professor would just show up, say "Make such and such" and then leave you to your own devices.</p>

<p>This could be inaccurate--I'm just resurrecting it from memory. Please, no one send me nasty messages!</p>

<p>She said she was on the committee that doled out merit money, but she didn't choose who came before the committee. I think her job was to go to different high schools and talk to students, to convice them to go to UMD. I was at a Biomedical camp there, and the whole last day was a "Come to our College!" day. The recruiter spoke to us students, then we had a barbeque and got to ask current students questions.</p>

<p>I actually wouldn't have touched UMD with a seven-foot-pole before hearing everyone talk about it. All of the students loved the college. They said that they didn't mind the 400-kid classes, because there were "discussions" and labs with only like 20 kids in them. Also, it seemed like the class size varied from major to major--a Bio kid said that even his advanced, senior courses had like 50 people in them, but another majoring in CompSci said that he had NEVER had a course with over 40 kids in it. </p>

<p>Then there's just, "Oh boy, you're a bright kiddie, let's give you some dough!" type awards, too.</p>

12

<p>im also potentially interested in UMD honors (in chem for that matter!). Is it supposed to be a good school for chem? I haven't heard that it was exaclty a great school...
Also, what would my chances be at getting into the honors program with not great SAT scores (710m/620v/620w) 670sat2 chem, 710 ushist, 700math2 and i will have taken a total of 8 ap classes by the time that i graduate. I have an solid-high A average and am involved in lots of ECs w/ leadership too. also doing research for an intel project to be submitted. thanks for any help!!</p>

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<p>I'd e-mail the recruiter and ask her to send you information, ASAP. They handed out folders of propaganda, and probably could send you one. There's a lot of good info in it. But good luck trying to get any evaluations--it seemed like she'd say just about anything just to get you to apply.</p>

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<p>I def. think u will get in, 70% chance of honors.</p>

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<p>My S had 3.75 (unweighted) GPA with 1480 SAT (800 Math, 680 Verbal) and SAT II's Math 750, Physics 790 and got into College Park scholars (which he was not interested in) as well as Deparmental Honors (Engineering), plus he was invited into Inventis. He is also out of state and got a nice scholarship offer (10K/year) with the Honors programs. UMD does have many levels of Honors so there is a good chance you will get into one or more of the programs.</p>

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<p>Is it possible to be accepted into scholars and honors???
and if you are only accepted into scholars, is there still a chance of getting a scholarship?</p>