I don’t believe so since you need a university GPA of 2.7 as well. You can call advising to double check.
Hello! D23 got into direct admit CS, but not into any of the LLCs. When the self nominations open this week, is there any suggestion on the best LLC for her?
Unfortunately, I am only familiar with Honors, but there are lots of other great threads on the other LLPs
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DC is direct admit CS. They just got word they were selected for Gemstone Honors. The people they know who have done Gemstone are bio-med kids, so DC is concerned that there won’t be anything for a CS major in that program. Do you know whether CS majors have been able to find work of interest to them in Gemstone?
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Yes my best friend was in Gemstone and was a CS major. There are plenty of projects that work for CS interests.
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My daughters also got Gemstones and wondering the same.
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And S23, a CS major also placed in Gemstones. Guess not all can be assigned to ACES. Fortunately son is fine with it. Good luck!
Just for information, ACES only has a cohort of about 85 students each year and they deliberately include some non-CS majors for diversity of thought
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That’s what we told DC – that the program is looking for many types of diversity.
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Hello sl4122,
My son was admitted to L&S for the fall 2023 semester, and he is planning to transfer to CS after fulfilling the gateway requirements. We have reviewed the general requirements for a CS major and based on our understanding, he can claim the following credits based on his AP scores:
Here are his AP scores prior to senior year:
AP Computer Science A: 5 *** CMSC131
AP Human Geo: 4 *** DSHS and DVCC
AP World History: 5
AP Seminar: 4
AP Psychology: 4 *** DSHS or DSNS
AP United States History: 4 *** DSHS or DSHU and DVUP
AP Statistics: 3
AP English Language and Composition: 5 ***FSAW
AP Biology: 4 *** DSNL
Here are the APs that he is planning to take this year:
AP Chemistry *** DSNL (4 with score of 4 or 6 credits with score of 5)
AP Calculus BC *** FSMA and FSAR (8 credits with score of 4/5)
AP Literature and Composition *** none
AP US Government *** DSHS (3 credits with score of 4/5)
AP Macroeconomics *** DSHS (3 credits with score of 4/5)
AP Art History *** DSHU, DVUP (3 credits with score of 4/5)
Can you please confirm whether he can claim the AP credits shown above? Is there any use in taking the AP exam for AP Chemistry if he already has his NL and NS credits?
Also, will there be any use in taking the AP exam for AP Macroeconomics?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
You should ask the advising office whether you calculated the AP credits correctly. Either way, a close estimate should be good enough anyways. It is always worth it to take more exams because more credits mean you have an earlier registration date. That way, your son has a better shot at creating whatever schedule he wants.
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Hello sl4122 and other parents,
My daughter had applied for CS but admitted to L&S for Spring semester. She would like to pursue CS by fulfilling the gateway requirements. We are OOS and plan to visit during Spring break.
Couple of questions:
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She has 5 in AP Computer Science A exam and can take the credit but just wondering difficulty level of CMSC 131 vs AP CS A? Does it make sense to take CMSC 131 and CMSC 133 in next semester to make her life easy or take the credit and start with CMSC 133.
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Is it better to enroll in Spring semester as offered, kind of go with the flow, or enroll in Freshmen Connection? Are all classes required for first semester offered through Freshmen Connection?
Thanks
Sections are saved for Freshman Connection students- see sections starting with “ FC__#”
https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/202308/CMSC
I would recommend Freshman Connection, as it will give her the opportunity to be on campus when the fall freshmen join (easier to make friends). She will also still be able to work towards transferring to CS. I recommend taking CMSC132 then. It will be a little challenging to adjust since the projects are more rigorous than the ones in high school, but CMSC131 will be too repetitive for her.
I’ve been on this forum for a number of years now and I have never seen anyone express regret about enrolling in Freshman Connection.
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To OP, did you have to apply for CS LEP during first fall semester itself? After transferring AP credits, my DS should already hit the 60 credit benchmark for declaring a major after one semester.
Also, with all the AP credits etc., it seems like it should be easy for an OOS student to save on tuition etc by graduating at least a semester early. It doesn’t seem to be common though, and I’m wondering why. Are you graduating early and, if not, what affected your decision.
Thanks for doing this thread, it’s really helpful.
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I’ll try to answer some of your questions.
To transfer into CS, a current student must satisfy the following:
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Completion of CMSC 131 or CMSC 133 with a minimum grade of C-*
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Completion of CMSC 132 with a minimum grade of C-*
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Completion of MATH 140 with a minimum grade of C-*
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A minimum grade point average of 2.7 in all courses taken at the University of Maryland and all other institutions
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Indicates an Exemption Exam is available for this course. These exams are only available to students before they matriculate to the University of Maryland.
These are the only requirements. It doesn’t matter how many other credit a student has. These requirements can be met before, or during their first semester, or later. Therefore, it is important to have Official AP Test Scores sent to UMD as early as possible, so that UMD has them by the students Orientation Date.
In general, an Internal Transfer Form must be filled out by the the student and submitted for approval. If the Gateway requirements are met the Transfer is approved, Period!
Most LEPs state that there are Benchmark Reviews at various Credit points. My D and her Husband, who were both in LEPs (via Internal Transfers and not CS) have said that if a student is performing satisfactorily, these Review points are Non-Events.
As to your second question, I am sure that there students who Graduate Early and there are some students who could do this, but decide not to, for various reason.
I think one reason that you don’t hear about it much, is because people (students and parents) lose interest in this forum as they get further along in their academic journey. Additionally, the number of participants in this forum is a small percentage of the total number of students at UMD. UMD actually has a December Gradutaion, where many students (I don’t know the actual number) get their Diplomas and move on. UMD has recently announced that they are terminating the actual December Graduation Ceremony and inviting those students to the May Graduation Ceremony.
Finally, my D, who graduated in 2018, could have graduated at the end of her Junior year, if she had wanted to. However, she was in Departmental Honors and was doing Research for her Thesis and wanted the time to finish that. She also used that time to take some Grad courses and other courses that were of interest to her.
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Hi! I applied for the CS LEP after my grades were finalized from the first fall semester. It is extremely important that you wait until the requirements are 100% fulfilled because if by some chance your child withdraws or fails a class or doesn’t meet any other requirement, the application will automatically be rejected. That would be really bad because you only get one chance to apply to transfer to CS. Yes it is quite easy to finish the CS degree in 3 or 3.5 years. I could have graduated with both my math and CS degrees in just three years if I chose to. However, after covid struck my freshman year, I decided that I at least wanted some normal college experience and essentially extended my experience to four years by taking a gap semester where I did a remote internship from College Park and by adding another minor. Basically, I paid for 3.5 years of college, but was in College Park for 4 years. It is actually quite common to graduate early, at least in my experience. Around half of my friends are graduating early.
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When did the students take the tests to get out of the CS classes? Is this something they do in the fall? Or is it done at orientation?
Here is a link addressing the exemption exams. I have no direct knowledge regarding them.
https://undergrad.cs.umd.edu/external-new-student-exemption-exams