First Year Innovation and Research (FIRE)

Or daughter was accepted and in the acceptance letter was invited into the FIRE program. Her friend is a freshman and is in the program, but she knows no one else in it. We have a good feel for what the program is all about, but still have a few questions. Is it fairly new? Are students selected from a different pool of applicants, outside of Honors and Scholars?

FIRE, from what I know, is fairly new. I have a friend in the program and he tells me that it’s super beneficial for those that want to go into research or DO research, since they give you experience in a research environment as a freshman (something most people do not have). I’m not sure how FIRE students are chosen, but I know that, regardless of whether you were accepted from the initial acceptance letter or not, you have the opportunity to take your chances and apply for it before coming to UMD! (For anyone reading this who is interested: https://fire.umd.edu/join.html)

I’m not sure if you would know this, but I was accepted into the FIRE program as well, but was I considered for the honors/scholars college as well? I was a bit confused because it seemed like you could only be in one.

That is correct; you can only be in one program. The sole exception to that is that you can be in FLEXUS (women in engineering community) and a LLP.

Is FIRE program as “special” as honors if you can only be in one of the two? Do they select students for each based on the student’s inclination for research or whatever? We are slated to do the tour as accepted student next week. So I hope to learn more then. But is the living arrangement for FIRE students separate (if anybody here knows)?

No one really knows how the selections are made. I cannot find a Dorm that is specific to the FIRE program. but you ask when you get to Admitted Student Day

You can be in both Fire and Honors as long as it is the general “University Honors” program. I know this because my son got an email inviting him to apply to Fire and it said the exception was university honors. In fact the 1st semester freshman class has a section that is honors only.