Got sick and missed the Open House. I have a few questions about it.

I had an April 8th open house registration but got sick so I couldn’t attend and I just recently got better. If anyone attended an open house so far, could you tell me important information covered during the open house. I am especially interested in internship opportunities available over the summer and during freshman year. Since I wasn’t able to attend the open house, could someone that attended an open house session tell me how and where to find an internship.

The admitted student open houses basically checked you in, offered continental breakfast, then sent you to your college of admittance. My son will be a CS major, at their talk they discussed the many research and internship opportunities available. Said they had over a 100 companies and their career fair and had to turn down 30. Sounds like there are plenty of opportunities, you just attend the fairs, get to know you profs and advisors who will also direct you. UMD is in a great place for all opportunity!!

When are the fairs?

What is your major? There are two huge career fairs, one each semester, hosted by the university itself. In addition, for some majors, the departments will host their own career fair that are specific to that major. Engineering, for example, hosts a picnic in the fall that several companies come to, and then each discipline within engineering has its own career fair.

In addition to giving you information about your major, and describing opportunities at Maryland, if you were invited to a learning community, they also give information on that as well.

However, in large part, the goal of the admitted student day is to give you a real sense of the school and all it has to offer so that you can decide if this is the place you want to call home for the next four years. When you go to visit as a prospective student, your focus is primarily on applying/admissions requirements. Now that you’ve been admitted, they give you the info to help you decide if you want to commit. I remember hearing about opportunities I had no idea existed, and learning about the strengths of the school and the program specifically. They give you specifics that help you compare the program Maryland offers to other schools you may be considering. We got a brief tour of the departmental buildings as well, if I recall correctly.

One important thing I would suggest is that as soon as you commit to Maryland, you should sign up for the earliest orientation date you can. Yes, they reserve spots for freshman and open a few seats in all the main classes for each orientation session, but the issue is the times available. My son is a sloth and it was important for him not to take a class before 10 a.m. He signed up for the first orientation he could and was able to get the exact schedule he wanted. Some people are early birds, so an 8 a.m. is not an issue for them. The daughter of one of my friends signed up for a late orientation and still got the classes she needed, but had several 8 a.m. classes.