<p>Touche @momof3greatgirls! That’s the first time I’ve seen someone call them to the carpet for all they’re worth…apples to apples…although actually it’s not a question of them needing to get more applications as much as needing to increase the size of their student population - the school sizes are significantly smaller compared to their state populations - so naturally with larger populations applying for less spaces, their admit rates are significantly lower…</p>
<p>That’s how the rankings and prestige figures are skewed. UNC, UVA and UM are more selective on admission than UMD. If UMD decreased their admissions rate in half then voila, they become a top public state school overnight. Unfortunately, UMD only has UMBC as a distant secondary state school. UNC, UVA and UM have plenty of other public universities for the students they reject. As an alumnus, I prefer that UMD continue to provide the opportunities to a greater number of students; this makes the college experience vibrant. </p>
<p>UMD provides comparable education to their cohorts. You aren’t losing out on anything other than some intangibles (smaller class sizes, personal attention, etc.).</p>
<p>^^I also feel UMD offers ways to make the big university feel slightly smaller with honors programs for example</p>
<p>UMd-CP couldn’t get that selective even if they wanted to because they’ve always been expected by the state higher education commission to show that they serve their local community (PGC etc) well in addition to the state overall. Though not nailed in stone by statute (so far as I know) they need to demonstrate a sufficiently high intake from local high schools namely Northwestern HS, Roosevelt HS … (and these schools do send some good applicants to UMCP) but it’s not going to be easy to lower acceptance rates (besides the fact that MD doesn’t have a closely ranked second state school like VaTech or NCSU)</p>
<p>UMD-CP is not a public IVY. UMD-CP is a large state school that has many contacts in the DC area, which is great.for possible job opportunities after graduation. UMD-CP also accepts out of state students at much lower GPA’s if their families can afford full price. It’s become a business plain and simple. It’s out of state student ratio is ridiculous. UNC only does about 12% out of state and only takes the top students, except for athletes of course but this is a whole other issue. Steve Jobs never finished college and he surely did not go to a public ivy. His right hand behind the scenes guy went to University of Indiana. Not convinced a public ivy makes much difference in a career. I know it did not in my house. University of Florida and NC State Engineer graduates, . English technical writing from Virginia Tech all ended up with jobs at graduation that far exceeded expectations. </p>
<p>UNC and UVA as has been noted, limit out of state acceptances artificially. Not only that but once you get the “public ivy” tag….it’s becomes a totally bogus marketing ploy. So now rubes from all over the country toss applications to UVA and UNC just praying they may “be the one” to get in. This causes extreme inflation (or deflation technically) in the acceptance rate. Then US News ratings start magically going up…etc. It’s bogus loop. And we’ll all say that until UMd gets into the loop within the next 2 to 4 years…and it becomes a public ivy. And it will happen. Why? because kids are now applying to 8, 9, 10 schools instead of 2 or 3. What does that do? It creates an exponential drop in acceptance rates. My D goes to USC, and will be a senior. She told me the other day she wonders if she could even get in now based on the massive number of applications by which they’ve increased since she was a freshman. </p>
<p>Give me a hard working student from an up and coming school like UMd over an entitled nose in the air grad from a “public ivy” any day.</p>
<p>I would disagree slightly that Maryland does not have good secondary public schools. UMBC has come a very long way and is especially strong in math / science. (Any school that is known for its prowess in chess has to have a certain level of intellectuality). St. Mary’s is very solid too. </p>
<p>Post script: it is official - our daughter has accepted the offer into the Scholars program and will start this fall.</p>
<p>Congrats! Welcome to Terp Nation!</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your D, OP. It’s a fine school with lots of opportunities. They are not always apparent to undergrads, so do some reading about the u and ask her to look into some of them.</p>
<p>Thanks! Another question: my D will entering as undecided but is very strong in STEM and will probably major in one of the engineering disciplines at some point. I realize it is not a separate application to get into the Engineering school as incoming freshman, but how about when she declares a major? Will she have to be accepted into the department? </p>
<p>David,</p>
<p>My D is in a similar situation. At Admitted Students Day, they explained that an internal transfer is the way to get into engineering, or other LEPs. The student has to take what are called Gateway courses for the intended major. These are the EXACT same courses that engineering admitted students will be taking. They may even be in the same class. A certain GPA must be maintained, determined by the LEP department. If all that is met, the student applies for an internal transfer at the end of freshman year. For most LEPs, including engineering, it is NOT competitive. Meet the criteria and you are in. Period. You can search the UMD web site for “internal transfer” to get more info. I hope this helps,</p>
<p>Not all incoming freshmen are required to “transfer in” to LEPs. I got accepted directly. Functionally, as long as the student isn’t fairly weak academically, there’s no real difference in the experience of an “internal transfer” vs. a freshman that was accepted directly.</p>
<p>@pillagerguy, you are correct that not all incoming freshman are required to “transfer in” to LEP’s such as engineering. The question that was raised by David was based on the fact that his daughter is entering as an undecided major and believes she will “probably” end up in some discipline of engineering. Assuming that his daughter is not undecided in the school of engineering but rather undecided in general and therefore in Letters and Sciences advising college, that is when an “internal transfer” will be required should she decide to major in engineering after all.
@DavidHopkins, the criteria/gateway courses that SoofDad referred to can be found here
<a href=“Transfer to Maryland Engineering | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland”>Transfer to Maryland Engineering | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland; and here
<a href=“http://www.eng.umd.edu/advising/transfer-form-instructions”>http://www.eng.umd.edu/advising/transfer-form-instructions</a></p>
<p>Read the fine print. For the engineering LEP you not only need a 3.0 GPA but you must get a B minus in both Physics and Calc. This fact was omitted at the admitted students day but can be found on the Engineering website. Many students struggle in one of the aforementioned disciplines. </p>
<p>MD is a fine school. Love it, it’s on my kid’s list, and was of heavy consideration with my other kids. I put it right on the level of PennState, UDel, Pitt and many of my family members and friends have kids accepted to all of those schools and its even-steven as to which one is picked when cost is taken out of the equation. I</p>
<p>I will warn you and anyone, that any time an internal transfer requires some sort of selection process, you had better not only get the requirements exactly as they are and also get the stats as to % selected. At many of the schools, for selective programs, EVEN IF you have the listed requirement, that’s just for a CHANCE to get considered for acceptance, Not a guarantee. Are you an automatic in with a 3.0 and a B- or higher in certain courses, or is that must a minimum requirement for consideration? If only, say half, of those kids with the requirements are getting accepted for internal transfer to a given program, that is a pause. Without a guarantee transfer, it is entirely possible, that there are times the program is full and NO ONE transfers in. You had better get some numbers on that. </p>
<p>It’s a guaranteed internal transfer for engineering so long as you meet the requirements. The flip side is that if you don’t meet the requirements, your chances of getting in on appeal is extremely small (on the order of 5 students per semester) so it’s basically a guaranteed denial on the other side of those requirements.</p>
<p>da6onet is correct. All but 2 of the LEPs (business and architecture) are guaranteed internal transfers if you meet the criteria. This was emphasized several times at an Admitted Student Day presentation on Feb 28</p>
<p>Pretty sure UMd is considered quite a bit higher academically than UDel, and Pitt, and even a bit above Penn State. </p>
<p>Mitch, they are all good schools, but if you look at metrics like the middle 50% SAT scores of the current student body, UMD ranks above them (in some cases, well above). I know that is not the only metric, but when combined with the its reputation in the sciences, economics and business, UMD comes out on top. Having said that, college is very much what you make of it. There are excellent students and leaders coming from all the schools mentioned.</p>
<p>Agreed. I always preached to my offspring that a kid that works hard a “directional state U” has every chance of succeeding in career/life…every bit as much as a kid at “nameplate” school.</p>