How difficult is it to internally transfer into Smith School of Business?

<p>Hi guys, so I applied for business - undecided but was only admitted to the Letters and Sciences school. This was very discouraging news for me, and now I'm really not sure about my opinions on UMD because I want to pursue a business major. Since I can only apply to internally transfer to Smith School of Business after sophomore year, is the out-of-state tuition worth it? What goes on the first two years of not having a major? Is it difficult to transfer into Smith School of Business? If admitted after transfer: would I be 2 years behind the students who were admitted as freshmen to the Smith School of Business?</p>

<p>bump i really need an answer</p>

<p>I hear you need a 3.5 GPA to do it. You can still take the exact same classes as business majors though and for the first two years, all Smith students take the same classes. So, if you think you can get a 3.5, then you should go for it</p>

<p>is it competitive or just meeting the minimum gpa requirement?</p>

<p>I visited the Smith open house 2 weeks ago and I believe they said it is a 60% acceptance rate for internal transfers. </p>

<p>I am actually in the exact situation that you are in. Which state are you from?</p>

<p>i’m from new jersey. ellex do you know what you are going to do about your situation?</p>

<p>My daughter was in the same situation, and was also admitted into the Honors College. Many people told me to call, so I did as it was confusing that she was admitted into Honors, but not the Smith school. I was given the email of the person who is in charge of enrollement of the Smith Business School. I simply emailed, pleaded my daughters case, asked him to review her application and informed him she had been directly admitted into the Business schools at other universities. He responded back within 3 hours that he had changed her from Letters and Sciences into the Smith School! Not sure of your stats, but it is definitely worth a try! I called the Admissions office to find out who to speak to. (sorry, but I deleted the emails!!)</p>

<p>Proudmom, that is great feedback. I’ve never heard of this happening…this is awesome! Congrats to your daughter.</p>

<p>If you have another choice of a school where you are already in the business school skip UMD College Park. It is extremely hard to get into the Business School if not entering as a freshman. Not only will you be competing against current UMD students transfer students also go in that same pool. Not to mention College Park Business school can not accomodate all it’s students so many students are bused to the Shady Grove campus. This is a horrible alternative. It is about 40 minutes from College Park on a good day.</p>

<p>College Park is totally over rated.</p>

<p>It’s not that hard IME. I did it. I had great grades though. And no you wouldn’t be 2 years behind, you take the same gateway courses that every business major has to take.</p>

<p>Lifeisgrea, I’m not sure why you have such a vendetta against UMD. I looked at your other 12 posts, and they are nearly all very negative against UMD, with some questionable statistics (the one about UMD having 45% OOS students is incorrect. The fall 2011 freshman class was 24% OOS <a href=“http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/facts/quickfacts.cfm[/url]”>http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/facts/quickfacts.cfm&lt;/a&gt;). </p>

<p>Paulyyk and ellenx, I hope you are getting advice from people who have actually been in the business program, especially people like ThisMortalSoil who have been through the process. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.</p>

<p>Just wanted to bump this thread up for a friend and any other students interested…</p>

<p>I’m also in this situation, got FC and waitlisted for the fall, with letters and sciences. I wish to become a Finance major and ive read that along with great grades (3.5 MINIMUM) you also need to have extra curriculars. @ThisMortalSoil could you elaborate on what kind of grades you maintained and what activities you did as well? I’m very curious. Not even sure you’ll ever see this because its an old post but, worth a shot. Also, did your advisor help you at all or give you any tips you could share to keep yourself on track or to gain an advantage?</p>

<p>I am also interested to know @Tgrabs127‌ questions answer. i am in the same situation and got admitted as Letters and science. i am planning to apply in Spring 2015(cant apply now since i have ECON/gateway class to take). @ThisMortalSoil‌ , what was the GPA you had? did you have to do something out of extraordinary to get in? extra co curricular activity?</p>

<p>i want to apply in IS, they dont have this major at Shady Groove so I have no choice but to get in Business School at College park Lol.</p>

<p>@Tgrabs127 and @Grandidiot - please note I “bumped” this thread up last year from 2012 for informational purposes but I don’t think ThisMortalSoil is active on cc these days - may have even graduated this year. </p>

<p>Hopefully, others can chime in with their personal experiences/gpa for you. Best bet is not to think “I need a minimum gpa of 3.5” but just focus on doing the best you can to get the highest grades you can. If you only aim for 3.5, you have a chance of falling below. Aim for a 4.0 and then when you fall short, you’re more likely to have hit the actual mark you need. Not saying a 4.0 is not possible, but with the +/- system, it’s possible that you can have all A’s in your classes but still not have a 4.0 because if even one of those A’s is an A-, that will bring your gpa to just below a 4.0 (A- counts as 3.7). It’s also possible there’s slightly more leeway now in the “minimum” gpa needed because of that - MortalSoil started attending prior to the institution of the +/- grading (started Fall 2102).</p>

<p>As for activities, go for ones that interest you rather than what you think looks good for Smith app. You will be much happier and more likely to have meaningful involvement. There is a huge student activities fair every fall on McKeldin Mall so you can see the myriad of options available.<a href=“http://thestamp.umd.edu/events/first_look_fair”>http://thestamp.umd.edu/events/first_look_fair&lt;/a&gt;
NOTE: that link saying you need to register is meant for sponsors - I just posted it so you can see the date. As a student, it’s completely FREE and NO REGISTRATION is required - just show up, walk around, talk to clubs that may interest you and give them your student email so they can put you on list to receive info about upcoming events they are doing. If you are really motivated to see the options available you can go here <a href=“- TerpLink”>http://orgsync.umd.edu/browse_student_organizations&lt;/a&gt;. Personally, I find this a bit cumbersome to browse through since you don’t necessarily know what category you would be looking for/how a particular club is classified, but I’m old, so it might be less cumbersome for you. There really is everything under the sun from Quidditch to sailing to breakdancing to advocacy groups to you name it! Things you might not know to look for by name are the social/business frats like Phi Chi Theta and Alpha Kappa Psi. However, I know nothing about those other than their existence so I can’t recommend joining as a fun thing or even if it would look good for your app to Smith. Just quite literally googled business frats university of maryland to give you a sense of why I said the orgsync is cumbersome - it’s soooo long a listing and you might not scroll through everything since it’s alphabetical and these names would mean nothing to you otherwise…make sense? So, just hang in there and plan on going to the FirstLook Fair. I honestly believe it’s not the specific activity you are involved in but just that you are doing something other than just hitting the books alone. It’s not quantity of activities either…just like when applying to college, they can “see through” random memberships. Better to just do one and get good grades than 4 or 5 and mediocre grades.</p>

<p>Thanks for info @maryversity‌. you are really helpful when its about UMD.</p>