<p>So I'm looking to transfer into the Merrill journalism program from Letters & Sciences after this semester and am pretty worried about the 2.8 GPA benchmark. I transferred here from an out-of-state school this semester, and my overall GPA including this fall's grades should be a 3.0. Is that going to be good enough? Do they actually deny anybody above that 2.8 requirement?</p>
<p>I'm going to be a junior in credit status after this semester, if that has any bearing on the selection process.</p>
<p>Hm, good question. Sorry I don’t have an answer for you but at least I’m keeping it at the top ;).</p>
<p>It’s always been somewhat of a mystery to me how competitive LEP programs are for in-house transfers, and how much “above” the benchmark you need to be (or if you need to be above the benchmark at all). Students here hear a lot about how it’s really tough to get into the biz school and how you have to do way more than meet minimum requirements to be accepted…but we hear a lot less about the “in-house” selectivity of other LEPs, like government and politics, journalism, engineering, etc. Talking to admissions people or people in the department is usually not illuminating. They are purposely vague about it…like if it is not selective they don’t want to admit it…or something :p. I think the motivation behind being so vague is that the reason a program is LEP is because the department doesn’t have the faculty/staff/facilities to handle all of the students the university enrolls who want to be in that department/program. So, they prefer to err on the side of DISCOURAGEMENT because it’s always better for the university to have less students in that program and they don’t want to waste a space in a limited enrollment program on a student who is not serious about it or can’t handle it.</p>
<p>Hopefully they can focus on this semester’s grades. After all, you did transfer in from elsewhere, and the fact that you’ve done better at UMD helps your cause. Good luck.</p>
<p>Well, I went into the admissions office today and they said the Journalism LEP admit process is clear-cut. If you have the gateways and the 2.8 GPA then you’re all set. </p>
<p>Definitely good news, but I’m not entirely sure how the GPA for this is calculated. On the application form it says “cumulative GPA will be manually calculated by combining grades and quality points earned in all courses.” </p>
<p>Does anyone have a grasp on this quality point system? I assume this is the GPA system for all of UMD…</p>