Hello everyone,
Sorry for it being so long to explain my scenario.
Before I begin, I want to tell you a little bit of my background. I am a transfer college student who received a Bioengineering associate degree, unfortunately I could not do much with it. So I decided to enroll in the engineering school at University of Maryland (UMD). I did not get accepted, but I was placed into the LTSC program because of my 2.8 GPA and one a course grade (I will describe later). The LTSC program is mainly for student who did not declare a major, lets you take courses at UMD, and provide academic advising.
On orientation day (July 2013), I was assigned to a counselor who would advise me. He recommended two options, my options wore I can get into the engineering program but I have to fulfill some requirements OR declare Biochemistry since I was already eligible. As I was very serious and passionate about the Bioengineering program, I choose the first option; that is to spend a couple of semesters to fulfill the additional requirements for the Bioengineering program. So he printed out a sheet for the Engineering Limited Enrollment Program requirements (LEP) (Version 1.10.12), and advised me a way to get into the engineering program.
These are the requirements for Engineering LEP (Version 1.10.12):
- Completion of Fundamental Studies English
- Completion of MATH 141 (Calculus II) with min of B-
- Completion of PHYS 161 (Physics I) wit min of B-
- Completion of CHEM 113 (Chemistry II), CHEM 135 or CHEM 271 with min of C-
- Completion of BIOE 120 with min of B-
- A minimum grade point average of 3.0 GPA in all courses taking in all institution.
- “Only one ‘gateway’ or performance review course may be repeated to earn the required grade and that course may only be repeated once.”
First, since my GPA was low (2.8), he calculated metrics of how many credits I needed to get my GPA higher (Example: 15 credits with a 4.0 GPA, 20 credits with a 3.75 GPA, 30 credits with a 3.5 GPA and etc.). Second, since I already completed CHEM 271 (Chemistry II in Montgomery College where I received a D (there is a story behind of me receiving this) then I retook it and received an A and PHYS 161 where I got a C. My advisor told me since I needed to get a min of B- in PHYS 161, but retaking PHYS 161 would violate the LEP repeat violation. So to circumvent this gateway repeat rule I would have to take CHEM 135 and get a min of B- (that way it overwrites the CHEM rules), take PHYS 161 and get a min of B-, lastly since Montgomery college did not offer BIOE120 I would have to take it and receive a min of B-.
With this, I first began by raising my GPA up to a 3.0. Completing all my CORE requirements and taking courses I was only able to register for just to get my GPA up (in LTSC, I was given access to limited courses since I did not declare a major). I managed to get a 3.05 GPA, B- in CHEM 135, B+ in BIOE 120, and a B in PHYS 161. Keep in mind, every semester I had a mandatory meeting with an academic advisor to go over my academic progress (so within the year and a half I meet with them about a minimum of 6+ times). Recently, my academic advisor reviewed everything and I had the “go” to apply for LEP (also keep in mind I can apply for LEP once).
As excited as I was and knowing my hard work finally paid off, I did not think twice I would get denied. About two weeks later, I received an email saying I did not get accepted to the program. In the email it said I did not meet the “minimum requirements.” Right away, I contacted multiple persons to figure out what is going on and what requirements I failed to meet. Waiting a couple of days for responses, they told me I needed to write an appeal but did not tell me what I requirements I did not meet. I wrote the appeal and explained my scenario. I also did some research on what could have gotten wrong, the only thing I found was on the LEP web page they updated the Engineering LEP requirements. I matched up every word on the LEP requirements list (Version 1.10.12) I was given on orientation, and the same one my consolers and I were following to the new one (Version 10.17.14). The only thing was different now was they added “Only one gateway or performance review course may be repeated to earn the required grade and that course may only be repeated once. When more than one course can satisfy a gateway requirement, taking a second course from the list will count as a repeat.”
I was devastated, why all of a sudden I was based off a new requirements when I was originally following one almost a year now? And the funny part of this is, if you go to http://www.lep.umd.edu/ web page and take a look at all the other programs except for communication it sates “Only one gateway or performance review course may be repeated to earn the required grade and that course may only be repeated once. When more than one course can satisfy a gateway requirement, taking a second course from the list will count as a repeat. This policy will be in effect for all students who first matriculated at the University of Maryland in Spring 2015 or later.” I do not understand how in other LEP programs, the students who first matriculated at UMD in spring 2015 or later wore exempts from this requirements.
Rather than me relying on the appeal I manage to get in hold and meet the person in charge of the engineering LEP (Associate Dean of the Clark School of Engineering). I explained my situation about the reason why my GPA was a 2.8 and I managed to get it up to a 3.05 along with the repeat scenario. He said he will look at it and contact me in a few days, he did not seem interested at all (looked like he was in a rush and that I was wasting his time speaking to him). After awaiting, I get an email from the engineering undergraduate advising saying Associate Dean of the Clark School of Engineering made the decision that he is not going to grant me admissions and to look at other majors. I contacted the engineering undergraduate advising person to get a clear understanding of why I did not get accepted, she said my “performance was not at the required level.” I did not understand what she meant by that other than a slap in the face saying my year and a half academic adversity was for nothing. So I contacted her to get more detail on what she meant by my “performance was not at the required level.” And she told me to contact the Dean of the Clark School of Engineering again for more information. So I did and this is what he said “I am happy to meet and talk with you but I am not sure what good it would do.”
Now I am sitting here, thinking to myself “what good it would do” had to be the biggest disappointment statement in my academic carrier. I spent a year and a half fulfilling all the requirements I was told, taking classes just for the Bioengineering all meant nothing, not to mention investing all my time and money the past year and a half to be in this program for nothing. Now I am left with the closest major which is declaring biology or biochemistry, but due to the big differences in the majors I am pretty much in sophomore status. I managed to talk to my counselor in regards to this, she also did not understand why I was denied. So she contacted her director to talk to the engineering department and got to me saying “ENGR has not changed their decision.”
I am just disappointed, do you guys recommend anything else that is close to bioengineering? As you can see the fany tips would be helpful. Also if you had the time to read this, thank you for your time. God bless, have a nice day!