<p>My acceptance packet came in today in NJ</p>
<p>@emshi230 yes I’m from Chicago and I got in!</p>
<p>A cautionary tale for students and parents considering University of Maryland - College Park</p>
<p>Son’s decision letter arrived from UCMP today. Son was accepted. Yay! But… No where in the “congratulations” letter did it mention College of Engineering. After going on-line and viewing the acceptance decision posted there I noticed a small note at the bottom of the online letter. There it was posted College and Program - Letters and Sciences. Again no mention of College of Engineering. So I then go online to various forums to determine what this all actually means. We soon come to the realization that this means that though son was accepted to UMCP, he was not accepted to the Engineering program for which he applied.</p>
<p>This practice of UMCP of sending out an acceptance letter but then not plainly stating that the student was not accepted to the program/major for which they applied is poorly conceived and implemented. Why does UMCP skirt around the most important question that needs to be answered? Did the student get in to the College for which they applied or not? There are few things quite as disappointing as seeing one’s son elated over getting into one of his top school choices and then after some digging on our own finding that the supposed “congratulations” was instead a rejection. Thanks oh so much UMCP admissions office …great job on that one!</p>
<p>After looking into the Limited Entry Program (LEP) application process for current students and already being thoroughly annoyed with UMCP Admissions to start with, we have dropped UMCP from our list of schools being considered. I am sure UMCP will not miss us. As fortune would have it, son has several other school options and will not much miss UMCP either.</p>
<p>A heartfelt congratulations to those that did actually get into the College and Major of their choice.</p>
<p>Letters and Sciences is nothing to be ashamed about. You make it sound like some awful rejection.</p>
<p>“A cautionary tale for students and parents considering University of Maryland - College Park”</p>
<p>A little overly dramatic don’t you think? I can guarantee you UMCP isn’t trying to deceive anyone through Letters and Sciences. It is just so many qualified people want to major in engineering that they can’t possibly accept everyone directly into the school. </p>
<p>They want to give the students a chance to still attend the University if Maryland is their #1. The reason they don’t clearly outline that they didn’t get into the program of there choice is because it <em>is</em> an acceptance letter and should have a happy tone. </p>
<p>Would it really be better if a school said something to the like of “Congratulations! You have been accepted to the University of Maryland. You weren’t qualified enough to be a direct admit to the Clark School of Engineer though. We hope to see you in the fall”?
Sounds a little depressing for an acceptance letter, no?</p>
<p>It is not even that hard to internally transfer in. I am sure your son is quite bright, so he should/would have had no problem getting into Clark and graduating with an Engineering degree from the University of Maryland.</p>
<p>Maryland is also not the only school that does this. University of Michigan does this, as well as University of California Berkley. In fact, I have heard in many cases students who were accepted to Ivy schools were not directly admitted into Berkley’s Engineering program. Are they too being wronged? </p>
<p>When you are dealing with large research Universities, it is just the nature of the beast.</p>
<p>It sounds sort of like you’re holding a grudge against UMD because your son wasn’t accepted into the engineering program.</p>
<p>Maryland and its engineering program do have separate acceptances. The online acceptance letter clearly shows the major at the bottom, and that is what most of us checked first.</p>
<p>I don’t really see a problem here. Just saying.</p>
<p>I had made the same observations, USNChief, and it does not seem to occur in the same manner or transparency as at other schools. IT may, but it seems to catch more UMD folks by surprise which seems to support it is something to be wary of.</p>
<p>It may be something that happens, Terpguy, but it just needs to be something expected. Better yet, applicants should have the option of identifying whether or not they are willing to be considered for a second choice school within the university. IMO.</p>
<p>“Applicants should have the option of identifying whether or not they are willing to be considered for a second choice school within the university. IMO.”</p>
<p>Why? So the University has the decision of “Well, if we don’t accept this kid to this LEP, we will lose him/her. Better accept him/her”. That doesn’t seem like it is the way it is supposed to work. </p>
<p>I don’t mean to come across as a jerk. Please don’t read me that way. My issue here though is I don’t really see the problem. You <em>do</em> have the option of not attending if you feel so disrespected by the way UMD approaches this. It isn’t like you are bound by ED or something…</p>
<p>I agree with @TerpGuy. It’s just the way the system works. It’s your son’s choice whether or not he is going to deal with Letters and Sciences or go somewhere else.</p>
<p>"…but it just needs to be something expected."</p>
<p>What am I missing here? </p>
<p>LEP stands for LIMITED ENROLLMENT PROGRAM - how is that not expected as a possibility? </p>
<p>By definition, the very term “limited” enrollment implies that there is a maximum number of students that will be accepted…</p>
<p>It is not a sleight to be accepted to the University of Maryland!</p>
<p>Thank you for our comments and opinions. While I certainly see what some of you are saying, it still does not address my objection to the ambiguous “acceptance” letter. My point entirely is that if a student applies for a specific College or Major at UMCP then the letter received from the University should address that specific application. Sending the student an acceptance “congratulations” when they if fact have been rejected from the College to which they applied is a particularly poor practice in light of what is at stake for the student. My son was entirely prepared for the possibilty of a rejection. Just not the emotional lift of a supposed acceptance which was anything but. I have no “grudge” against UMCP. I am just pointing out a poorly thought out notification process. I think a clear statement in the letter that plainly states that a student is not accepted to the major for which they applied but is instead accepted as undeclared would be forthright and prevent the ambiguity.</p>
<p>As in most things, people will have different viewpoints. This just happens to be mine.</p>
<p>S got into Engineering and Honors so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, but I do feel the situation could have been handled better.</p>
<p>If S did not get into the college he applied to, and was offered a spot in a different college which wasn’t even mentioned as an option in the application, I think he would prefer to see this spelled out VERY CLEARLY in the decision letter. Burying this little tidbit under “advising college” at the bottom of the letter, and only in the online version, is not the best way to go.</p>
<p>This is a stressful time for anxious seniors and newbie parents. They don’t need more emotional roller coasters. Not everyone checks the portal first, or even reads the whole letter before tweeting :)</p>
<p>I’m curious - was this an issue last year?</p>
<p>@nohook - love your name!!! ha ha</p>
<p>I don’t remember it being an issue the way it was presented by USNChief. Yes, some people questioned what letters and sciences meant but most seemed to understand it meant they weren’t direct admits to the LEP (engineering and business were the top majors with this “issue”). I think it wasn’t a problem in quite the same way because everyone got the email first and saw advising college pretty clearly.</p>
<p>After re-reading USNChief’s comments, I think I understand the problem. I think the issue is more with the snail mail letter than the email. So, if you open the snail mail without having seen the email (and student application portal), it makes much more sense why there was such disappointment. </p>
<p>On another thread, another parent expressed confusion as well because only the student saw the email, not the parent, which speaks to nohook’s point. When I dug up the acceptance letter from last year, I saw the “problem” more clearly. We actually got multiple letters sent in waves. The first was a general acceptance to the University itself with notation of Scholars. Then we got a separate letter several days later from Clark School of Engineering. Then we got a separate letter with Scholars information and interest inventory process. </p>
<p>I think you need to understand the application process. When you apply to a LEP like engineering, you have to be admitted by the University itself. Once you “pass” that threshold, your application is then considered by the advising college of the LEP you select. Engineering admissions are entirely separate, so their paper notification is separate. Does that make sense? </p>
<p>On another thread I saw TerpGuy posted that the overall acceptance rate to the University dropped from 47% to 41.5% between last year and this year. I don’t know how that pans out for engineering students. I can share the acceptance info for engineers LAST year from the accepted students day: of the 5,000 applicants, only 1625 were admitted.
Last year, the average SAT (CR +M only) for engineering was 1381 with 74% scoring 1460 and 25% scoring 1320. The average GPA was 4.2. Since the general university admissions info shows an increase in average accepted SAT scores, I imagine this would be reflected in engineering as well.</p>
<p>USNChief, you said you were totally prepared for a rejection, yet you crossed UMD off your list because of this…? Perhaps in a few days, when the dust settles, you might reconsider this. My freshman engineer has several friends that didn’t get direct admits to engineering, but they are not at all concerned since all you have to do is take the “gateway” courses, do well, and reapply as an in-school transfer. It’s not uncommon at all!!!</p>
<p>I’m sorry you went through a roller-coaster of emotions, but unfortunately, that is something you can’t escape with the college application process. It really is not pleasant and sends intelligent students into spirals of unfounded self-doubt when they get what is sometimes their first “rejection” - we do this to our kids as a society by giving trophies just for participating and having more than one valedictorian. </p>
<p>The bright side of this is that your son is still accepted to the University of Maryland and if this was a top choice, then I wouldn’t throw away the opportunity so casually. It’s not only an opportunity to attend a great school, but it’s an opportunity to learn how to pick yourself up and keep going when things aren’t “perfect.” He absolutely can get into engineering as an in-school transfer, and no-one will know or care that he wasn’t a “direct admit” to engineering as a freshman. Not intending to be preachy, but just sharing what I’ve learned. Hopefully, this helps.</p>
<p>Best of luck in whatever you decide.</p>
<p>Thank you for your more detailed insight into the UMCP process. As you might well now understand, the UMCP notification process in these particular circumstances could be more clear. In the case of other acceptance letters that we have received, it was absolutely clear to what university, college, and major my son was accepted (or not). We would then also receive a welcome letter from the particular College reaffirming the original acceptance. Only the UMCP letter required that we go looking through parent and student forums to understand what had and had not occured. “nohook” captured my thoughts on the issue perfectly in his post.</p>
<p>The email did come in first. The particular college is also not addressed in the body of the email letter either but is noted at the bottom of the page. To me, as a parent not that familar with the college process, it just was not as apparent as it could have been. My observations were intended to inform (and complain to) others like me and not for those with prior experience or a more thorough understanding of UMCP’s process.</p>
<p>Thank you for the encouragement to reconsider UMCP. We may revisit the idea after we receive the rest of the notification letters. It is not that much of an issue since my son already considered UMCP Engineering as a moderate reach school and there are already other solid options. I would rather my son go to University with the engineering placement already decided but in the end it will be his decision.</p>
<p>Maybe I don’t get the problem because I applied undecided! To me Letters and Sciences felt nothing like a rejection! That could be why…</p>
<p>But of I were you I’d consider the in-school transfer thing!!</p>
<p>UMCP is certainly a great school and an admission to Letters and Sciences is certainly something to celebrate. My son not being admitted into the College of Engineering was our own disappointment.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments. I will now exit the thread as it is intended for other purposes and I feel as if I may have somewhat hijacked the discussion in another direction.</p>
<p>My son also got into Letters and Sciences but wanted Engineering. I knew that was a possibility because other colleges he had applied to made it very clear how one becomes an engineering major; some don’t let anybody declare that till sophomore year. I think Maryland could have send out a more informative acceptance letter. However, I think that it will work out in the end because UMCP does audit the students in the engineering school sophomore year and those not making the grade are dropped - and students who want to transfer to the engineering school can transfer if their grades meet the criteria. It’s a demanding major and a student struggling with the early requirements probably should reconsider whether he/she wants to be an engineer anyway. </p>
<p>I am concerned that my son wouldn’t be able to live in an “engineering dorm” or have access to the same mentoring and tutoring that freshman engineer majors have, it looks like engineering even has a summer option to start early and I don’t think other students can participate. I think it is really important for engineering majors to be able to support each other.</p>
<p>We are in the same situation with USNChief and I have to say that I completely agree that UMCP handled it very poorly. Our son went through the stage of thinking he was accepted into the Engineering College only to find out that he was placed into Letters and Science. The fact that the mailed acceptance letter NEVER states that he did not get into his major of choice is misleading at best.</p>
<p>Upon contacting two advisors at UMCP it is very clear that non-majors (looking to transfer in) are at a distinct disadvantage. First, they admitted that there is a high likelihood that you will not be able to take the entry level freshman engineering courses because those in the college get first dibs. The suggestion was to take such courses at other schools - community colleges, etc. Who wants to start at a school knowing that you have to take courses elsewhere? The advisor also warned that being a non-major could result in 1-2 extra semesters being needed to graduate. Furthermore, they have their criteria for transferring in but what’s to say that the criteria might not get raised if they have an inordinate number of applicants for a particular major in engineering?</p>
<p>The decision will of course be up to my son, but I know from past experience with an older son who got his degree in engineering that a school can be far more transparent and supportive than UMCP has been up to this point. There is something to be said about the compassion and spirit of the school and its administration.</p>
<p>So would you have preferred an “all or nothing” approach where your son/daughter just got denied admission completely? I don’t really understand the logic there.</p>
<p>At a school this big the admissions is not in communication with the School of Engineering. They review separately from each other, as highlighted by Maryversity. It is not as easy as you make it sound to simply state in the paper letter that they did not get into Engineering.
They are sending out thousands of these. Considering there is no communication between the two, imagine the time it would take to establish that link. </p>
<p>They send you an email before you get the paper letter telling you to check your portal. Your advising college is listed on the bottom of the page, which should be easy to see assuming one actually reads the whole portal email. </p>
<p>They simply cannot accept everyone. <em>Other schools do this too</em> </p>
<p>The median SAT this year for engineering was most likely in the range of 1390. It is competitive. No way around that.</p>
<p>This school has plenty of school spirit. I can promise you that.</p>
<p>^Terpguy
My son has been accepted into his engineering major here and at 8 other extra large universities. I have never heard even once that admissions and engineering are not in communication with each other. Maybe umcp has too much red tape to have it run as smoothly as other admission offices. Your reasoning seems flawed or just uninformed. I do not say this maliciously…just perhaps you do not have the experience of a large number of large state universities.</p>
<p>I’ve been accepted into the engineering program. Am I really supposed to have a separate notification from the engineering department? If so, when does that separate notification actually arrive? So far I’ve gotten the online admissions message, and a paper letter from the university itself, as it had no mention of the engineering department.</p>