<p>I'm a high school dropout currently attending community college in PA, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I scored 730+ on each section of the SAT, and when I'm done with my current school, I hope to transfer into UMD (I'm a CS major).</p>
<p>-As a transfer student who will have completed at least three semesters at time of application, is the dean of admissions or whoever going to care that I dropped out of high school, given my post-secondary GPA?</p>
<p>-Two part question: When I complete my two years at community college, I'll have an Associate's in computer and information technology. I was thinking of maybe moving to Maryland and taking a year or so off from school to work in the field, and get state residency, partly because of the lower tuition for state residents, and partly to help pay for the next two years of my education. The questions: (1) How will taking a year off from school affect my application? (2) How will becoming a resident of the state of Maryland affect my application?</p>
<p>If you have more than 30 credits, they do not look at high school grades.
If you are in state you have a better chance for getting in, however, I do not know how this is affected by your taking a year off.</p>
<p>If you take off the yr and become resident, by that time, you will be in your 20’s as a jr, maybe (not every course is guaranteed to be accepted). I would suggest that if you want a UMD degree and take the yr off for residency than go yr round at night while maintaining your job.</p>
<p>You might feel isolated at 21-22 and will not be offered on campus housing, which makes you feel even more isolated.</p>
<p>Look at this as a logistical situation, 21 at least, turning 22 probably and if they do not accept all of your credits, you will enter as a soph, big emotional difference for a 19 and a 22, especially someone that had to crawl their way up with real world experience even if given a dorm do you want to live with kids that don’t get it because they are still young! Don’t live in dorms, but an apt, how will you pay for it if you are going full time. UMD is huge and the one negative for transfers are that these kids bonded 2 yrs earlier as freshman when they lived in a dorm together. By Junior yr they have their group of friends, and feel no need or desire to expand it, especially since from day one of JR yr they are counting down the days until they become a SR and graduate.</p>
<p>Excellent insight, thanks. Though I admit, I hadn’t really thought of that at all. I’m a very easy-going person socially, and I don’t think I’d have any trouble with finding people to relate to on campus.</p>
<p>As for “and if they do not accept all of your credits, you will enter as a soph”… I was really curious about that in particular. If it turns out that are additional courses I’d need to take to have a complete freshman and sophomore year, I’d probably attend part time while working my first year in the state. Though that raises some extra questions. I’m unsure about the difference between regular from-HS admissions and transfer admissions, especially for part-time. Are the deadlines all the same? Is it the same office?</p>
<p>taking a year off wouldn’t really affect your status as an applicant, and as long as you have an aa when you apply, they won’t need high school scores. In terms of learning which credits transfer, tce.umd.edu is a good website to look at, you can search for your PA CC, and see a list of every class that transfers. In terms of different offices, no, all applications go through Office of Undergraduate Admissions. </p>
<p>BUT, if you’re mentioning part time, the USM campus that offers more online/evening classes (if you plan on working for a year, and taking class at night, or something like that, when you said part time) is UMUC, which is still located in College Park, but has different admissions standards, as well as a seperate application. So thats something to think about. Of course, the flagship campus has part time students as well</p>