My d has been accepte to both and has narrowed down her choices to either PSU or UMD. She plans to study bio/ math with the hopes of going pre-med.
Any thoughts on a better school, more research opportunities? We are OOS for both, she visited both schools and loved them both
Are both affordable, as they’re out-of-state? It’s important to minimize debt for pre-med students.
Both are great for pre-med and both are large research universities with lots of research opportunities. I’m personally familiar with Penn State and know that they have lots of opportunities for undergrads to get involved in research. The medical school (for research purposes) at Penn State is actually located in Hershey, which is about an hour away - but the School of Nursing and the Departments of Biobehavioral Health, Human Development & Family Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Kinesiology/Exercise Science and a bunch of food/nutrition departments are all in State College and accessible for research.
UMD has the same deal - the medical school is in Baltimore about 1.5 hours away by train but there are plenty of other departments in which one could do research.
She really can’t go wrong. One question is whether she’d prefer to be in a small college town vs. the suburbs of a large international city. State College is pretty isolated - 3 hours from the nearest major cities. That can be good or bad depending on the student - Penn State students have an excellent time, they make their own fun, and really the town kind of caters to their needs which is awesome for them. College Park is a college town, too, but suburban with the opportunity to go into DC for…whatever.
FWIW, my child’s HS guidance counselor said that among her students, the ones who go to Penn State are generally happier than the ones who go to Maryland. In particular, she reports that her students at Maryland complain that the course schedule makes it hard to graduate in four years. So, maybe this is something your D should investigate. I have no direct experience with this, but just thought I’d mention.
Thank you both omuch
Both are great choices, so if she has no other preferences, choose the cheapest one.
By student SAT scores, UMD resides in a fairly rarefied level. I’d stay aware of this as a factor in terms of how it may positively affect the academic culture of its campus.
The schools are both excellent but they are different in terms of size and location. Does your D have a preference? Perhaps re-visit both schools for accepted students day and see if one school/environment resonates with her.
We just came back from
Maryland and had not seen it before. I think she got more confused
I guess I’m confused by your reaponse
Are in state public schools (which state?) significantly less expensive? That can help save money for medical school.
That’s because they game the system with the Freshman Connection program. Students whose SATACT scores would bring down the mean are funneled into Freshman Connection so that their scores won’t be included in the school’s reported averages.
“That’s because [UMD games] the system with the Freshman Connection Program.” (#11)
Extension programs are fairly common (Columbia’s General Studies, Harvard by Extension) and, because they often require significant resources, have not commonly been associated with gaming the system.
Re: #11
Probably the main reason for spring admission programs is to balance the fall/spring enrollment, since fall enrollment is typically higher (a student who graduates one semester early or late will have one more fall semester than spring semester).
Agreed, the spring admit is a very common things these days. I’d consider it more maximizing the schools resources as opposed to gaming the system. My D has friends who did a similar program at a number of excellent schools such as WashU, Brandeis, and Mt. Holyoke (and many other schools do a similar thing). And Cornell has a sophomore admit program.
Umd 's program is a bit different… The students are both in and not. 
And better management doesn’t mean they’re indifferent to the positive side effect of making hundreds of lower stats disappear from their admission stats . In addition, their branch campus stats aren’t incorporated into the College Park stats (Penn State has started to differentiate but you need to look for it, until this year they lumped branch campus and University Park stats together.)
Academically the two are quite similar.
Real differences include weather (nicer at umd), size (depends on preference, but Penn State is huge by any standard, while umd is …very large but not as immense as the psu campus…), campus environment (State College >>> College Park), proximity to cities (being roughly 3hours from 5major cities via mega bus vs. 45mn from two major cities and a few more hours for the others), specific strength in some majors, etc…
I think the biggest choice would be
"do I want a really nice college town for every day life, but being further away from cities for breaks and the occasional weekend, or would I rather take the less than stellar daily environment but have access to DC on occasional weekends/whenever I want? "
The fall extension programs (with limited course offerings) for spring admits are presumably there to make the spring admits feel more like “real” students at the university during the fall, versus either taking a gap semester or fall semester at a community college.
Anyway, question for the OP: what are the in-state public options, and how do their prices compare to the out-of-state schools named? For a pre-med, lower cost undergraduate may allow more money to be used for medical school (or lower overall debt after undergraduate + medical school). Also, being in-state may make it more convenient to get to medical school interviews at in-state public (less expensive) medical schools.
Here are medical school tuitions and a debt fact card:
https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/select.cfm?year_of_study=2015
https://www.aamc.org/download/447254/data/debtfactcard.pdf
I’ll throw in some additional info
UMD has a December Graduation that frees up space and resources. They have had a December Graduation for many years…
My D is a sophomore at UMD and on track to graduate at least one semester early… possibly 2. She is not the only student doing this.
UMD College Park does not have branch campuses. All of the schools in the University of Maryland system are separate institutions, unrelated to each other…
Although Freshman Connection has been in place for well over 10 years. it was only 2 years ago that FC students were offered on campus housing.
As others have pointed out, many, many schools now have some form of spring admit these days
My D and her friends go to DC regularly… 20 minutes tops to get there…
Still, it ALL comes down to fit… and Cost…
Go with the lowest cost/lowest debt option
Not sure if this helps, but I visited Penn State this past weekend and LOVED it. The campus has such a friendly vibe and feels small despite educating over 40k students.
I can’t say much about UMD because I’ve never visited it, but I do know that Penn State has the largest alumni base in the world and that every person I know who has gone there (which is a lot) has absolutely loved it. I’ve never (first-handedly, of course the internet is different) heard a single student/alumnus say a negative thing about their experience there.