I applied to University of Maryland out of state (NY) and was rejected yesterday. I have a 3.5 GPA 1870 SAT (630 CR 620 M), played lacrosse and football throughout high school, involved in a couple other clubs/community service. I’ve taken 8 honors classes, 1 AP, and 6 college level course which I have already received credit for. I applied for the finance major, which is an LEP (limited enrollment program). When I applied I didn’t realize this was a big deal, but do you think applying for an LEP ultimately resulted in my rejection? Would I have had a better shot at acceptance if I applied undeclared or even in a major such as economics? If yes, is there any way I could call the admissions office and ask them to reconsider my application for a different major? UMD was my top choice and I am willing to do anything to somehow get accepted there
Whether you choose an LEP has no effect on your overall admission decision to UMD. It would have been the same whether you put economics or undecided.
Smith only reviews applicants after they are admitted to UMD, not before. This would not be a good reason to appeal.
Consider applying as a transfer student if your heart is set on maryland.
Ok thanks @mdhelp.
As a former UMD admissions counselor, would you consider these numbers to be among the accepted usually? Or do they seem low?
I was not a counselor, and because of that I am not going to try to guess why people do or do not get in. If they had unlimited space many more of you would get admitted because you will be a strong student in college, unfortunately they don’t have that and the cutoffs are not as black and white as some people make it seem.
Your SAT/ACT scores, GPA, AP/IB, extra curriculars and essays each individually do not determine whether you are in or not, it’s the whole package vs the 25,000 other packages that determine it. An extra 10 pints here or A there may have made a difference, but that is neither here nor there. With your stats you may have gotten in when I did, last year or next yesr, who knows. It’s just unfortunately this year they didn’t have space.
I wish I had a better answer but keep in mind that every that gets rejected would like to appeal, but they already reviewed your file. If something was wrong or something like that they will review. But otherwise they would have ankther review with no more space
Ok not saying I will appeal, was just trying to get some closure on a topic. Thank you. @mdhelp
Not a problem, I didn’t want it to sound like you were only looking for that or anything, just wanted to give a better idea of why its so hard to guess whether someone will or won’t get in. I wish you best of luck no matter where you end up, Maryland is a great school, but so are many others. Transferring is always an option, and sometimes it works out even better at other places. Good luck!
Ok thanks appreciate it! @mdhelp
@dcip I was also denied admission for Fall 2014. What I did was I took four summer classes at community college and applied for spring semester.I was able to get in for Spring 2015 and now I am attending UMD. I had total of 14 credits and SAT score around 1750. I think you should plan to take summer classes that will fulfill ENG 101and math 140 requirement and apply for Spring semester 2016.
@rockricky I never thought of that, that is a good idea thank you.
@rockricky Hey can you give me a little more info on how you did that? It seems interesting for me, and I’m not too sure about it, so you’re help would be appreciated.
@rockricky What you did was a great plan and something I encourage all students that are rejected to look into.
If you are an in state student look into the Maryland Transfer Advantage Program.
@wickedflow I took four classes at community college over the summer. Two math classes (calc 1 and calc2 ) 4 credits each and two english classes 3 credits each. The total was 14 credits. In order to be considered a transfer student you must complete UMD’s English 101 and Calc 1 requirements and must have 12 or more credits done after high school. I applied for regular spring semester.
Not to take over OPs topic, but what are you doing/planning for housing? If you have to find off campus, it is VERY expensive…rockricky, what did you do?
“In order to be considered a transfer student you must complete UMD’s English 101 and Calc 1 requirements and must have 12 or more credits done after high school. I applied for regular spring semester”
This is not true…
That is mostly true if you are applying as a transfer student, keep in mind however that this may include AP credits that another college accepts. So if you took enough for 12 credits in high school and took a few more classes during the summer you would meet the requirements of having at least credits completed at the time of application.
Having Calc 1 is not the requirement, however, you must complete a class that meets the fundamental math requirement. (Pre-calc, stats, etc can meet these requirements, but not remedial math). Search fundamental math UMD for more info.
It looks like you’ve come up with a good transfer plan. Are you seriously going to pay $44k/year tuition as an OOS student? From their Fall 2014 Admission report it looks like it was a reach for you:
https://www.irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf
Good luck in the future.
This is untrue.
http://www.umd.och101.com
If you’re willing to share a bathroom/kitchen, I’ve seen prices as low as 360/month and still on a shuttle line.
Does anyone know what kind of GPA scale they use? It says the average accepted was a 4.15 but is that on a 4.0 scale? @mdhelp
@dcip25 Maryland recalculates your GPA to a 5 point scale. 1 extra point is given for AP/IB/Honors courses.
Ok thanks @mdhelp