Hi everyone. I was recently accepted to UMD and invited to Scholars. Over the last few days, I have been doing a lot of research on the programs. I would love to hear about experiences of some of you have have been through the program or are going through it. Currently, two that intrigue me are “Science, Discovery, and the Universe” and “Media, Self, and Society”. I’d love to hear about experiences with these previous two programs as well (I am trying to figure which order to preference these on the sheet). Also, trying to find a third program to put on the preference sheet. Note: I was accepted as a bio major.
Additionally, just a general question about Scholars: How are the people involved in Scholars socially? While I am not an excessive partier, I am someone who likes to go out and have fun on the weekends, and am a bit concerned that those rooming with me may not have the same social interests, since scholars seem to be more studious than the UMD campus overall.
My son did STS and I really would not worry about people wanting to go out and have fun on the weekends in Scholars. Trust me, you will NOT be alone! Sure, there’s always those who are more studious, and those that are even more serious partiers, but most are going to be like yourself - a healthy balance of wanting to have fun and still good students. Being studious and wanting to be socially active are not mutually exclusive!
As for how to prioritize choice of scholars programs, check out this page https://scholars.umd.edu/citation-requirements and click on the link for the pdf with the citation requirements. That will give you a good sense of the program so you know what interests you. When my son was in scholars (STS, fall 2012-spring 2014) SDU used to do a model rocket launch that was reportedly “a blast” (pun intended, but seriously that event in particular was supposed to be a lot of fun) but not sure if they still do it.
FYI, there’s also a “College Park Scholars” Facebook page and each program I think has their own pages also…
Congrats for the acceptance to UMD. My girl is currently a freshman at the Clark Engineering school. She is also in SDU Scholars program. I don’t think SDU does a model rocket launch any more, at least my girl has not mentioned it. She picked SDU because she wants to learn more about the universe but does not have a strong interest to major in aerospace, physics, etc. SDU has two different tracks of focus during the freshman year. Students are divided into two groups and alternate taking the Scholars’ seminars: One group will take topic A in the fall and B in the spring, and vice versa. SDU does plan and provide lots of excursions throughout but you are not required to participate in all (two is the min. requirement each semester, I think). These excursions are both fun and educational.