Spring Admit - is FC worth it?

UMD was my top choice, and I was accepted for the spring semester, on the waitlist for fall semester. I will definitely be attending spring semester, and fall if I get in off the waitlist, but I am trying to figure out if it is worth doing FC over working in a lab at the NIH for the first semester.

What are the advantages (I will be doing a CS / Linguistics double major, if it matters)? What are the disadvantages?

Finally, is there any meaning to being put on the fall waitlist? I know that many people did not have that part in their letter, but are a significant number of people admitted off of the watilst?

@yoitsdave - You’ll find many posts about Freshman Connection in this thread starting around page 50

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/2028451-umd-college-park-class-of-2022-ea-discussion.html#latest

and in this thread

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/2052164-umd-freshman-connection-hellp-p1.html