<p>I just saw that the engineering school has determined the 25 Maryland high schools that send the most students to the engineering school. From the write-up, it appears that the purpose is to restrict merit scholarships to students from these schools. Does anyone know anything about this? This seems wrong on two fronts. </p>
<p>First, it seems discriminatory to flat-out deny a scholarship to a qualified student solely on the basis of where they went to high school. </p>
<p>Second, it suggests the engineering school does not care to attract high-achieving students from a broader spectrum of high schools and prefers to focus on the handful of schools that already send many students. Any comments? Am I reading this right? I find this hard to believe.</p>
<p>When I read the item about that on the UM website, I took it to mean that were some merit scholarships reserved for kids from those schools, not that all merit scholarships were reserved for kids from those schools. But that’s just my take on it; I don’t have any first hand info on it.</p>
<p>I think you also must put a different edge on this story, in VA we have magnet schools, it is a no brainer to put TJ on any list since it is the number 1 public school in the nation. You can have outstanding students from other schools, but when it comes down to numbers, you can’t beat a TJ student. Yes, UMD does want diversity, but their goal is to have those admitted graduate. </p>
<p>All colleges rank hs by course curriculum, these might be the top 25 most rigorous schools in MD. This is why the statement about location, location, location applies to people buying homes, because the school system is part of that location equation. </p>
<p>The article clearly states they have set aside “special” merit scholarships for students coming from those 25 schools, not that only these students will get merit. It also does not state that they are only taking from these schools, nor will they not give merit to someone who is not from there.</p>
<p>Bullet is mostly right. The schools on the list are, with little exception, concentrated in Baltimore County or City, and Hereford County, all of which are fond of magnet schools, in this case ones with large budgets for STEM programming and diversity initiatives. However, they are not by any means the most rigorous in the state. The hardcore AP/IB students tend to go liberal arts because of the focus on it during high school.</p>
<p>As a life-long Marylander, I’ve heard stories that’ll make your toes curl about Maryland parties. Attending College Park is so commonplace to my peers that I wasn’t aware of it’s low acceptance rate until recently.In my (and that of many friends at different schools) experience, the gung ho engineering prospects are hesitant to go College Park because they don’t want an extension of high school or to have their academic gains diluted by rampant partying. I think this measure addresses the feelings of students and it was a wise decision to go for known contenders. Go Terps :)</p>
<p>I would debate this since USNWR have them at Most selective, it may be true for IS, but it is important to realize OOS it is no longer a safety like it was back in the 80’s, Currently UMD has a selection rate overall for 39%, even PSU has a higher acceptance rate with 51%. UVA the elite of public universities(ranked in top 5 in the nation) has a rate of 29%. </p>
<p>Do not think that the engineering school is for slackers, because day 1 you will quickly realize that it isn’t, and it is difficult to grasp concepts with only TAs.</p>
<p>sorry bandgeek, but here is the stats from Princeton Review
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<p>Remember you can get accepted to engineering, but that is not the same as being accepted to Clark. Horse of a different color regarding Clark and general admit.</p>
<p>OBTW, band I thought you are only applying now?</p>