<p>Okay so I applied to UMD, Penn State, Rutgers- all their undergrad engineering schools. I got into Penn State Engineering and Rutgers Engineering, but I got rejected from UMD's engineering program. But I got into UMD's Spring Semester for Letters & Sciences Undecided major (aka Liberal Arts college- undecided) and got the option of doing "Freshman Connection" which allows me to be at UMD Fall semester but I will be living off-campus and my classes will be in the afternoon separate from the UMD population- with the same profs and smaller classes like 20ish vs. 200 class sizes.
I'm looking at reapplying to UMD's engineering program for my sophomore year but from what I've heard you have to keep your GPA above 3.5 to have a good chance of getting in and I have to take (<a href="http://www.lep.umd.edu/engineering-spring2014onward.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.lep.umd.edu/engineering-spring2014onward.pdf</a>) courses (transfer list) to have a chance.
UMD's been my number one school but do you think it's worth it? I'm from NJ which means that RU would be the cheapest option. Penn State has a higher ranked engineering program out of the three. So do you think UMD is still the best option for me? Please help....I really need all the advice I can get. Thanks!</p>
<p>Go to Rutgers and do well. UMD is not worth the out of state tuition and the teaching here in the engineering school is actually really bad.</p>
<p>I’m doing engineering at Maryland in the fall, so I’m slightly biased. In your case, though, it seems like Penn State would be your best option, just because you’ve already been admitted into engineering. From what I hear Freshman Connection is a good program, but in my opinion it’s not worth the worry about transferring into an LEP at Maryland. And Penn State>Rutgers unless the cost difference is substantial.</p>
<p>Its always a bit painful to walk away from your top choice school, but in your case, I’d walk away from UMD. You didn’t get into the program you want and there is no guarantee that you will. Plus most engineering programs start off in the freshman year so even if you do get in as a soph., you may be behind in terms of classes. If you want to be an engineer, focus on Penn State and Rutgers, both fine schools. Look at the schools, the engineering programs, and discuss finances with your parents and move forward.</p>
<p>Did you get any fin aid to either PS or UMD? Have you visited all three campuses?</p>
<p>My instinct is to a agree with going to RU, but if either of those other schools are offering you $$$ to make the costs comparable than it becomes more of a toss up. Also if you don’t like RU it will be hard to be forced to “like it”.(Then again, I gather you didn’t apply to some place you wouldn’t want to attend?</p>
<p>How big is the difference in net cost after non-loan financial aid?</p>
<p>What kind of engineering?</p>
<p>thanks for the responses!
I’ve visited UMD and RU so far and really like UMD. RU’s pretty good too. Non-loan financial aid wise I didn’t get anything 
So the costs come down to this:
UMD~$35,000
Penn State ~$40,000
Rutgers ~$20,000
I’ve thought it over and my biggest worry is that I won’t get in the engineering program at umd and might have to spend another year catching up… so this brings up an idea that my friend suggested that I got to Rutgers engineering for a year and then apply to other engineering schools since most of them do the same thing (courses are similar) for freshman engineering students. But I really don’t know what to do… I don’t want to do something and end up regretting it because things didn’t work out.</p>
<p>It seems that RU would be a good fit. Why is it that you are hesitating about going there? Could you see yourself happy if you went there?</p>
<p>I agree with Rutgers.</p>
<p>Why not just go to Rutgers? It is a perfectly respectable school, and $60,000 to $80,000 is a rather large difference to most people.</p>
<p>I’ve cut it down to UMD and Rutgers. Penn State doesn’t feel like a good fit for me. I visited both UMD and RU. I really like UMD’s campus and REALLY LIKED it. And the biggest difference would be ranking. UMD has a better engineering school. I’m not really worrying at price when I compare UMD and RU since I think the UMD’s cost is worth the money due to the benefits over RU. But its really had deciding which one to go to.</p>