<p>I've already visited the campus and talked with some of the admissions officers, and I heard a few different things, but honestly no one can give me "oh you'll be fine!" I would, however, like some opinions.</p>
<p>I'm planning on applying for Spring 2015, early admissions. I have 4 semesters of college, but I had to drop out of my courses on 2 of those 4 semesters since I'm self supporting and I had no idea how to balance life and school. (outside of that, my GPA is 3.75)</p>
<p>I'll of course be submitting my HS transcript which is out of state (but I've been residing and working in MD for 3.5 years now, nearly 4 at the time of application). I have a 3.8, lots of upper level courses, pretty okay test scores (27 on ACT). </p>
<p>I also did one year of research at another college while in HS, no publications but still very impressive (and can back it up/write about it). I attended a conference relevant to my research at the time. </p>
<p>I also have heavy involvement in a major-related volunteer effort, and 2 years of major-related work experience. I also have the ability to get a strong letter of recommendation from the math department chair at my community college. </p>
<p>Will these things be able to off-set the 2 semesters of withdrawls? </p>
<p>I understand they want to be certain that I'm a good fit and will be capable of succeeding at their institution. But it's going to be a hard sell when I dropped out of two semesters halfway through for personal reasons (that honestly won't be present when I go to school full time. I was working full time, school full time and failed to keep up).</p>
<p>UMCP has an agreement with some of the local community colleges that gives you a better chance of admission. Do you have a AA degree already? It would be better to have one.</p>
<p>No, I only have 23 credits so I’ll be admitting as a transfer with HS record and scores, which thankfully are excellent.</p>
<p>I’m not at any of the CC’s with the agreement, unfortunately. I’m also stuck as I’m Physics/Astronomy double major, and my community college doesn’t have a physics major. And the physics courses they offer do not satisfy my major requirements. They do transfer as credits, but are not the correct courses for my physics degree. So I can’t even start my intro sequence until I get to UMD.</p>
<p>Everyone seems to be pushing for me to get out of my CC as soon as possible if I’d like to pursue what I’m studying. If I took the time (and I’m paying entirely out of pocket as well, which is tough) to pursue the AA, most of the classes would be wasted since I can’t take any major-related courses here.</p>
<p>Just an update, I’ve added a course so when applying for Priority Spring 2015 admission this summer I’ll have 30 credits, with A+ in both the English and Math courses I took to fulfill those requirements. </p>
<p>Hopefully a strong LOR and essay can explain away 2 semesters of Withdrawls.</p>
<p>congratulations on getting things back together.</p>
<p>speak to your experience and your struggles in your app essay but I’m not sure how much of a reading UMD will give it. That’s a question to ask a UMD admissions officer. Those other questions about whether or not they’ll admit you they won’t want to say anything about. As officers of the school they cannot say anything that might be heard as a promise.
And frankly there are some things you’re telling us that are not clear.</p>
<p>so on your transcript does it say 3.75 or is that your recalculation of what your grade would have been had you not dropped out two semesters? </p>
<p>as for your rush to get to UMD, it seems you’re projecting far into the future. If you’re not transferring til Spring '15, then you have two more semesters of CC classes to take. Why are you asking these questions about leaving CC after 23 or 30 hours? are you schooling full-time?</p>
<p>I am schooling full time, on top of work full time.</p>
<p>It’s my GPA not including the 4 W’s on my transcript (2 separate semesters, one I was hospitalized for 3 weeks, the other my father had a mental break and I had to resolve that out of state–I simplified this with “unable to balance work and school” but it was just a bit personal) , which were done about halfway through a course (I’ve never failed anything). </p>
<p>I’m not certain how W’s are calculated into a GPA. </p>
<p>The reason I’m projecting farther into the future is mostly to take the best courses available to me. Since I’m determined to take a double major (Physics/Astronomy), I need to make sure I leave myself enough room in my schedule such that I don’t run out of financial aid. </p>
<p>That being said, the physics courses offered at my CC do not transfer towards my degree, and they need to be taken at UMD as an intro sequence (PY 171 with PY 174, followed by PY172 and PY173) before I can take anything more advanced–so I’m limited. </p>
<p>Because of this, I’d like to get started as soon as possible, because it’s likely already going to take me an extra semester. Additionally, graduate level courses would strongly increase my chances of getting into a decent graduate school, so I’d like to try and fit at least one in. </p>
<p>I’ll have 57 by the time I matriculate-- I’m taking 12 in the summer and 15 in the fall this year. So it’s not <em>that far</em> into the future. However, at the time of my application I’ll only have 30 even.</p>
<p>I guess the point is: How heavily do they look at W’s on a transcript? Especially when you have mostly A+'s in difficult courses such as the Calculus sequence?</p>
<p>I’m thinking that they’ll see the W’s but that you will have addressed the W’s in your essay. they probably will look that far because of the W’s. The 3.75 should carry the day, along with the projected 57 credits. How advanced are the math courses you’re taking. It would be good to have had solid prep in math for the major before you get to umd. that probably means math as far as diffEQ and maybe some linear algebra. Check the umd major requirements.</p>
<p>Will you also be able to qualify as an independent student at umd, meaning you should be a candidate for greater aid? Have you looked into this?</p>
<p>I’m an independent student, I was emancipated at 16 and have the court documents to back this up in case the school asks for additional information (Hah, I actually just dug them back out again since the paper work is several years old!). On top of that I’ve been working full time for 3 years now and have always submitted only my information to FAFSA – and FAFSA has always considered me an independent student. </p>
<p>I’m taking Differential Equations + Linear this spring, actually. I’d have to double check, I know the Calc I-III transfers right into my major requirements, however I’m not sure Linear and Differential Equations will transfer in-- I’ll have to double check the course equivalences.</p>
<p>Thank you for your input-- sorry I was a bit unclear initially.</p>
<p>That’s okay. There’s really no reason you would know what we need or why we’d question this or that. There’s a place in my heart tho for students who are going your route thru school. And I’m particularly jealous that you’re going to do the astronomy major perhaps. I couldn’t do the math above calc2 but I sure loved me some astronomy back in the day. Still do, but these days Six Easy Pieces has become too much for my sclerotic math modules. </p>
<p>I’m glad to hear you’re taking the math now. Don’t be surprised if the teacher moves thru the math a little faster at UMD, as if you understand him or her the first time s/he runs thru it. The math there is quite demanding and an astronomy major may require as much math as a math major. Good Luck. And don’t tell me you haven’t read Six Easy Pieces.</p>
<p>Iv’e read everything Feynman has to offer, and watched everything possible I could find on him. I suggest reading his lectures, even without the strong math background they’re still enjoyable simple because of his tone.</p>
<p>I’m definitely prepping for a faster pace at UMD, I can tell it’s quite rigorous for undergraduate STEM fields, one of the reasons it’s so well ranked. </p>
<p>The wonderful thing about Astronomy is that even a layman can really appreciate the beauty of being a bit of the universe peering into itself. It’s quite a beautiful, if not humbling, field of study. </p>
<p>Indeed, it is. One of my greatest u/g experiences was sitting in the planetarium at UC Boulder watching the raw feed coming in from Voyager 1, this was Fall 1980, thru nearby NIST (then called bureau of standards and measures?). The professor was head of the dept of astrophysics and he was a sun guy, but he was going wild at the dais, freaking out about what he was seeing for 45 minutes. It was probably the longest period of uninterrupted excitement he’d ever experienced. He just kept saying over and over again after the presentation, “There’s ten years of work, no fifteen, no twenty years of work here for our graduate students in the 45 minutes of feed we just saw.” I think it was the first time any of us realized that the rings of saturn were composed of individual planetoids in their own individual orbits around the planet, and it was one of those “well, of course they are” moments: “You know, why didn’t we think of that before?! They would have to be that way!” Fantastic experience. I hope you have many similar ones at UMD.</p>