UMD - College Park Class of 2025 Regular Decision

I usually discourage anyone from going to NYU! It’s very overpriced in my opinion. It’s good for a few types of people: those who go to Stern Business School with very low debt, heiresses, and children of professors who get free tuition.

I don’t know the reputation of Wisconsin-Madison for CS in particular, but it’s in an absolutely gorgeous location, if you can stand the cold. I think that it has a decently sized international community.

The CS grads I have known from UMD are extremely successful. SoofDad is absolutely right about no waitlists at UMD. There are other universities that use spring admission; I have friends who have gone to Cornell and Middlebury this way. UMD does admit some lower stat students in the spring, for the reasons that SoofDad explained; these students’ stats don’t get reported to USNews and World Report. I also have seen on these message boards students with 1500+ SATs who get spring admission because they are applying to Limited Enrollment majors, though. That’s just the way it works at UMD. Somehow this must lighten the enrollment in fall CS classes and fill spots in the spring when more students study abroad.

The Freshman Connection classes are small, which is a huge plus, in my opinion. Some students choose to save money and take community college classes in the fall, but they miss out on some early socialization.

Are UMD and Wisconsin-Madison both out-of-state for you? Or is one in-state?

I wasn’t able to look at the latest rankings from USNews, but in the older rankings Madison and UMD have very similar rankings for CS. If they have similar rankings and if they cost a similar amount, your son has to consider the other intangibles. Does he want to live in a small city on a lake? Does he want to live in the suburbs of a larger city? Can he stand several really cold months? How far does he want to be from home? You might want to look at the percentage of Greek life at both schools. (It’s rather low at UMD, but I’m not sure about Madison). Off-campus housing apartments near UMD are rather expensive and many upperclassmen choose to live in them. How much does it cost for an off-campus apartment in Madison? I don’t know the answer to that. How does your son feel about lack of air-conditioning in student housing? Most freshmen at UMD don’t get to choose which dorm they live in and not all dorms are air-conditioned.

I read your previous post and saw that your son applied RD to UMD. If your son was accepted to CS from RD, UMD likes him very much. UMD fills up most of the class from Early Action.

I’ve seen some people post on one of the UMD threads that NEW Air-Conditioned Dorms will be opening in the Fall on North Campus. Maybe the days of no A/C Dorms are over.

You can check out Maryland’s schedule of classes for this fall (freshman connection) and see what he’ll have available to him then. The link below should only show the classes open exclusively for FC.

https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/search?courseId=&sectionId=&termId=202108&_openSectionsOnly=on&creditCompare=&credits=&courseLevelFilter=ALL&instructor=&_facetoface=on&_blended=on&_online=on&courseStartCompare=&courseStartHour=&courseStartMin=&courseStartAM=&courseEndHour=&courseEndMin=&courseEndAM=&teachingCenter=FC&_classDay1=on&_classDay2=on&_classDay3=on&_classDay4=on&_classDay5=on

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I can’t find it now but I read somewhere yesterday that only 4% of RD students are admitted to UMD vs. the much much higher rate for EA.

Unfortunately not so. Housing selection for current students is taking place now. The current freshman honor students which have suffered through Hagerstown all year were hoping to stay together and go into a new dorm. If they want to stay living with honors they are required to stay living in Hagerstown. That was a BIG NO from most. That dorm and many other no AC dorms were still up for selection. It has been a miserable year to have no ac because the lounges where many would go to get relief were closed and limited.

I’m so sorry. I had a feeling that there would be construction delays. Will the Class of 2024 University Honors students get to enjoy Hagerstown at all??? False promises are the worst.

When are the new dorms projected to open? First I heard fall, then December 2021. It does seem like the mention of the new dorm has been removed from the University Honors web pages.

Does anyone know when all the current construction on campus will be finished?
I’ve heard there is always a lot of construction, is that true?
Not loving the idea of constant construction…

The dorms are due to open this year. THe idea factory looks to be close to complete. The school of public policy (front of campus) is slated for 2022. The purple line is due to be open between NC and UMD Dec of 22.

The work in greater College Park will be ongoing. None of the students I’ve talked to are really bothered by any of it.

On the April 14th honors college parents online chat, they said the new dorm won’t be available this fall.

My daughter has committed to UMD!

Does she need to do anything to accept her honors college in addition to her UMD offer of admission?

Does she need to do anything to accept her merit scholarship?

Thank you so much for any guidance.

Congratulations!

I don’t know if there is anything you need to do about the Merit Scholarship, but you can call and ask.

Back when my D attended, there was a housing form that needed to be submitted. This is primarily used to let ResLife know that your D will be living on campus as opposed to commuting.

Also, she will need to register for an orientation session. Those may not yet be available.

Has anyone here heard anything about the fall waitlist? I put down my deposit and registered for FC but am hoping to get off the fall waitlist. Does anyone know anything?

Freshman Connection allows you to start in the Fall, you just have to take classes later in the day. I have not seen anyone post about UMD having a waitlist

UMD has a limited fall waitlist that has around 250 people on it. They accept little to no members of the waitlist, but the said they would let people know by June 1 and I was wondering if anybody had heard, because I’m also on it and haven’t seen anything about it since I accepted the waitlist spot and enrolled in FC. Not everyone who is offered spring admission is placed on the fall waitlist.

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