UMD Early Action for Fall 2022 Admission

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
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1182

Ok, just to start off, CS is a Limited Enrollment Program {LEP) along with a number of other majors.

This means that they do not have the physical resources (classrooms, labs, professors, etc) to support all of the applicants who applied for that major.

So. some number of students are put into L&S and can do an internal transfer into their desires major. These students have to take what are called “Gateway” classes, achieve a certain GPA (it varies with the major), and then fill out a transfer application.

For all majors, except Business, it is a routine process. The UMD CS Department even has an FAQ page which states “Yes. All students who successfully complete the gateway requirements will be admitted to the major.” These Gateway courses are the EXACT same courses that all direct admit CS students take,

Some students are also invited to join Special Programs, Honors, Scholars. FIRE, etc. Many of those programs have associated dorms. All the students in a given sub-program live in that dorm (i.e. Honors has about 7 or 8 subprograms for students to pick from).

That can be nice to start, but it is not necessarily permanent. My D and her roommate lived in Hagerstown Hall freshman year (the University Honors subprogram). It was not a great dorm (no AC). The next year they moved to Denton Hall.

FIRE seems to be a Great program but it does not have an associated dorm. I don’t know why. But,iMO, the chance to do hands on research is a terrific opportunity,

You asked if some program are better than others. Many people perceive it that way. It is true that the Honors College has the first pick of students. But I think that overall, the AO’s are looking for students that they think will fir well in each Special Program to the mutual benefit of the student and the program

Finally, I believe that it’s important for each student to take advantage of all the opportunities that are available at UMD.

My D was in L&S and transferred into a LEP at the end of her First Semester. The young man who became her fiance transferred into a LEP at the end of his Freshman year

In the DC area, you can’t throw a stick without hitting someone looking to hire people with CS degrees.

I hope this helps

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1183

@DreamerMom Seems like your daughter should be afforded the same courtesy given the situations seem to be very similar. I know you said you were letting your daughter handle it but I’d certainly arm her with this information.

And I’m not sure I’d handle this via email, it sounds like a call to admissions is in order - either by your daughter or you (honestly who I am kidding, if it were me, I’d be making this phone call). And the sooner the better if you ask me. Strike while the iron is hot knowing that another student was able to get themselves put back into the EA bucket.

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1184

We also didn’t get a decision. I got in touch today and they said we are missing an Transcript from a college my son got credit through PLTW. His portal says complete and we never mentioned that we paid to get the credit as it was optional to receive credit if you pay for it - similar to AP I guess. They told us to have our counselor write that they actually have everything in their possession. I don’t know if this helps anyone else looking for answers but this is the only college that flagged his app for this class. It’s so strange since we didn’t say we were submitting another transcript and the grade is on his HS transcript as it was a HS class.

1185

How was this course acknowledged on his application? Was it just listed in the same section as all his other high school classes or was it called out as a college class?

1186

It’s just listed as a regular engineering class.

1187

It really upsets me to read the way UMD handled the applications for our kids whose decision is known yet. In our case, they said they had all in their end, but missed reviewing our Son’s application. I hope they send the decision as they promised (5-7 business days)

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1188

btw, did you add the courses under the “courses” section in the (common) application or list it in the resume

1189

If you are IS- I think the chances are zero. UMD is stingy with merit scholarship money.

1190

I’m pretty sure he has it in his regular HS class list for Freshman year.

1191

We are OOS.

1192

She listed them as an extracurricular activity in one of the 10 boxes (“summer pre-college courses at the following colleges x/y/z…”). It was not listed under courses.

1193

How are these “incomplete” applications due to missing transcripts different than kids who take dual enrollment courses? My DD was admitted having taken a dual enrollment course from Syracuse University and I didn’t send transcript yet?

1194

Thank you very much.

1195

I really don’t know. Seems completely arbitrary. I did speak with another college to make sure they didn’t need the transcript and they did mention dual enrollment as something that may require a transcript. I don’t have any issue with different schools requiring different things. I do take issue with schools showing an application as “complete” on a portal and just never reaching out again to say anything is amiss. If I didn’t follow these forums and know that the results were announced on Friday, I would have no idea there was any issue with my daughter’s application.

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1196

ok. sure. It sure drives us crazy

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1197

yes, I agree. I am glued to this CC forum where parents help parents/students with a lot of information and support each other

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1198

Although there are issues every year at UMD causing EA applications to be rolled over into the RD pool, these are almost always due to transcripts or test scores being submitted past the EA deadline. The problems this year with summer/special program transcripts not being included in the application has not been a major issue in the past. I suspect someone in the admissions office added a new feature to the IT process this year that flagged these discrepancies. Unfortunately they are probably realizing only now that they have a significant issue to resolve and correct. I’m sure the Admissions office is understaffed and overwhelmed (this is a state school after all) dealing with all these issues. I would be persistent in contacting the office and strongly recommend communicating by phone (a very time consuming process) with a follow up email. I suspect most of these issues will be resolved with a delayed admissions decision.

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1199

I contacted them a second time over the phone. Person was just repeating same thing over and over that transcript was not received. She advised us to email admission (we did already) and they will get back to us.

1200

@banoobmom and others, have you tried tweeting at@ApplyMaryland?

Did you contact individual admissions counselor for your region?

https://www.admissions.umd.edu/explore/admission-representatives

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1201

@Hippobirdy , thanks so much. I will try to contact the admission representatives. I have not tried tweeting either. We were able to talk first thing in the morning when they opened at 9 am EST.
Thanks for the other leads.

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