if he applies at the end of freshman and gets in, does he get to live on campus with other ACES students? thanks!
There is not a simple answer to your questions. Getting into the Honors College and getting into ACES are basically independent outcomes.
This year, UMD has admitted about 21.000+ students. At least, 3000. or maybe 4000 have been admitted into the Honors College. About 1000 will actually enroll.
Each of the 3000-4000 will be asked to fill out an Honors College Program preference form for there 1st and 2nd choice. Some will get their first choice, some will get their second choice, some will get what UMD thinks is the best fit for them. .
UMD deliberately puts non-CS majors into ACES for diversity of backgrounds.
I donāt know what happens with students who apply for the Honors College at the end of Freshman year.
Honors College admission is basically based on what a student has accomplished in high school.
A more significant accomplishment is Departmental Honors, which is a College Level effort and can result in having a college/graduate level thesis published in a professional journal.
My D was not in CS, but she was in Departmental Honors and her thesis was published. That made a significant impression on the Grad schools that she applied to, A CS major may or may not lead to Grad school but a published thesis may be relevant to potential employers.
I realize that this may not answer your question, but itās the best that I can offer.
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These two FAQs are on the Honors website:
What if I didnāt get invited to the Honors College, but would like to be reconsidered?
Invitation to the Honors College is very competitive. On rare occasions, students are able to appeal to be invited to the Honors College. At this time, we are no longer able to consider any further appeals for fall 2021. There are opportunities to apply to join the Honors College at the end of a studentās freshman year.
Can I join the Honors College after my first year?
Current students who have completed one year of coursework at the University of Maryland can apply to join the Honors College. Admission for current UMD students is highly competitive and the number of spaces available is extremely limited. A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 is required to apply.
Upperclassmen may also become members of the Honors College by joining a Departmental Honors Program in their academic department or college.
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This is very helpful to me, too, thank you for the information. My D22 was also offered Carillon and with very high stats. Is there a cut off for Honors historically? And any advantage to appealing and getting into Honors now, given that BK invites are already out?
My son is in a similar situation with similar stats. He wanted Honors/Aces but was offered Carillon. He reached out to his AO to ask if there was any opportunity for reconsideration either now or before fall enrollment, e.g. based on mid-year report or upcoming AP scores. He was told no.
Thanks for posting this info! I guess a lot a high stat kids will be in good company in Carillon lol
Asking about historical cutoffs for the Honors College is predicated on the assumption that there are specific criteria for admission to the Honors College.
UMD has never stated that such criteria exist.
I believe that Essays, LORs, and ECs are the factors for deciding .which high Stat students get into the Honors College.
I also believe that the same factors are used to decide who gets a B/K scholarship.
But there is no proof that Iām right about this, either
I know that it can be frustrating because some colleges do publish Stat cutoffs for various special programs and scholarships.
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My son admitted to engineering (aero) with a 4.0 (we grade out of 100, so 98+ GPA unweighted with nothing below a 93), intense rigor (BC Calc, AP Physics C as a junior), good but not fabulous leadership and extracurriculars, and a 1550 and NMF, no Honors, no Scholars. He emailed admissions asking for reconsideration but has not heard back. I know you can apply to Scholars (though he sort of understands why he didnāt get Scholars as his community building work was minimal), but he was really hoping for the community that comes with Honors. Very disappointing but heās moving on. He has Purdue Honors and a few other options. It happens, unfortunately. Weāre OOS and the competition is tough. But, weāre still a little sad here.
My son was also admitted to Engineering (Aero) with a 3.9 (4.6 weighted), with BC Calc and AP Physics C taken his Junior year, 10 AP classes total), 1510 SAT. Was hoping for Honors but would have been totally happy with Scholars. Nothingā¦Very surprised he was not offered any LLP. Besides sport, his other extracurriculars were lacking. Would think good stats would help. Also I would think the LLPās would benefit the students that lacked extracurricular even more. Oh well.
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@SoofDad, my daughter (OOS) was admitted to CS and the Honors College. But she doesnāt find any of the 8 honors programs particularly interesting. Would you advise she still pick one? Or should she aim to get Departmental Honors instead? Donāt know anything about the latter and relative pros/cons vs Honors College.
Also, is acceptance to an Honors College program on a first come first serve basis?
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone know if UMD sends the big admittance envelope in the mail? I would assume they do?
We havenāt received anything yet.
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I would recommend picking one, maybe based on the dorm that they are in. if for no other reason.
I think that many Honors college students end up in University Honors, though. It used to be a very flexible program when my D was in it. but they revamped recently and I donāt know anything about how it is now, but I do think that will be in a new dorm.
There are some interesting classes that are only available to Honors College students, and your D can always drop out of it if she wants to.
A student can only apply for Departmental Honors at the beginning of their Junior year (maybe, the end of sophomore year, not sure).
Each Department has their own criteria for admission and completion. You can probably google āUMD CS Departmental Honorsā for details.
It is basically 2 years of research and thesis preparation, and defense, before a panel of Professors, and it is in addition to other course work (although some of it may include Graduation credits) . It really depends on the Department.
Being accepted into Departmental Honors includes automatic acceptance into the Honors College at the point, including the ability to take Honors College classes and courses.
There are specific Honors College courses that are limited to Honors College students, as I mentioned. Each Department also has the option of offering Honors versions of their standard courses (also limited to Honors college students) These classes and courses are limited to 20 students or less. I also see this as a good reason for starting off in the Honors College as a freshman.
My D took some of these and she really enjoyed them, but they were more demanding. Honors College courses are designated with an H at the end of the course number.
You can see All the courses being offered for Fall 2022 at the following link
https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/202208/CMSC
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Great info! Very helpful indeed.
Thank you @SoofDad
I just realized that I did not answer you question about the Honors College acceptance being first come , first serve.
Your D is accepted into the Honors College. I believe. but Iām not sure, that filling out and submitting the preference form is like enrolling (accepting the admission, so to speak). This does NOT constitute any obligation to actually enroll in UMD. It just allows them to assign honors students to the one of the 8 programs. Some of these programs have limited capacity (ACES accepts only about 80 students a year and UMD deliberately assigns some non-CS students to this program).
At this point, UMD is probably dealing with at least 3,000 students who have been accepted into the Honors college, maybe even 4,000. And they have to spread them over 8 programs. Many will not get their choice, but they will be assigned to 1 of the 8.
Come May 1, only about 1,000 will have actually enrolled. I donāt know if changes can be made then. That would be an interesting question to ask.
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Just to kind of piggy back on what @SoofDad said, I would also recommend that your daughter select her Honors College preferences. They are required to list their top 5 selections this year, so my son did have to note a couple of programs that were of little interest to him. If you end up in a program that you really donāt like, you can always drop it. In my opinion (and with one older child who went through Honors and another who went through Scholars), I think that the living/learning aspect is extremely valuable to a first year student. I would recommend her selecting an Honors College program for that reason alone.
My son attended two of the Honors College presentations. All of the presentations were recorded, and he got an email yesterday with links to the recordings. If your daughter didnāt attend any of the online info sessions, it might be worth her time to sit down and watch a couple of them. As @SoofDad mentioned, the University Honors program was recently revamped. I actually thought that some of the thematic clusters and theory & practice tracks seemed really interesting (not sure if my son agrees or not)!
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That makes sense, thank you for the information! TBH, in looking at the Carillon choices with my D, she actually liked 3 of them enough to list. We are OOS, not sure how that figures into any of this.
They didnāt several years ago. I assume they still donāt.
OOS is not a factor in any of the Honors College stuff.
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My S21 was accepted last year and if I remember correctly, they sent a UMD yard sign with #NowATerp or something similar on it. Iām trying to remember if there was more.
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