I just want to clarify that it is Not another holistic review. If you pass the courses with the required GPA, the student fills out a transfer form and it is done.
The CS department at UMD even has an FAQ that states
"Am I guaranteed admission to Computer Science if I meet the gateway requirements?
Answer:
Yes. All students who successfully complete the gateway requirements will be admitted to the major."
It’s fine to pick another school, but it is also important to understand the actual policy at UMD.
Thanks for clarification. He just does not want to go through the process again. No more essays. No waiting. Interesting part is he has national level CS ECs but still was not admitted directly to CS.
I’m pretty sure that there is no essay, but I do not have a student ID, so I cannot see the actual form.
My D did an internal LEP transfer at the end of her freshman year and her fiance did an internal LEP transfer in his second year. I’ve always thought of it as kind of like applying for a Driver’s license. You pass the test and fill out a form.
The whole LEP admission thing really comes down to numbers. UMD probably had over 55,000 applications this year. Last year they had over 50,000. Last year over 32,000 applicants were OOS. That’s a lot of competition for a school that is required to have a student population that is 70% In-State.
Everyone makes the choices that are best for them.
I second @SoofDad , my son was admitted to CS, but not honors college. Given how easy it is to pass the gateway requirements, I feel honors college is more prestigious, especially the ACES LLP which helps a lot of freshmen to find summer interns as I read from Reddit.
Other than the highest level scholarships that go to the most qualified students, merit scholarships are really just discounts off the sticker price (i.e. full tuition) and they’re more related to how much a school thinks they need to discount the price to get you to attend than to actual merit, such as stats, ECs, etc. Two kids with equal merit can be offered different merit scholarship amounts based on, for example, which state they’re from and, therefore, which other flagship school UMD is competing with to get them. A lot of factors go into the calculation beyond actual merit.
I have a son at UMD now in his second year. He applied to CS but was admitted to L&S. He had to take 3 classes for CS and earn a particular GPA (I forget what it is, but it is posted on UMD website) and he had to maintain a certain GPA overall. Once he did that, he filled out the paperwork and is now a CS major. I will also add that students admitted to CS have to take the EXACT same 3 classes and earn maintain the SAME GPA as those trying to transfer in from L&S. If a CS student does not earn those grades and maintain the requisite GPA, then that student is kicked out of CS. As best I can tell, it is a recruiting tool as to who gets into CS and who gets admitted thru L&S. Hope that helps.
Actually the only difference is CS majors are required to maintain a 2.0 overall GPA for their benchmark review whereas those admitted into L&S are required to maintain a 2.7 GPA to be admitted into the major. Although this may not be significant for most students in this situation, I would still strongly suggest that those trying to get into CS carefully select their courses and the amount of credits the first semester or two to make sure they keep up the B- avg. Unlike those students in engineering, the only freshman year ‘weed-out’ course for CompSci majors is Calc 2-Math 141- and hopefully many of the students would be able to place out of this course through AP exams.
If a student can’t pass the gateway requirements for CS and thus obtain the guaranteed admission to the program they essentially would have failed out of the CS program if they were a direct admit anyhow. CS is the most popular major on campus already and it became an LEP about 2-3 years ago because of that. If there are I think it is purely designed to keep the school from adding even more. Say there are 3000 in the major (750 freshman, 750 sophomores etc.). They lose 750 graduating seniors but add 750 from letters and sciences thus keeping it at 3000.
My DS got the President’s Scholarship ($12.5k per year) but wasn’t offered Honors nor Scholars and not admitted directly to major - CS. Was offered FIRE program though. We are OOS and DS stats - 4.4WGPA and 1560 SAT (800 Math). Strange matrix here.
And a good AP score on Calc can opt out of one of the three class requirements. A student can also test out of the CS course requirement before starting school so that could leave only one class requirement. It does not seem like a very big deal at all to meet the gateway requirements.
Be careful opting out of required math classes.
My son had a 5 in hs. He was told by students at a different colleges admitted student day to retake major oriented classes.
He learned the hard way he should have listened. He withdrew. Got an A round 2.
My daughter is not STEM but placed into next level calc. Withdrew last semester. Repeating this semester. Her AP was not a 5 but she still got credit for her score.
Every kid is different. BUT college is not HS. AP is not college level in reality. And remote from
Covid did not help.
The difference though for CS students is that they are only required to take two semesters of Calc. They can place out of both and not worry about taking Calc 3 (Math 241). Most do need to take Math 240 (Linear Algebra) which I believe doesn’t need much background from the Calc courses. My engineering daughter placed out of Calc 1 and 2 and started directly in Calc 3. She managed to get thru the course without any major issues but each student needs to take into account their individual background and strengths when making this decision.
Just wanted to add for future applicants looking through the thread that my OOS D22 with very high stats who did not into Honors, but united to Carillon, did receive a smaller Presidential Scholarship for $5,000 a year.
