Apparently everyone must take it. Because passing MVC doesn’t mean a student is good at Algebra and Trig….
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Math placement tests seem to be pretty typical at most colleges. It’s not really unique to UMD. I’m sure there are some colleges where prior credit may exempt a student. UMD has it’s own policy and everyone has to participate.
I guess policies like this could determine if UMD is a good “fit”. It’s not for everyone.
Almost every school my D17 looked at had a placement test and an option to skip them based on SAT/ACT scores.
https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/undergrad/for_advisors
It just seems silly for an 800 Math, AP BC 5, 3x AIME qualifier to take an Algebra/Trig test.
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Perhaps UMD math has exception. The UMD websites have basic information. They can be source of confusion or frustration. That is representative of the bureaucracy at UMD that one must navigate. One would have to inquire directly about such unique qualifications and whether overall policies are applicable.
My terp was a NMF. He notified the school of his status and listed UMD before 5/1. He receives additional merit money each year because of this status. I think it is 2K.
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That’s helpful. Thanks @mdboymom
According to this, in state NMF applicants receive 2k while OOS receive between 750-2K with an average of 1400. We are OOS, will take whatever we can get 
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My DD22 got the Honors invite with her acceptance and just got the Presidents Scholarship notification last week. I’m not sure she ended up completing the Honors College app though since she wasn’t super interested in the different options and it was required to write something about each of them.
Yes they are not very interesting options to be honest. My D22 wasn’t too excited either, but I convinced her to apply because (I believe) you get a better dorm and you can always switch out later if you want.
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Better housing is definitely a draw at a few of the schools we have looked at so good to know for UMD too. Although I think she may have missed the deadline. UMD is the only school on her list that we never visited (and ironically the closest) and because of that, I think it hasn’t bubbled to the top of her list to make it a priority.
I wish it were this straight forward, but I don’t think it is. An OOS family member with significantly lower stats than my son received a nice (for UMD) presidential scholarship. One of my son’s classmates (we’re in state) with lower GPA, lower class rank, and lower SAT score received the Dean’s scholarship for the first 2 years (my son received it for first year only). My husband swears that my son got the smallest award possible because we’ve been paying tuition to UMD for so long that they think we’re a sure thing. lol
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My daughter got the smallest scholarship possible— $0. Well I guess technically that’s not a scholarship. My son did get an engineering scholarship from Clark for two years. He is graduating this year. So that’s something. Wish this kid got something because her grades were much better than my son’s and she got into the Honor’s College while he did not. She is not interested in Maryland, but I know a scholarship would have been enticing for her, and I would LOVE for her to go to Maryland.
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Are in-state students given preference for the President & Dean scholarships? I know an OOS student who got $12.5K/year President scholarship, which is very generous for a state school.
Yeah, I get it. My oldest got a nice presidential scholarship several years ago, but then my next child got $0 (only slightly lower stats than my oldest). My current applicant has higher stats than both, but got the bare minimum in scholarship money (although better than $0). I think that there have been so many applications from top students over the past few years that scholarship money is scarce even by past UMD standards (has never been great).
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Dean’s Scholarship is for in-state only. I don’t have any solid data to back this up, but I believe that OOS students are given preference for the Presidential Scholarship. I don’t think that’s an official fact or anything, but it seems to be the way that it works out. It makes sense, as MD residents already get a significant “discount” on tuition. $12.5k/year is the highest Presidential for OOS, while $8k is the highest for in-state.
Thank you! Very helpful.
Blockquote Apparently everyone must take it. Because passing MVC doesn’t mean a student is good at Algebra and Trig….
Hahahaha. But, of course!
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Yes, I was going to say the same about housing. Some of the dorms at UMD are not great. The honors communities can develop some real camaraderie. Mine applied to Humanities (HoHum). We’ve heard great things about the housing (refurbished dorms w/ A/C in older distinct buildings in campus center) and the cohort (good community and support). Also University Honors will all be in the newest dorms. ACES is very popular (but I really don’t know much on that one).
Spidermom, I’ve noticed that OOS get larger scholarship amounts overall to help defray OOS costs. They still typically pay more if that helps any…
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Yes, that is definitely true. My kids got large merit scholarships to the OOS schools to which they applied, and the overall cost was still higher than full price at UMD.
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