<p>Yesterday I visited the University of Maryland, and the info session presenter said that EA and ED get priority with all of the merit based aid. Can anyone confirm this? To me, it seems crazy that an overly qualified regular decision student WOULD NOT get aid, but if anyone who attends/has looked at the school could answer my question, that would be great.</p>
<p>May places that have only a limited amount of merit money to hand out, tend to distribute it on a first-come-first-served basis. So if you really do need that merit money to make UM-CP possible, then apply early.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.umd.edu/finaid/MeritScholarshipsForFreshmen.php”>http://www.admissions.umd.edu/finaid/MeritScholarshipsForFreshmen.php</a></p>
<p>check above link</p>
<p>Thanks both of you.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that the school doesn’t want to waste efforts awarding merit to kids that they think won’t attend. The early applicants appear to want to attend the school. The others may be using the school as a back up. </p>
I was accepted for Spring 2016. I am OOS. I have 3.8 weighted GPA and 3.6 unweighted. My highest SAT score is 1830. I am a member of the National Honor Society with many versatile extracurriculars. In the e-mail they said I was accepted to Freshman Connection for Fall due to a “space limitations”. This seems unfair as surely hundreds, if not thousands, of students who were accepted for Fall 2015 may decide not to attend UMD. Will my status change? I was heavily considering UMD but I don’t think that I would choose to go if I could only attend with limited opportunities for my first semester. I have already been accepted to Penn State - University Park as well as a few others… so I have other options. Could someone please break the situation down for me? Was I not qualified or is it really because there is limited space? Please let me know. Thank you!
Here’s the honest truth - you are qualified to be admitted and be successful at Maryland, but your stats are not hight enough for the profile they are trying to establish for U.S. News and/or other measures of selectivity. For US News, only the stats of students entering in the fall of freshman year have to be reported, so they want to have you at Maryland, they just don’t want to have to report your stats.
But if you read carefully, if you enroll through Freshman Connection, you are essentially a full freshman beginning in Fall 2015 - same dorms, same courses, same everything. They just don’t have to report your stats. If you are really interested in Maryland, contact the Admissions office and find out what opportunities will be limited for you in the Fall of 2015. I think you will find that there are virtually no limitations.
@senior333
Maryland only takes Reading and Math into consideration, they throw out the writing section. So, assuming that you got 610 on all 3 sections (which I know probably isn’t the case), you have a 3.6 GPA and a 1220 SAT. By SAT alone, you are in the bottom 25% of admitted students. They probably pushed you to spring enrollment so that your score wouldn’t hurt them on USNews and other rankings.
Sorry if I seem cold, but that’s probably what happened.
I have similar stats to you and was wondering what other colleges you got accepted to?
@c0llegegirl Not sure which poster you are referring to when you say you have similar stats, but assume its the “My highest SAT score is 1830.” This is actually not a helpful comparison of stats for you since it clearly includes all 3 sections and Maryland only considers M + CR. So, this person may have had a very high writing score to bump up total score to 1830, but if the M + CR were much lower, that explains the spring admission with the solid gpa. The total score for just M + CR should be around 1260ish+ (it doesn’t matter whether M or CR is higher) to have a good chance of fall admission.
As for baltimoreguy’s comments, they are conceptually correct, but with the note that the “virtually no limitations” needs clarification…the caveat for classes for freshman connection are class options - somewhat limited as there are sections specific to the freshman connection program which start in the afternoon (so no morning classes), and run into the evening. There are LOTS of great classes offered, and all the “core” classes, but not nearly as many options as other students – for that one semester only…all classes are available to you after that first semester
If you look at the courses available for freshman connection this fall, you will see that there are plenty of great classes https://ntst.umd.edu/soc/search?courseId=§ionId=&termId=201508&_openSectionsOnly=on&courseLevelFilter=ALL&instructor=&teachingCenter=FC&courseStartCompare=&courseStartHour=&courseStartMin=&courseStartAM=&courseEndHour=&courseEndMin=&courseEndAM=&creditCompare=&credits=&_classDay1=on&_classDay2=on&_classDay3=on&_classDay4=on&_classDay5=on
Just click on the red call letters for each department and it will show you classes available in that category
To get a sense of all classes available when freshman connection semester is over, check this out
https://ntst.umd.edu/soc/search?courseId=§ionId=&termId=201508&_openSectionsOnly=on&courseLevelFilter=ALL&instructor=&teachingCenter=*&courseStartCompare=&courseStartHour=&courseStartMin=&courseStartAM=&courseEndHour=&courseEndMin=&courseEndAM=&creditCompare=&credits=&_classDay1=on&_classDay2=on&_classDay3=on&_classDay4=on&_classDay5=on