<p>I actually have a full scholarship to UMD (Banneker Key) and I'm still waiting for money from Penn and CMU, but if either FA is reasonable, then I'll consider. I plan on majoring in Chem, but I still want to explore other areas. What do you all think?</p>
<p>are you suggesting that the money difference is of no consequence to your family?</p>
<p>FA needs to be reasonable… My parents will consider if it is a good amount.</p>
<p>This is very late to be waiting on FA, but I don’t see the point of debate without that info. If you have run the Net Price Calculator and that ‘estimate’ is reasonable to your parents then I suppose that is something to go on. </p>
<p>As the father of a soon-to-be graduate in chemistry from UMD, I can tell you that no matter your alma mater you will be a dime a dozen when you graduate and will need graduate education. My suggestion, as it usually is in these scenarios, is to go with the cheaper education. Having a CMU or an ivy on your diploma, rather than a UMD, is of a value rather insignificant in comparison to the cost of a CMU or Penn. UMD does u/g chemistry about as well as any school. It is plenty rigorous and there are intramural and extramural internships and research opportunities with the feds (NIST, NIH, FDA, USDA), DoD, Howard Hughes, industry, etc. One of their students was just appointed a Goldwater Scholar. The breadth of research interests at UMD is eye-opening, and undergrads are encouraged to get involved early.</p>
<p>Thanks jkeil911. I guess another thing I really want to know is if the Gemstone program is really all it is cracked up to be. I’ve heard different thi ng from different sides. (Granted, the person who told me her friends thought Gemstone was pointless goes to Penn).</p>
<p>well, Gemstone is a 4-yr investment of groups of students in team-building interdisciplinary research projects aided by faculty mentors. Gemstone is one of a couple dozen pretty much self-selected groups of the best UMD students who want a smaller college experience in a school of 30K; this is not the small college experience at Ohio U or New College of Florida, however. The Honors and Scholars Programs at UMD are much less structured than these, and many students do very well at UMD without them. The Gemstone students, of which there are 70 or so each year, live together in the same dorm for at least a year (maybe 2?) and many of them are interested in the intersection of science and solving problems of living in this world. Other UMD students talk about the Gemstone students as the creme de la creme of undergrads, among the hardest working, most intense and ambitious students in the university. Surely there are surfer dudes in there as well, but you get the idea. Students come from every major but usually have no problem working in multiple fields. Students do drop out of the program because 4 years is more commitment than they can handle or they want to double major or they get involved with an off-campus project. From what I understand of Gemstone, I’d sooner say that the Honors and Scholars Programs at UMD can sometimes be pointless than that the Gemstone program is. Like many other things in life, it appears that the Honors and Scholars Programs are what you make of them. At the very least, it’s a good way to get the top quartile of UMD students living and working together for a couple years. Gemstone is something that appears a bit more rewarding than the other Honors and Scholars group, but also a lot more work. My D chose one of the other groups because she might double major or build her own interdisciplinary major and so wants flexibility in her schedule that Gemstone makes more difficult. There are people over at the UMD forum who know way more about Gemstone than I do.</p>
<p>Jkeil911, thanks for the response. And sorry for the late response- I’ve been busy, but I have been ooking up information on Gemstone- and it really seems like a “try it and see if it is something you want to coninue to do” sort of thing. It definitely has its pros and cons, so ill see. But recently I have been leanong towards UPenn because they have so much more that I want in a school, so I hope they give us the FA my parents are hoping for- I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.</p>
<p>Come to Penn! Go class of '18!</p>
<p>so, you’re going to let us know, right, OP? If you go to Penn or CMU I’d love to hear what you saw in it that made it better than the other two.</p>
<p>Yeah. For the time being I will accept my offer to UMD. But one thing that really draws me to Penn is that it is such a different environment from what I am used to. I’ve never truly been in a city, having lived in the suburbs my whole life. I feel as though I could truly develop myself as a person by exposing myself to something I’m not used to. And with staying in Maryland my fear is that I won’t change as much because I will see a lot of people I know. And I feel like that would keep me from, I guess, changing/developing.</p>
<p>There will be plenty of changing and developing just from going away to school. You can see as much or as little of the people you know as you want. Both my kids went to state schools in Virginia. There were other kids from their high school at their colleges but they saw little of them and met many new people once they got to college. Good luck! Congratulations on a full ride to a great school!</p>
<p>Congratulations, OP. Make sure you have your housing form submitted right away, if you haven’t already.</p>
<p>I know what you mean about Penn. Thanks for clarifying. I grew up there and while any city is a special place, Philly is unique in a lot of different ways.</p>