<p>I’m nothing brilliant, just wondering if I even stand a chance…</p>
<p>Shooting for Computer Engineering</p>
<p>3.5/3.6 UW 3.8W
African American Male
NY Resident
1950/1330 SAT, just retook it today, and I feel I may have boosted my score quite a bit
Rank 38/319
Commended National Achievement
3 Years Environmental Club
2 years Mathletes (Top Scorer in my grade)
Year of Ping Pong
Year of Chess club
Mu Alpha Theta
National Honor Society
30+ Community Service</p>
<p>Merit Aid? Most likely not, just getting in may be difficult.
Nevertheless, particularly if you boosted your score, you have a decent shot of getting in.</p>
<p>Being from NY, I have to agree with Euroazn, your concern should be getting in. Our DS had higher stats, both gpa and SAT, plus was from NC, and he got very little merit.</p>
<p>UMDCP is notorious on being cheap with their merit compared to other colleges. They probably can be because in the last couple os yrs they have had over 30K applicants for their 4K matriculation spots.</p>
<p>Here are the acceptance rates for Freshman. The number of applicants has never been 30K, the number of applicants has decreased by over 2K from the peak of 2009, and the acceptance rate has gone up over the last 2 years.</p>
<pre><code> Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 Fall 2010
</code></pre>
<p>Applications 24,215 28,161 28,443 26,147
Number admitted 11,409 10,989 11,976 11,671
Number admitted who enrolled 4,237 3,915 4,202 3,933
Percent admitted 47.1% 39.0% 42.1% 44.6%
Percent admitted who enrolled 37.1% 35.6% 35.1% 33.7% </p>
<p><a href=“https://www.irpa.umd.edu/Profiles2/Main/index.cfm?action=39[/url]”>https://www.irpa.umd.edu/Profiles2/Main/index.cfm?action=39</a></p>
<p>Freshmen stats:</p>
<p>1/4th have above 1400 on SAT
2/3 in top 10% of class.</p>
<p>One of the regular posters on this web site said that it is hard to get merit scholarships, unless you get into one of the Honors programs at UMD. Maybe if your class schedule was rigorous, and if you held any leadership positions in any of those clubs.</p>