Change in Maryland Essays?

Colleges & Universities University of Maryland - College Park
1

Am I crazy or did UMD used to have more supplemental essays? Now it just says that you can write an essay of your choice. Is that just the common app essay or an additional one? Or am I just getting ahead of myself because the common app isn’t even open yet?

2

That does seem like a recent change. You can certainly contact your AO and ask if they are still going to have supplemental essays…that is a good reason for a contact. If they have dropped their supplementals they are in good company, that seems to be a thing this year.

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3

In addition to this essay, UMD used to ask a few short-response questions. For some reason, they never mentioned them on their website, but I recall that my daughter had to answer them in the Common App. That may still be the case, so check the app after August 1.

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4

When my D applied to UMD (2013), there was one essay and a few short answer questions. I have not seen any change to that since then.

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5

In addition to the personal statement, Maryland has a Short Answer response page on the Common App. If you create your account on Common App and add U Maryland, you can see the short answer page. The responses are not optional. There are 6 questions.

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6

Called UMD admissions today, they will still have the six supplemental questions this year, even though they aren’t on the website. Maybe they never were?

The person I spoke with also said the questions aren’t going to change from last year when this cycle’s common app becomes available on Aug 1.

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7

thanks for this!

They are SUPER short.. 650 CHARACTERS each..

At the University of Maryland, we encourage our students to go beyond the classroom to engage in opportunities that further both their academic and personal growth.

To tell us more about yourself, please complete the following prompts using only the space provided (Maximum 650 characters).

  1. If I could travel anywhere, I would go to…*
  2. The most interesting fact I ever learned from research was…*
  3. In addition to my major, my academic interests include…*
  4. My favorite thing about last Monday was…*
  5. Something you might not know about me is…*
  6. Because we know that diversity benefits the educational experience of all students, the University of Maryland values diversity in all of its many forms. This includes (but is not limited to) racial, socio-economic, gender, geographical, and sexual orientation. We are interested in hearing about your own individual life experiences. In a few sentences, will you please describe how you have learned, grown, been inspired or developed skills through one or more components of diversity.*
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8

The only thing that tends to change year after year is which day of the week is asked about.

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