Didn't get into UMD Honors or Scholars

Applying to College
1

I’m confused about my UMD college park decision. I expected to be invited to their Scholars program but hoped for Honor College. I got accepted to the school but didn’t get into either program.

I have a 2170 SAT (750 math, 730 reading, 690 writing), and 770 Math Level I and 730 Math Level II. I had a 3.93 GPA unweighted last year. I took 4 APS classes and 5 AP tests. I got 5s on Lang, Psych, and Calc AB, a 4 on Bio, and a 3 on Government (didn’t take that class). Freshman year grades were also almost perfect. Sophomore year was mostly Bs due to extenuating circumstances (I was out if school for part the year for medical issues, which was explained in the appropriate place in my application). My recs were probably good to great and my essay was decent. My extracurriculars are pretty good, multiple varsity sports every year, captain of the volleyball team for two years, president of the women’s advocacy club, and on the mock trial team. What am I missing? Also my older sister was in scholars but dropped out.

Is the honors college and scholars program more selective than I thought? My dad, who is a professor there, wants to go talk to admissions. Is it worth it to let him?

2

Ask your own guidance counselor about this. A quick phone call from your counselor is more likely to get information out of the admissions office as to what the cut-offs were this year than a visit from an unhappy parent is.

3

If you look carefully on the UMD web site, it states that you can self-apply to the scholars program. If you want to be reconsidered, perhaps you should submit your own application to scholars explaining why you should be a scholars student.

Good luck.