Pitt Honors is fantastic. Plenty of ‘academic types’ there. OTOH, Pitt is a public school, and I’m biased towards privates if affordable. Better advising, better housing, better food, better research opportunities. In short, they have more money to spend on undergrads.
btw: Pitt and CMU allow cross-registration for certain courses.
edited to add: my D attended a different Jesuit college, and her Frosh Advisor was Jewish, and taught one of the required religion courses (comparative religion). Jesuits are extremely welcoming if that’s a concern.)
thx good to know; just curious why you are biased towards private…he is at a large public high school but I do think he would benefit from a smaller environment
UMD admissions probably views your son as more intellectual and self-driven/self-motivated than most first year applicants. FIRE, if utilized properly, can be a great experience for a college freshman as it assures immediate close relationship with a mentor professor and a field of interest.
Can apply to honors college at end of first year or appeal denial by April first if not invited with his acceptance to UMD.
Your son was not invited to honors college because he was invited to FIRE. His application & recommendations probably indicated that he has an intellectual bent & is self-motivated & disciplined.
Your son should contact the director of the FIRE program for clarification & a further explanation. My best guess is that if your son opts out of FIRE and requests to be in the honors college, then he will be invited/admitted to the honors college as FIRE may be a higher honor from an intellectual standpoint.
Mine got FIRE - one of them. The other got Scholars. I think they just come.
I will add - from the ego POV, I do think that the kids put them in that order - like Honors doesn’t want me, I got Scholars. Or I got FIRE, I’m only third rate. Of course, most get nothing.
It’d be interesting for me to find out my kid got FIRE based on a perceived research bent - maybe it’s because she had AP Seminar and Research?
@ostrich8 is correct. All the special programs (honors, scholars, FIRE) are by invitation only for freshmen applicants. Yes, students can apply for honors after the first year, but that’s different from what OP said.
I know many students who attend UMD, and while UMD doesn’t publish their decision criteria, FIRE seems to be offered to students who are research oriented.
Disagree. Can email honors at UMD by April first to request an invitation to the honors college. Can also apply at end of one’s first year.
This is addressed by the FAQS which I referenced above.
honorsadmissions@UMD.edu
UMD should do a better job of communicating these options to students; they do not because success via appeal/request is not common, but OP’s son’s qualifications are quite strong (4.0 unweighted and 35 ACT score).
FIRE may be a higher honor academically than the honors college at UMD. If one’s academic priority is research, then FIRE is the better option versus UMD Honors College; but for a variety of “privileged” learning experiences, then the Honors College is the better option.
OP: Here is a fairly detailed summary of the FIRE program at UMD:
OP: If your son is not interested in team research as a freshman at UMD in the FIRE program, then Georgetown McDonough is the easy answer if affordable as it most likely will yield the best opportunities for an undergraduate business student.
Yes, I agree with feeling like it’s third rate… My son hasn’t really done anything in the ways of research so I’m not sure where it came from to be honest
Thx for posting that info on FIRE; i’m going to ask my son again if he has any interest in this program, but he didn’t seem to be enamored by it lol. Yes at this point he does seem more excited about g town so hopefully he will feel the same way after we go back to visit…thx
It does seem worthy but reading the research steams more for the STEM kids although they have some related to computing/data stuff.
It’s by invite but has a place to apply if not invited.
I can see why he wouldn’t be interested if not scientifically oriented. But I’m sure it’s a great program as most are. It’s always great to have worthy, respected things on your resume. And given his tech interest, there are some tangential.
If you get down to it (your post), he’s got two in the bag most would kill for (Smith and McDonough) and if Tepper happens…it’s like whipped cream on top of the cake.
No matter if he chooses door 1, 2, or 3 - he’s won!!!
Some kids want a research intensive program. Some kids want coop. Some kids want small seminars and others want a mix of small and huge lecture halls. Some kids want professors who are fantastic and inspiring lecturers and others want professors who will invite them to lunch and ask if they can help with the job search.
Nothing wrong with a kid not interested in something or other!
