Got Accepted into Letters and Sciences at UMD College Park. What does that MEAN?

notacoptermom1
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:33:48 +0000

I am posting because I want to share what we learned about the Letters and Science acceptance at admitted student’s day today- my student applied as a Business major. First point is admissions does not fully understand how this program works. Key Point is that just because you are an internal transfer applicant you are not given priority to the LEP of your choice. In fact from what we were able to gather they actually commit to a local community college a certain number of acceptances. Another key point is that a transfer to your school of choice is very competitive-you need to do better than the students directly admitted to the school in order to transfer. For example,to get into the business school from Letters and Science you need a minimum of a 3.5 GPA after taking 45 credits, yet apparently all you need is a 2.0 GPA to stay in the business school at a 45 credit review ( as per the Business LEP information @lep.umd.edu). Third important point is that no one at the admitted students open house could tell you the percentage of students in Letters and Science that get into their school of choice after taking 45 credits- either they haven’t done the analysis-unlikely for a leading research institution- or they do not want you to know. Overall, my impression is that they are providing a dubious path to the business school that exists for only very few students. If you didn’t get into your major I strongly suggest you talk to as many people as you can and ask the tough questions. My student was accepted to many great business programs and I find it a disservice to try to entice students to UMD through the Letters and Science Program. Do your homework.