His stats seem a bit off in that he has 4s on BC AP calc and in AP lang, but lowish SATs. I am also guessing that the SATs he sent to UMD were even lower (since he re-took after the priority deadline). Is there a reason his SATs were out of range with the rest of his application?
Towson, UMBC and UMCP all have spring freshmen admissions. He could apply in the fall and only be a semester behind. He could spend time this summer studying for the SAT and perhaps try the ACT. He would then only be a semester behind. He could always transfer to the CP campus if he does well at the other schools.
It is also possible that Towson, UMBC or others (Salisbury) may still have openings. Community college is an option too, but in that case he may be committing to getting the associates degree before transferring.
I second the Canadian college recommendation – my D applied to Mount Allison, in New Brunswick, and it’s a lovely place and extremely affordable even for international students. The cost for tuition, R&B, and fees, if you get zero financial aid (and we did get some) is about $30,000 CAD. That’s Canadian dollars. I’m pretty sure they have rolling admissions, too. It’s not like PSU – only a few thousand students – but I’m certain the cost is similar at other Canadian Universities.
As you all suggested, I contacted UMBC. They allowed my son to submit late application. He submitted an application and got his admission to UMBC for fall 2016 without community college path.
As he went thru late application channel, he is not able to get scholarships or scholar program enrollment.
I appreciate your guidance. It won’t have happened with your insights. Feel free to add your further guidance/directions.
Does your son prefer UMBC to Canadian universities?
Your son should try and get into some Honors Classes (contact the Honors College Dean and ask for permission o enroll in some honors classes as a way to prove himself, explaining your situation: student stats, profile, international = not undersanding how college applications work). During freshman year (1st semester), provided he has A’s in his honors classes, he can officially apply to Honors:
Established UMBC students may download an Honors College application and turn it in to the Honors College in person or attached to an email to honorscollege@umbc.edu. Admissions decisions for established students are made on a rolling basis.
Have your son ask about scholarship opportunities in his sophomore and junior years. I know kids who have gotten scholarships throughout their college career. He just has to work hard. There are also paid research and internship opportunities if he does well. Hard work and dedication are often rewarded…
I wouldn’t raise false hope. Scholarships while a continuing student are rare and low. Telling him that may make him think that “getting good grades” will mean good-sized merit…won’t happen.
Many people wrongly think that colleges have a budget for rewarding the good students. Typically depts have a tiny budget to reward a couple of upper division students with small awards…often one year only awards.
So many kids in college HAVE high GPAs, so it’s not even reasonable to expect that good grades will equal merit later.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
He applied for PSU and got the admission. We received the Financial Aid Letter that surprised us. The high school Counselor told us that, he will get scholarships from colleges
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
This parent needs to speak to the school counselor and tell her not to give such misleading info. Not only were your son’s test scores not high enough to get much/any merit at many schools, schools like PSU hardly give any merit. I think they mostly only give about $4k to their SHC students. An 1140 M+CR on the SAT is less than an ACT 26. That is probably quite average for PSU.
Who knows why so many GCs give such misleading info. Either they should know the facts, or they should just be quiet in the areas of money and colleges. GCs like this need the feedback. They are effectively causing these terrible results.
Although he likely won’t get big scholarships later on (he might, but it’s not a sure thing), he CAN get into the Honors college and get the perks. He should avail himself of that opportunity during his freshman year, and work hard to be admitted.
<<<<
I look like PSU does not welcome out-of-state students on academic prospective, but they welcome them on monetary prospective.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Frankly, many OOS publics are doing this. They charge high OOS rates because they need the money. Your son’s SAT score doesn’t help them, so they really don’t care if he enrolls or not…unless he can pay the full bill. It’s that brutal. They have enough high-GPA students in their own state. They need the money from OOS.
These money-seeking OOS publics are even accepting OOS students whose stats aren’t high enough to get in if instate. If you were OOS and going to pay full-freight, UMaryland may have accepted your son.
Going to an OOS public can be like going “out of network” with your health insurance. You don’t pay taxes in PA, so they expect you to pay the full load. When you go “out of network” to see a health professional, often your insurance will expect you to pay.
i think a gap year (no classes ANYWHERE) is the best idea and then apply to UM-CP again. In fact, during June/July, you might contact UM-CP and see if their “summer melt” was high, and they may decide to go ahead and let your son enroll.
No way @mom2collegekids. UMBC is a pretty good school for science. Congrats on getting in and I hope he’s happy. With the stats what they are, it’s a pretty good fit.
Thanks for your insights. His career goal is Astrophysics. He picked PSU, because they have undergraduate Astrophysics program and Astrophysics is a separate department.
In UMBC he need to pick Physics major and add Astrophysics units. There is no separate Astrophysis dept in UMBC
In reviewing applications, the Honors College places special emphasis on the written material submitted. The strength of the high school curriculum, grade point average (GPA) and standardized test scores are also very important. We very strongly recommend:
For Freshman Applicants
• A minimum unweighted GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale
• An SAT score of 2100 or better on the tWe hree-part test
• An ACT score of 31 or better
The average SAT score of successful recent freshman applicants to the Honors College is more than 2140.
It looks like UMBC honor’s program expect high bar and in-line with UMD-CP freshmen admission stat. I am not sure, whether my son’s stat going to fly here.
We contacted them. We learned that ''The deadline for the Meyerhoff Scholars Program has passed and those awards have been made following the application process review and interviews in February and March."
Regarding scholarships… Some of the Maryland state colleges have scholarships for students specifically in a major so, yes, they are limited to upperclass students. They are usually smaller scholarships (like $1,000) but he should search for them.
For honors, he should apply as a current student. First he needs to find a way to take one honors class - he can email the professor, express his interest in the subject, explain his background in the subject (books read, etc). It can be sociology 001H for instance. Then he will be able to ask the professor for a recommendation to the honors college. Maryland allows freshmen to apply to honors at any point in their freshman or sophomore year. Second semester of freshman year would be best but it can be done during the first semester.
It’s a surprise reading this for me since he seems to be a great student.
Our D is OOS, has a 4.9 gpa and received admissions to UP And the Honors college.
Her FA from PS was at least half off the total OOS costs and that was without adding any loans.
To our D PSU did offer a great FA package n without a hook.
She did have exceptional ECs n Leadership though.