Deleted.
There is still time to apply to quite a few very good colleges.
I’m also surprised she didn’t get into UMD as an instate student. I second what others suggest about contacting her GC and making sure the correct info was submitted.
Is it possible her personal statement had some kind of red flag?
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Essay, major or TO. Maybe LOR too.
What if a teacher was sanguine on a student.
Deferral at U of SC may literally mean nothing though. They simply may not have gotten to the app.
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Two years ago my daughter was waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon. They held an info session for waitlisted students on what to do and expect. They told those kids, “Five years ago you would have been our presidential scholars.” I was in awe. THAT’S how fast things changed.
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Years ago, many Maryland students went to Ivies, LACs, other big OOS schools. Same for graduate schools. I was at (and graduated from) UM@Baltimore (grad school). About 2 years after I graduated, I got a letter from the school saying they’d made a big mistake and admitted the ‘normal’ number of students but a funny thing happened; rather than 235 students accepting their offer, 350 had. They had no choice but to squeeze everyone in but said in the letter that wouldn’t happen again and in the future they’d accept the number that would yield 235, defer the rest, and then admit as needed to get to 235. The letter also reminded us that it was a public school and legacies wouldn’t get a preference. The reason for that crazy year? The tuition at UM@B was about $1000 while the tuition at private schools had skyrocketed to $15k to $20k, Ivies became even more competitive and people decided UM was a good deal.
UMd has become a really good deal, especially with the merit money it awards. More and more students want to attend. There are some articulation agreements with community colleges so they have students they have to admit. It has happened in other states too, like California and Texas and Michigan - there just isn’t enough room at the flagship so some students have to go to the other state schools, and those are really good schools too.
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The craziness is less are going to college. But they are not spreading the wealth. They all want up market it seems.
And we see some on the brink of extinction.
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Yes, that’s all very true, but it seems odd that this student was rejected rather than at least being deferred.
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I may be wrong but don’t think UMD defers.
Interested to learn if the student is TO. Especially at some publics I think it’s a penalty.
A test is a validation that anyone can provide.
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@AlnwickM I’m so sorry for this. It can be a painful process…
What is auto admit criteria for UMD?
Are senior year grades viewed/taken into consideration?
Did your daughter submit ACT, SAT? What is her class rank?
Did she apply to any Safety schools-where she’d be auto admit?
Agree with others, I’d be contacting guidance counselor, asking for help and getting suggestions for some Safety schools that are still accepting applications.
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There is no auto admit criteria, it is holistic.
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I appreciate the advice - I will reach out to her GC, hadn’t thought about that.
She is test-optional, so if that is indeed working against her I feel a little duped by schools that say TO won’t count against you. My son was TO and offered scholarships, so I assumed the same for this cycle. Applied Biz major but always with 2nd choice. One of her friends with slightly higher stats also got rejected at UMD, and another only offered spring admission. We are in a highly competitive school district, so I wonder if admissions are limited from each HS, in effect competing with their classmates rather than the entire applicant pool? (The colleges say there are no quotas, but nothing else makes sense)
She does have an offer from one school but it is not where she really wants to go. Sigh Life lessons… sometimes you can do everything right and things just don’t break your way. Just hard for her to have to learn that right now.
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Op- big hug to you.
If your D applied TO-- and you are in one of the many fine and competitive Maryland school districts-- it isn’t being “held against her”, but the other kids from your region who are applying are just going to look much stronger if they’ve applied with scores.
That’s just the mathematical reality. Anything that’s missing from an application (weak or no EC’s, wishy washy teacher’s recommendations) needs to be compensated for by something really strong in the rest of the application, right? A kid with no outside interests needs incredible academic stats. A kid whose teachers are lukewarm needs fantastic EC’s. Etc.
There aren’t quotas… but your D doesn’t look as strong as she undoubtedly is without some confirmation from a nationally normed test.
If you can… it’s time to start generating MEGA enthusiasm for the college which has accepted her. Lots and lots of kids march off to their “safety” school like it’s a four year sentence in the federal penitentiary. You can change the narrative for her- right now. There must have been something appealing about it if she took the time to apply, right? Start there!
Hugs. You’ll get through this and so will she. And I’ll bet some of those deferrals will go her way once the Adcom’s see the rest of the pool.
Did she not take SAT’s, or has scores and she just didn’t want to submit? If she took- you might want to rethink that …
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It isn’t all that common to have auto-admit for flagships - certainly none that I know of in northeast (or west coast?).
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One thing that I realized, recently, is that 2/3 of kids in my kids school apply to flagship…That means even though our school doesn’t have class rank, the flagship knows it (in effect). I think this means that kids in the middle (which at this school means quite high GPAs and a number of APs) look mediocre. At other schools, where only a few kids apply, they can look like stars.
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I don’t believe UMD gives much merit money. But I agree it has become very competitive.
Me too, based on her stats. I agree with the suggestions to have the GC reach out.
They don’t have auto admit. Admissions are competitive and holistic (based on 24 factors per their website).
(Edit: sorry, I see others already pointed this out)
If most of her peers submitted test scores that would be a problem. Doesn’t mean TO is misleading, it’s just that when viewed in context, lack of scores might weaken an application particularly if the high school has a lot of grade inflation.
Best wishes to your daughter. Hope things work out.
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Well, if she only applied to 3 schools, it might be time to look at couple more. (I know, I know, “only” three schools … but in this era, three schools when you’re TO can be risky).
And she can send in a LOCI and fall grades to USC, along with a really strong letter to the admissions office/recruiter, about how much she wants to go there. Just anecdotally, I believe USC is dealing with a lot of shotgun applications these days. She needs to emphasize that is not what she’s doing, and that USC is her #1, if indeed it is.
Is there any desire to throw out a few more applications? There are tons of schools still accepting them.
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I am sorry it is all awful. Kids applying to 20 schools, makes things a little wonky.
And more kids applying to same schools than a generation ago and in the same majors! (It is so much harder to get into CS or business or nursing or engineering). Kids used to major in psyc. and political science more, I believe.
(I see some kids in naviance not getting in to our flaghship with incredibly high weighted GPAs (so rigor is there) with 1500+ SATs. it is unfortunate that this is a waitlist or deny for any program.
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Any potential red flags in the essay?
Or LoRs from a teacher she might have had issues with in the past?
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I hope good news is coming soon when her file is reviewed more. I bet it will!
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And that includes schools that have good business programs: IU (would have to do secondary admit to Kelley freshman year), DePaul, Michigan State, U Dayton, U Delaware. There are more, just let us know if this is a path she may want to pursue. Hugs.
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