Is going to state college (specifically UMD) a "waste" of good test scores?

College Search & Lists
1

Hello! First post here. My apologies if this is in the wrong subforum.

Anyways, I’m a Maryland high school senior applying to college. Right now, I’m hoping to enter the UMD College Park engineering school, and then go into comp. engineering, or transfer to CS. It seems like a good school from everything that I’ve heard.

Other than a few other safety schools, that’s pretty much it for applications right now.

Thing is, a while back, I took the SAT and - luckily - managed to get a score of 1580. I also took some dual-enrollment classes and got several 5s on AP exams. So my test scores are (I think) pretty good right now. (However, HS GPA isn’t that great, unfortunately.)

Well, after some input from other students, that got me wondering… if I go to my state school instead of going out-of-state, or maybe even Ivy League, is that a “waste” of those good test scores and such? Once undergraduate admissions are over, those scores will probably never be useful again, right? Am I damaging myself by not trying to apply to any higher-level colleges?

In any case, if I (hypothetically) got into a big Ivy League school, what would be the point of it? It would be farther away, and also cost much more money.

Sorry for the long-winded post. Guess there’s really only two questions here: First, would an Ivy League school (let’s say MIT, even though that’s pretty ambitious) really be that much better than UMD College Park for CE/CS? Second, am I totally wasting that good test score by not aiming for any higher-level colleges?

Thank you!

2

MIT is not an Ivy League school.

<<<however, hs="" gpa="" isn’t="" that="" great,="" unfortunately.)="">>></however,>

What is your unweighted GPA?

If your gpa is truly an issue, and you don’t have some hook (high score isn’t a hook) then your chances for a tippy top school are very low anyway, so i wouldn’t sweat it.

But getting back to your original question…going to Maryland with a high score is not a waste. Yes, your score won’t mean much/anything later. But go ahead and submit a couple of apps to some reach schools and see what shakes out. What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay for college? If they won’t pay what a pricey school expects them to pay, then you won’t have much choice anyway.

3

You aren’t “wasting” test scores if you go to a state school. UMD is a perfectly respectable school.

4

Oh stop. If UMD is a good fit for you as a student and in terms of finances, its perfect! Scores are just scores. You are a whole person who has a complete picture of your future to round out. It’s great your scores along with the rest of your profile will give you options but nothing hinges on those scores.

5

You think going to UMD is slumming? Sergey Brin (Google) and Kevin Plank (Under Armour) might have a different opinion.

6

No, but a low GPA is a waste of someone tallented enough to score high on the SATs. Try focusing your energy in college on working hard and having a higher GPA so you have more choices after college.

7

“It seems like a good school from everything that I’ve heard.”

Yes. UMD College Park is a very good university. It is going to be significantly more difficult that high school. If your “HS GPA isn’t that great”, then you are going to need to step up your effort very significantly in order to do well there. However, your SAT is very good and should help you get into UMD College Park.

If your “HS GPA isn’t that great”, then you won’t get into MIT and you wouldn’t want to go there.

Prestige really doesn’t matter much for CS and engineering, and UMD is plenty prestigious enough.

8

That comment by your peers makes no sense. UMD is a fine university, and you are lucky to have it as a state flagship. Just consider yourself fortunate to have a test score that is good for your top choice school and focus on your college apps. Don’t let other’s search (and possible jealousy over your score) distract you.

9

[QUOTE=""]

MIT is not an Ivy League school.

[/QUOTE]

Now you can probably tell how inexperienced I am with this stuff :slight_smile:

Unweighted cumulative GPA is 3.50 (Weighted is 4.17)
Not awful, but not that great either, from what I’ve heard.


[QUOTE=""]

UMD is a perfectly respectable school.
You think going to UMD is slumming?

[/QUOTE]

I realize my original post probably came off as kind of snobby… honestly, I don’t think UMD’s a mediocre school at all. Always wanted to go there. But whenever I tell my friends about this plan they seem to think it’s ridiculous for some reason. Figured they must know something that I don’t…


[QUOTE=""]

Try focusing your energy in college on working hard and having a higher GPA

[/QUOTE]

So far, my community college grades have been better than high school, so hopefully it will keep going.

Thank you, everybody, for the help and advise!

10

Remember to apply EA for UMD. The school fills in 95% of its class by EA applicants. If you apply RD with high states, the school might think you will end up somewhere and deny your acceptance. Your friends don’t know much about UMD. Unweighted GPA of 3.5 is just the minimum for many of its programs, so please don’t think you will be wasted by going to UMD.

11

<<<<<<<So far, my community college grades have been better than high school, so hopefully it will keep going.
<<<<

What are your cc grades
Are these dual enrollement

Frankly, without a hook, your gpa is too low for tippy top schools.

And really, tippy top schools aren’t just looking for top scores, since many kids have top test scores. They’re looking for excellence in grades, achievements, ECs, and scores.

Unless you have something else to mention, it would be a waste of money to apply to tippy top schools… you’d spend a lot of time on their apps and essays, only to get a big rejection letter. So, if you’re concerned about waste…

12

Unless your college course grades are 4.0 or something like that in many courses more advanced and harder than frosh / AP level, your chances at the super-selective colleges are close to nil. Indeed, you may find that Maryland is harder to get into than you think (particularly for engineering or CS majors), since the average weighted HS GPA of new frosh is 4.20 (though Maryland’s weighted HS GPA calculation does not seem to be published, so there is substantial uncertainty when comparing your 4.17 to it).

13

@nbura2000, You’ll be much better off once you realize that 99% of your friends, and their parents, have zero clue when it comes to this stuff. I wish I had $ for every person who “sympathized” with me that my daughter was attending one of the seven sisters colleges (“but she’s so smart!”) :eyeroll:

Find the school that’s the best fit for you, where you’ll do well, and that you can afford. Little else matters.

14

UMD is a fine engineering school so no if it is a good fit and affordable then be grateful that you have such a strong in state option.

Not knowing your GPA, course rigor, ECs it is impossible to know if you would have any shot at a hyper-competitive (Ivy and equivalent) college. With acceptance rates typically under 10% those schools are reaches for everyone. If you want to put in a couple of reach applications that is entirely your call. Be sure to first run the net price calculator to see if they appear to be affordable.

15

“after some input from other students”

Your friends don’t know more than you do. They are high school students. The people who matter, are the ones who are going to pay for your education (most likely your parents), and the ones who are going to hire you after you graduate from college. The opinions of your high school peers are completely and utterly immaterial. Truly.

You like UMD. If it is going to be affordable for your family, and your current GPA and test scores look like you will get in, apply there. If UMD is not going to be affordable, then you need to go to the Financial Aid Forum and get some help tracking down places that will be.

16

We live out of your state and UMD is known around here as a very good state school.
It will be an excellent value!

17

Have you showed your friends the Computer Science or Computer Engineering rankings? U Maryland beats Harvard, Brown, UPenn, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Chicago … So why do they want you to go to a lower ranking school?

Actually, ranking doesn’t matter that much. I was just trying to turn the table using the same logic of the snobbish.

A couple real things you need to consider when choosing between public and private schools are: how easy it is to register for the classes you want to study and how big each class is. I’ve heard horror stories of students in big public schools who can’t graduate in 4 years because of class registration issues and who watch videos in an overflow lecture room since the main lecture hall is filled to capacity. Does U Maryland have these issues?

18

UMD might not be a lock for direct admission to CS with a low GPA. It’s a very good school. From what I understand, colleges don’t always like high scores/low GPAs, as it can demonstrate ability without a strong work ethic.

Just apply to a range of schools, safeties, matches and a few reaches.

19

First things first - get into an affordable school for what he/she wants to study. With some CC/AP, and a ‘finish in four’ plan – often schools lay these out in a schedule builder/degree plan - each dept has listed required courses in college catalog (now mostly on-line). By talking to dept and other students, will understand the ‘system’ at the school.

Another piece of advice is to get into internship or co-op in your degree field. Any delay in graduation will be rewarded with meaningful work experience and often the better job offers at graduation.

20

My D is a Senior at UMD (not in engineering) and we know several Engineering students. I’m not aware of anyone having problems registering for required class, but I do know students who work their butts off to pass. Classes there are a lot tougher than High School, or even Community College.

The following quote is from the UMD Clark School of Engineering FAQs:
“The Clark School of Engineering receives approximately 3,000 applications each year from talented students who have been admitted to the University of Maryland. Engineering is a Limited Enrollment Program (LEP), and due to class size restrictions and other resource limitations, is not able to admit every student who applies to be an Engineering major as a freshman. As such, the Clark School will typically only admit between 1,700 and 1,800 students each year as direct freshmen admits.”

That is out of 3,000 UMD Admitted students who selected Engineering as a major…