Need guidance applying ED1 or going to local state school (UMD)

College Search & Lists
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  • First-year applicant. Choosing ED at WashU, Rice, or Brown vs. skipping ED and enrolling at UMD College Park (in-state).

  • Financial setup and info about me:

    • My parents agreed to help pay for my education - this means either a full undergrad at a private (~60k/year) or (25k/ year at UMD then the extra money toward grad school if I choose to go)

    • Cost for UMD for me would be ~26k/yr total cost

    • Cost for WashU, Brown, or Rice for me would be ~$50–60k/yr total cost

    • Since both of my parents are doctors, know people in the field, and are located in Maryland, I could probably get clinicals, volunteering hours, etc. using connections from my parents if I decide on UMD.

    • I am not set on med school and am a very curious person and would love to pursue things I find interesting even if not directly related (I love bio, chem, materials science, etc.)

  • Academic direction: Strong interest in medicine, with lifelong love of engineering. Likely Biology or Chemistry major (for GPA protection/flexibility) + Engineering minor; keep a path open to a future Master’s in engineering if I choose that route.

  • Fit priorities: Flexibility, interdisciplinary options, research access, supportive advising, I would love a school with more focus on practice vs theory.

  • Visits: I visited WashU and loved it. I found it very supportive, placed on the undergrads, I loved the campus, etc. I haven’t visited Rice but from the extensive research and talking with Rice alums, I think I would also love it. I have done less research for Brown but also think I would like it a lot. Also, it seems like all three of these schools don’t have a competitive culture and the academics seem far (classes seem to be hard because the material is hard, not just for the sake of making tests unnecessarily hard)

Main question:

Which do I do?

Option 1: ED1 at WashU/Rice/Brown

Option 2: Do not ED anywhere and see where I get in (I do not think my application is strong enough for any T20 without the ED bump). This most likely means going to UMD.

More nuanced questions:

  1. Do I ED1 at one of these private schools (WashU, Rice, Brown), then have to pay for med school if I go? Or do I choose UMD and then have at least a large chunk of med school covered by my parents if I decide to go?

  2. I know a private school like the ones mentioned provides a lot of care and support and opportunities for the undergrads. However, is it worth an extra 25-35k a year? If I am proactive and seek opportunities, could I get similar opportunities at UMD?

  3. How will the environment shape me and affect my academic experience? At Rice, WashU, and Brown the average student is more intellectual, aspirational, and driven than at UMD. However, I know that there are extremely smart people at UMD too, just a smaller percent of the student body.

Thank you so much for any insights and inputs.

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I am not sure that UMD is a safety for anyone, but it might help to give us more of an idea of your academic stats?

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I would not recommend EDing anywhere you haven’t visited. If you don’t have time to visit Rice or Brown prior to submitting an application, I would not ED there. After that it’s a lot of intangibles on the experience you’re looking for - as it sounds like you’d be close to home that’s another factor to consider. Both mine wanted some distance to spread their wings. Not that you can’t achieve that at a similar price point.

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I have a family member at WashU, it’s about $92,000 a year. Are you eligible for any FA? You will find amazing students at public flagships, many have budgets and cant afford sekective privates.

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So the good news is I believe Maryland actually fits your criteria. Maybe the others even more so in some ways, but Maryland is a great choice too, and a real bargain at in-state rates.

And if med school is even a strong possibility–I have a hard time recommending paying a lot more for a private as opposed to conserving those family resources for med school.

I am also skeptical this is really an important consideration in your case:

I think the concept of an “ED bump” is often overstated. Colleges have no reason to give an automatic “bump” to everyone who applies ED. There are some specific cases that might make sense for colleges, but they have no particular reason to treat all cases like that.

So one possible case is hooked applicants like recruited athletes, where coaches want to know they have filled certain team needs.

Another is MAYBE sometimes a college thinks its odds of a highly qualified applicant actually taking their offer are so low, it will waitlist or reject them RD. But then if that applicant applies ED, it will happily accept them because now they can’t go anywhere else instead.

The scenario you are talking about, though–an unhooked applicant who likely wouldn’t be able to get into any peer colleges RD–is not in either of those categories. Of course they may not get accepted either ED or RD, but there is not much reason for a college to not want them RD but then want them ED instead.

So personally, I would not worry about giving up some big automatic boost. In fact I am very confident about that as applied to Brown, because they say so. WashU and Rice might sometimes reject or waitlist some very highly qualified applicants they think won’t yield, but that doesn’t sound like you. So I don’t see this as a significant factor for you.

Of course maybe they will all reject you. But I would personally bet if that is going to happen, applying ED to one of them would not change that.

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I was thinking the exact same thing.

Premed classes are tough. I have heard quite a few stories about how tough they are. I do not think that you want to be going into premed classes with incoming stats that put you in the bottom 1/2 of the students who are taking the class.

Also, I am not sure that the ED bump is quite as large as you are thinking. Remember that ED stats include stats for recruited athletes (Brown is for example in the Ivy League, and this is an athletic league with teams that in some cases are surprisingly good for schools that do not offer athletic scholarships).

This is a big deal. This is particularly a big deal if you end up going for medical school. However, even something like a master’s degree or a fully funded PhD can be easier to pull off if you have some parent financial help.

And UMD is a very good university. I have worked with a small number of UMD graduates, and knew one UMD graduate when I was in graduate school (master’s at Stanford). Certainly the UMD graduates who I have met have all made the point that you can do very well with a degree from UMD.

Experience in a medical environment is critical if you want to continue on the “premed to medical school” path. Getting clinical experience early can also help you decide whether you want to continue on this path. One daughter needed very, very little clinical experience to realize that she wanted to do something else, and is right now in a lab doing biomedical research. The other daughter needed relatively little clinical experience to discover that she wanted to take this path, but with animals (she is a veterinarian).

Biology and chemistry are of course fields where some sort of graduate school is likely.

I had the same experience when I visited WUSTL, although this was a long time ago. I have heard good things about Rice. The cost does however make me pause.

Nothing in your post makes me think that you should apply ED anywhere. I would be inclined to apply either EA or RD everywhere, and see what sort of offers you get before you decide. Certainly UMD is a very good option regardless of whether you end up on the medical school path, or on the “chemistry / biology bachelor’s to masters to PhD path”, or doing engineering, or on some other path.

And this is very true. The strongest graduates who I have worked with from for example U.Mass Amherst or UMD or Rutgers compare very well with the strongest graduates who I have worked with coming from MIT, Stanford, or Harvard. Very strong students attend a huge range of schools for a wide variety of reasons, and you will find some very strong students at UMD.

This is what I would do.

Also, make sure that UMD really is a safety, and if you are not quite sure, add another safety to your list.

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You might want to spend some time delving deeper on the engineering angle. Not all disciplines of engineering offer a minor, depending on what college you attend. UCLA, for example, does not for the most part but several other UCs do. You likely will not take enough years of math even in an engineering minor to be ready for a MS program, and may be missing some required engineering courses. Often what people do is spend an extra year in their MS program taking the missing classes if needed. Lastly many colleges have several tracks of Calculus; be sure to take the one for engineers even if your Bio or Chem major doesn’t require it or else the MS program may require you to retake the series.

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Don’t know anything about you - to know if applying to the schools you mentioned is in your wheelbase. You may or may not be overstating or understating your chances.

I also don’t know if you are pointing to tuition costs or total costs - but if you have two doctor parents, I tend to think you are from a high income family and you are choosing $90K schools. Has your family run the NPC?

Are you living at home while going to UMD? Current COA is $29,936 for tuition, room and board, so where is $26K coming from? Are there guaranteed scholarships? And yes, costs go up so it will be higher when you go.

So the first thing is to understand your finances - and maybe you do - but asking to validate them.

If you end up on the med path, there where won’t matter - but it sounds like you might not. You can look at schools like Duke and Vandy - and where their residents went to undergrad:

At Vanderbilt’s Hospital, schools like Ole Miss, UMass, Sewanee, UF, Murray State, N Illinois, Kansas, Luther, Lipscomb, OK State. And yes the UNCs, Lafayettes and Vandy’s of the world too - but not by and large.

For Duke Hospital, Tuskegee, UCF, Muhlenberg, Minnesota - that’s four of the first five. The 5th being Dartmouth.

The next resident year - Temple, FSU, Cornell, Gannon, Earlham, and Campbell.

So a name, in an of itself, Brown/Rice/WUSTL - won’t give you a leg up. Being where you can stand out, where you can enjoy, so that you perform strongly - that’s what matters.

So what you are asking from a desires POV won’t be easy to find.

Flexibility - engineering is anything but. You might look at LACs that claim more flexibility but I don’t know if it’s true - a Bucknell or Lafayette as an example. Engineering - no matter where - has required courses for accreditation. Some schools - Brown/Dartmouth - might take a 5th year to get an accredited degree - so that’s where you get flexibility. Oh, and that’s more money.

Research - I dunno - my kids went to an SEC flagship and regional public - and they could both do research had they wanted to. My son’s gf did all four years. There’s emails, professors always asking - I think kids overplay - certain schools have access and the elite colleges let them because it’s good marketing for them. If anything, you’ll have more competition at elite schools but you have professors conducting research everywhere. Don’t forget, these are all academician/PhDs…so not a concern.

Supportive advising - school by school and adviser by adviser - but in the end, you’ll have regular advising (each semester) and a flowchart for engineering - and for med school, if you do that, you’ll know the pre reqs, etc. and it will be incumbent upon you - things like shadowing - which sounds like you have a head start. Practice vs. Theory is tough - most will have “some” but most will be theory. Cal Poly is known to be more practice and Louisville’s Speed school is supposedly similar to Cal Poly. Perhaps a WPI, which is project based, works there - but at the majority, as you’ll be following an ABET set of curriculum and things to be taught - I don’t think this happens - but you might set up a 30 minute meeting with a dept head at each school to ask about that. And then there are clubs - whether a rocketry club or ecoCAR or Formula SAE and more - where practice is happening.

But I’m back to money - you need to verify you understand the finances - you might and I might be wrong but given what info you’ve provided, I’m not quite sure. Your privates are going to be $100K a year or close - and don’t provide any merit aid - well Wash U and Rice do, but unlikely to come through and certainly no assurance - whereas, for example, a U Miami might or would at least have better odds to get there or close to $60K (maybe a tad over but they give most $25K).

Some things to think about.

Thanks

  • Fit priorities: Flexibility, interdisciplinary options, research access, supportive advising, I would love a school with more focus on practice vs theory.

In the end, you need to validate your finances and need as they school’s say before you apply anywhere ED - or get in and be on the hook for $90K+.

btw - depending on your stats, you may be able to go for as low as $20K? Would the save then be applied to med or grad school? That’s another route to go - OOS publics - but you need a good GPA and SAT over 1400.

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I note this has always been true, but even more so in recent years as the gap between private and in-state public costs kept growing.

Again if a place like, say, WashU would be comfortably affordable–and full disclosure, I have an S24 who is premed sophomore at WashU, and it has been great for him–that’s a different matter. But if it would consume a lot of family resources, then a Maryland is just such a great option these days.

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The finances are accurate, the cost I listed is what the total cost (tuition + room/board) would be. While I’m leaning towards med school, I’m not 100% set on it. In undergrad I want to explore as much as possible (taking classes I’m interested in, pursuing research, projects, clubs, orgs. etc) to be able to narrow in on a career or path that suits me best. At a private university (such and brown/rice/washu) I think doing this would be easier than at a public university (such as UMD). However, I’m not sure if that is worth the extra 25-35k a year.

Thank you all for your replies and insights. They are very helpful!

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You can certainly do all this at UMD!

They offer more than 100 majors, have hundreds of student organizations representing a wide range of interests, and conduct extensive research.

You can explore these opportunities on their website.

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So you ran the NPCs ?

You may benefit from a school with an open curriculum - Brown, Rochester, Vassar, Grinnell, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Wake in some cases. Kalamazoo is strong and would be a safety vs the others - and has big merit.

I, for one, don’t think research and clubs are necessarily easier at private schools. In fact at some higher end schools, clubs may be competitive. I think that’s hype that is not necessarily true. You can also start a club - mine did and she’s visiting her old school (graduated in May) this weekend and is happy to report the club continues to be active and contributing without her. She was at a mid size regional public.

Another option for you might be to consider a smaller public or even one with an Honors College. Or living in a living learning community.

It sounds like engineering may not be for you because you will have less academic flexibility.

In the end, the money call is personal. Obviously you need to be able to afford further schooling so the time to save is now. And you can even beat UMD pricing stat depending. But you also need to excel academically, and one environment may work for you better than another.

So it’s personal choice but for example, if smaller works better, there are other schools without the name brand you mentioned that will give you tons of opportunities and a fair price.

Best of luck.

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Are you sure? The full cost of attendance at these schools is closer to $90,000 a year. The net price calculators for 2026-2027 academic year are based on 2024 income tax year money. Are you sure that a family with two doctor incomes will be eligible for this much need based aid?

At this point, you haven’t been accepted to UMD (I think you will be…but you haven’t been yet). Make sure you apply EA as that is when they accept the vast majority of the incoming class.

According to their website, the COA at UMD CP is over $34,000 a year.

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I would save the money for grad school, since you will likely be going. UMD is an excellent school.

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The UMD EA application deadline is November 1. It is very important to apply by that date. Most of the Freshman Class is accepted in the EA round. FYI, my D started doing research at UMD in her second year.

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The University of Maryland has 39 Living Learning Programs (LLPs), residential communities where students live together and connect over shared interests and academic goals. These create their own kind of residential college at a large state university. A couple of years ago, I attended a memorial service for a University of Maryland student who had tragically died of cancer shortly after graduation. I was so impressed to meet half a dozen of his LLP fellow students and a couple of faculty who had driven 8 hours to attend the service. I think that this speaks to the quality of the relationships which were built here.

I have a GD and GS who went to Rice recently and had wonderful experiences there with some great percs. Wash U was the second choice for one of them, so I understand that this is a difficult choice. I also have a GS who was accepted at Maryland out of state during regular decision, so there are real people who are accepted in that round, BUT he did not get into the school he wanted.

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I’m not sure what you mean here? Applying ED somewhere doesn’t prevent the OP from applying EA to UMD at the same time. (Although it doesn’t sound like the OP really wants to apply ED anywhere.)

They just have to get their UMD app in quickly, as @SoofDad notes, to make sure all materials are received and confirmed by the EA deadline.

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Agreed. I see students in my high school district doing this every year.

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Sorry, my mistake.

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Deleted. After I posted, I saw the misunderstanding was already cleared up.