New Admits--Advice from mom of 2 Terps....

Colleges & Universities University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>I thought I’d start this…lots of people can add their 2-cents’ worth, but here goes…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If you are remotely considering attending UMD, sign up for housing NOW. Don’t wait until you decide if you are going to go (or if you are waiting to hear from other schools). If you wait until the last minute, you most likely will end up in a triple. Even rooms that are planned to be a triple are a tight squeeze. If you decide not to attend UMD, you will need to cancel your housing request IN ADDITION to telling the office of admissions that you’re not going to attend.</p></li>
<li><p>After accepting the admit offer, Sign up and get your UMD email and UID sooner than later. You’ll need it to register, I think you’ll need it to take the math placement exam, and it is amazing how many people arrive at their orientation/registration in the summer with no idea that they were supposed to have done this.</p></li>
<li><p>The UMD.edu website can be cryptic, but get familiar with pages that pertain to you…your major, your department, any special programs you are in, requirements for taking the Math placement exam and what it means, and get extremely familiar with Testudo (testudo.umd.edu) …look at the schedule of courses for courses offered in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 so you can start getting an idea of what courses are offered, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are coming in with AP or IB credits, know how they apply towards your required classes. <a href=“http://www.tce.umd.edu/apibclep.html#ap[/url]”>http://www.tce.umd.edu/apibclep.html#ap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p>As soon as you confirm that you are going to attend UMD and get the info from the Orientation Office, sign up for an Orientation session this summer. The spots are limited by each Dept/College, and DO get filled. DO NOT ASK for a special Orientation session. They hear all the excuses, reasoning, etc., but if you can’t make one of the summer sessions, you’ll need to go at the end of the summer. You’ll still have classes to choose from, but they won’t be at the most convenient times, nor with the most preferred professors.</p></li>
<li><p>Check out OURUMD.com, an awesome student-created website that is what most students refer to when checking out professors (much better than RATEMYPROFESSOR)…it has actual distributions of grades for courses by that professor, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ll have more tips prior to Orientation (D2 is in her 3rd year of working there), which will make things work much more smoothly. (mostly related to READ WHAT INFO THEY SEND YOU AHEAD OF TIME, and look at the Fall, 2012 class offerings before you go…but those probably won’t be listed for a while yet).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>GOOD LUCK!</p>

<p>p.s. Our 2 Terps have experience with the Honors program and Scholars programs, B/K and other merit scholarships, Financial Aid Office (as out-of-state students…not a pretty picture), Colleges of CMNS, AGNR, and BSOS (or whatever it’s called now…), life on campus as a freshman if you DON"T drink, the Language House, undergraduate research, Quidditch, and all the reasons why UMD is amazing. Let me know if I can help.</p>

2

<p>That is some great advice. Im guessing your children are astrophysics/sciences, but do you know anything about the Civicus Living and Learning Program sponsored by BSOS. They live in Somerset Hall can you tell me about that. I was admitted to that and am a Government and Politics Major. Thank you</p>

3

<p>Sorry, I don’t. My younger D is in BSOS for one of her majors (Environmental Policy), but I don’t know anything about Civicus. In general, UMD is known for its many living/learning programs. Do you live in MD? If so, you should schedule a meeting with the head of the Civicus program to find out more about it. Talking to that person, as well as a student who is currently in it, is the best way for you to know if the program sounds good to you. (Plus, you may be able to get a sneak peak of the rooms in Somerset). The location of Somerset is awesome, plus the a/c (from the website) will be something you appreciate in September, not to mention living with others in your program and having people to hang out with from the very beginning.</p>

4

<p>Yeah Somerset and those other North Hill halls are awesome. Central to everything.</p>

5

<p>OK… so I submitted my housing/dining request form and I am all set up to stay the night on March 1st… so excited!! I just have one question though, you seem so knowledgeable so this seems to be the best place to ask. I am going to send in a College Park Scholars Request Form, how many students are typically taken off of the waitlist??</p>

6

<p>Wow this is great info!</p>

7

<p>So are you allowed to sign up for housing before you make the deposit? And how does this work for living and learning programs? I’m in the honors college and I told them about my preference for honors humanities so should I try to sign up for housing in that building even though I might end up in university honors?</p>

<p>Also, would you mind telling me a little more about B/K merit scholarships? I’m OOS (4.36 GPA, 2350 SAT score, pretty good extracurriculars and essays) and I have no idea what my chances are, but I’m hoping to get good merit money to make it affordable since my parents probably won’t be able to pay our EFC.</p>

8

<p>I believe that you are still able to sign up for housing before you make the deposit (UMD changed this about 4 years ago or so). You shouldn’t be penalized for waiting to hear back from Ivies, etc. who don’t tell you until the last minute. So, they split up the housing request from the deposit for this reason.</p>

9

<p>Hi, AstroMom! I just wanted to say thank you for your tips, which I used last year to make my decision to attend UMD. I have nothing but great things to say about My School. Despite the size, I have found a great niche of people. I am proud to be a Terp!
Once again, Thank you sooo much!</p>

10

<p>Thanks Astrophysicsmom. This is extremely valuable advice. Based on your advice my daughter acted on item #1 already. This thread should be a sticky.</p>

11

<p>Awesome information astrophysics. I’ve been accepted to College Honors and bioengineering major. I looked at the various choices and don’t think that I’m ready to make a decision yet. Does your recommendation for signing up for housing now also apply to those who are planning on accepting invitations into either the HC or CPS programs? Do people in the HC also have the possibility of ending up in triples?</p>

12

<p>Yes, John. D1 was in the Honors program and was in a triple her freshman year. At that time, you couldn’t sign up for housing UNTIL you had paid the deposit, and she still had a couple of schools who didn’t post decisions/give merit $ info until very late. She and her 2 roommates were all in the same boat. They didn’t commit until right before the deadline, and were stuck in a triple. They made the most of it, but you should try to avoid it if you can. Now, since you can sign up for housing without committing to attend, there’s really no reason not to.</p>

13

<p>@astrophysicsmom
Thank you for sharing - the information is very helpful. You said D2 was in CPS. Do you know if scholars students have a chance to get any merit money? I realize that the big scholarships are for the honors, but I am hoping that there is something offered to scholars…?</p>

14

<p>Which program in the HC did D1 participate in? The integrated life sciences program sounds great but I’m not sure how it meshes with the requirements for the bioengineering major. Is it generally assumed that most HC students are coming in with a large number of AP credits and placing out of the intro classes?</p>

15

<p>John–At the time D1 was in the HC (she entered fall 2007), they did not have the specific programs that they do now. There was Gemstone (which was a subset of Honors) and Honors. You’ll just need to look at the requirements of the programs as compared to your intended major and see how they fit. They didn’t intend to make it more difficult to get all your requirements in and finish on time by making the Honors programs more targeted. I would agree that a good number of people in the Honors programs probably do come in with a lot of AP credit to apply towards required courses, tho.</p>

<p>Mary–Scholars students DO get merit money…they aren’t considered for Banneker/Key, but are eligible (and DO) get the other awards–varying levels of the Presidential scholarship, department scholarships (where applicable), etc. The higher your GPA and SAT scores, the better chance you have for merit $$. It’s not all tied to that, but it’s a very big component.</p>

16

<p>Thanks very much for your advice! Both of my twins have been accepted but are unsure whether or not they’ll attend, but at least now they are both signed up for housing.</p>

17

<p>@smwhtslghtlydzed,

</p>

<p>You have a good chance. If you are invited to interview, you will know soon (a week or two). Receiving the invitation means that you WILL get at least a partial B/K. Good luck.</p>

18

<p>Bumping to give poster Asenbach the answer regarding housing.</p>

<p>Also, reminder to everyone who hopes to get financial aid…your FAFSA must be submitted to the government site by Feb 15 in order to be considered for financial aid at UMD.</p>

19

<p>Here’s some advice:</p>

<p>Make sure you can afford the outrageous rent prices in College Park. There are some diamonds in the rough (usually houses), but the nice apartment buildings are all insanely expensive. I live in a 6 bedroom 3 bathroom (plus a half bath) house that’s pretty darn big and I only pay $750 a month including utilities. If I wanted to downgrade to a smaller apartment instead of a house, I’d be paying at least $900/mo it seems.</p>

<p>That’s one of the only things I dislike about UMD.</p>

20

<p>I wanted to bring this thread back to yellow. I have said it before in other threads, astrophysicsmom and plumazul are a wealth of knowledge and I follow their advice on a routine basis. Knowing UMD is my son’s #1 choice we had a long talk and he told me that no matter what the last school we are waiting for says, (UDE) he wants MD. So we pulled the trigger and accepted enrollment at UMD. That being said, I have to say this thread has some GREAT info in it and can already add something as a newbie Terp parent. Don’t Wait to the last minute to do everything because it can’t all be done in one sitting. For example, you can do the Housing form w/o paying the $400 down payment, but you can’t register for the summer orientation until your $ clears the Bursar’s office, which in our case took 7 days, even the orientation people could not overide it, they could see in the system that we sent the $ in but the system would not allow us to register. Just trying to help out! I’ve seen a lot of posts here but these two people have answers and are currently living through all that we newbies don’t know, one is a mom of Terps and one is a Terp so listen to them! Thanks for everything and still taking the time to guide the rest of us</p>