<p>@woodam - while I don’t know of any personally, there is a facebook page for Nashville Terps - University of Maryland Alumni.</p>
<p>@bigbook - a few years ago, when my son was applying, I heard “horror” stories of “top students” from NJ being rejected from Maryland. So, when we went to the admission session on campus, I asked the rep directly about that. What he explained is that as a state school, Maryland has to have a certain percentage (forgot what he said the number was) of students from Maryland, leaving on “x” percentage (again, don’t recall number) for OOS students. They get a LOT of applicants from the NJ/NY/PA region, and the sheer volume alone has made it more competitive for admissions from that region. He went on to say that they are trying to expand geographic diversity.</p>
<p>I can tell you that, anecdotally, based on the past few years of decision threads, I have been able to interpret that last statement as a sort of hook - meaning that if 2 students have comparable stats on the low end of the spectrum, the way OOS student will be admitted but the NJ student will either be rejected or admitted to the spring (so, freshman connection) instead of the fall. Remember, this is a personal impression/interpretation.</p>