Safety?

Colleges & Universities University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>Hi, I’m a rising senior and I was just wondering a few things:

  • can I consider Maryland a safety?
  • could I get into the honors college?
  • would I have a shot at the Banneker/Key or President’s scholarships?</p>

<p>competitive public high school in upstate NY
probably want to major in physics and/or computer science
white male, parents’ combined income >150K
4.0 uw gpa/school doesn’t weight/definitely top 10%, probably top 5%
35 act, 780 chemistry, 790 physics, 790 us history, 800 math 2
all honors and ap classes - will have taken 13 ap’s by graduation
ec’s - editor for yearbook, math team president, paid computer science research at syracuse u, ~50 hours hospital volunteering</p>

<p>Any input is much appreciated. Thank you very much!</p>

2

<p>For your stats I would have a hard time believing you would get rejected for any reason. I would think you would receive a significant amount of scholarship money.</p>

3

<p>I would say you can feel pretty comfortable about admission to Maryland. </p>

<p>Honors college is likely, but there is some ambiguity there - some kids with high stats got into scholars instead of honors. </p>

<p>As for Banneker/Key, well that’s even less defined. A chance? Yes, but I would not realistically count on it. Scholarships of any sort are harder to hazard a guess about. As a public institution, Maryland has limited funds, so some really impressive applicants did not get the scholarships they “expected.”</p>

<p>Do you have impressive stats? Yes! The question is what will your application (essays and short answers), letters of recommendation, transcript and other variables look like compared to other applicants with similar stats. A lot depends on who is applying at the same time.</p>

<p>Just make sure you apply by November 1st in order to be considered for honors and scholarships.</p>

<p>BTW, you mentioned physics as a possible major, so you might be interested in the new complex they are building [Physical</a> Sciences Complex | CMNS](<a href=“http://www.cmns.umd.edu/psc.htm]Physical”>http://www.cmns.umd.edu/psc.htm).</p>

4

<p>Glad to hear that I can consider it a safety! I really love the school and I know that everyone stresses that you should find safety schools that you’d be happy attending. I figured that Banneker/Key would be tough to get, but do you think I could be a little more hopeful for the President’s scholarship? Also, thanks for mentioning that I need to apply by November 1st! That would definitely be a bummer if I didn’t realize that. And I actually started drooling when I read about the new physical sciences complex…makes the school even more appealing.</p>

5

<p>I agree that it’s definitely a safety - from what I can tell I’d personally be surprised if you didn’t get into honors, but that isn’t always predictable. I also think you have a good shot at B/K though it’s far from a sure thing. So I think you’ll have at least a decent shot at everything - you’ll almost definitely get in (I would be completely shocked if you didn’t) and you have a really good shot at the honors college and merit scholarships of some kind. Good luck! :)</p>