I am a NJ senior in high school and need help deciding between the two schools. I was admitted to UMD - College Park as a “Freshman Connection student”, and would have to apply into the business school as a sophomore. At Syracuse, I was directly admitted to their business school. I like both campuses and money is not something that will sway my decision. Not sure how the programs rank against each other. I’ll be attending accepted students day at both colleges but still need some help in making a decision. Thanks!
Congratulations! Great choice! Sometimes these decisions are a matter of betting on yourself. If you are committed to business, it can be very helpful to be a direct admit. But a lot would depend on you. Would you go to UMD, work hard, take advantage of opportunities, and seek help when necessary? If so, you would probably have a good chance of admission into the business school. If you were to go and get off to a slow start, it would probably make admission into the business school difficult. So it’s a matter of betting on what you will do, and whether you want the safer play or the riskier option. If you are most interested in UMD, I’d look inside yourself for that answer.
Related to above, great (unsolicited) college tip: go to office hours and meet your profs, go to help sessions and test review, and get a tutor at the beginning of the semester, especially for any science classes. Tutors are most helpful when students use them proactively and don’t go after they’ve done poorly on a test. An advisor at a top school told us that almost every student who made A’s in very hard intro Chem and Bio classes, including Organic Chem, worked with tutors the whole semester. It was the A students using them, not C students. Good luck!