University of Maryland (UMD) College Park Early Action 2024

[broy1974]

Yes

[broy1974]

Yes, we were notified on My Coalition. My DD is in Once and Future Planet.

[MarylandJOE]

Just so you know there are many Marylanders that don’t get any merit aid and it’s our state school that our state tax money goes to. Yes, more Marylanders are admitted but many of the high pay merit scholarships do go to out of state students. I’m sorry your child didn’t get what they needed but it’s not great that my in-state son didn’t get anything either.

[NoVaRat]

@skildea

UMD is a bit cruel in how they run their admissions process. Last month we were thrilled when my OOS son got accepted into the CS program. Very selective and lots of people with great stats did not get in. So we felt extremely grateful. One month later we get a letter that says he was one of the only 25% of accepted students to receive a President’s Award. Again, thrilled and grateful. Then the real news - it’s a 2k a year award. He may has well have received a rejection letter last month. That would have been way less painful. UMD is for Marylanders. If you live in that state you should be very grateful. The state schools in NJ are fine, but UMD is special place - especially their CS program. Oh well.

I don’t get it. You’re out of state. Why would you expect a significant merit scholarship? I think you have to expect to not get one, and then if you do, it’s a pleasant surprise.

[ITeachABitToo]

The flipside to your argument is that it costs $37k OOS, but only $10k instate. If my OOS kid go a $20k merit scholarship and your instate kid got $0, we would still pay $7k more than you. Essentially, the school would do better financially.

[madelime]

hi everyone! I just got an email saying my financial aid offer has been released and I’ve tried to view it, I go to the finaid portal, click the status button, enter my directory id and it asks me to go through this whole process with a duo account and downloading the app and everything? I’m a little confused about what this is, I just want to see the tuition cost. does anyone know what to do or what any of this means? thank you!

[SoofDad]

UMD is required to have a student population that is approximately 70% In-State

[NoVaRat]

@ITeachABitToo

The flipside to your argument is that it costs $37k OOS, but only $10k instate. If my OOS kid go a $20k merit scholarship and your instate kid got $0, we would still pay $7k more than you. Essentially, the school would do better financially.

I’m not seeing how this is the “flip side” to my argument. I simply responded to the characterization of the UMD admissions process as being “a bit cruel” because their OOS child was admitted for CS but only offered a $2k per year scholarship. This is what I didn’t get. You know what the OOS sticker price is when you apply. And then your actual cost is $2k a year below sticker? How is that cruel?

If maximizing revenue was the school’s goal, then the logical extension to your hypothetical would be for UMD to only accept OOS and international students. Obviously, that’s an absurd result. If UMD offers your OOS kid a $20k per year scholarship, that’s great for you! UMD actually offered my OOS kid $15k per year. Great for me! But this is “free” money – wasn’t expecting it, and certainly didn’t think we were entitled to it. If UMD had instead decided to offer three in-state students each a $5k per year scholarship instead of a $15k per year scholarship to my kid, I can see an argument that that would be a wiser choice for a public university like UMD to make.

[SoofDad]

I agree with @NoVaRat My D was admitted to the Honors College at UMD back in 2014.

She had applied to several other colleges, some in-state, some OOS. We were well aware of the COA at each one and she did not apply to any of them with the expectation of Merit Scholarships.

However, she did get Merit Scholarships at every one except UMD, making some of the competitive with UMD.

But in the end, she decided that UMD was the best choice for her.

Then and now, we have no ill feelings to anyone who got free money from UMD. It might be nice to hope for some free money, but counting on it does not make sense to me…

There is a list of colleges known for Good Merit Aid. UMD is not on that list.

[NoVaRat]

Just to head off any later questions, I misspoke when I stated that my daughter received a $15k per year scholarship. She received $12.5k per year, which I believe is the max amount for the President’s Scholarship.

[skildea]

Yeah - you’re right. I just wish they released the award when they released the admittance, like most of the other schools we’ve been dealing with. Rutgers didn’t give my son a dime - haha! But it doesn’t matter because it’s so much cheaper for in-state. I get totally get that. Also, someone talked about OOS being so much more so that even with an award we pay much more. True, but you have to factor in the high Maryland taxes our I state friends pay. I’m just jealous that UMD College Park is such a great school. Rutgers is fine, but UMD is next level. We might just bite the bullet and send him to UMD anyway because the CS program seems incredible and my daughter is at school in DC. We should just move to Maryland!

[NoVaRat]

@skildea

Yeah - you’re right. I just wish they released the award when they released the admittance, like most of the other schools we’ve been dealing with. Rutgers didn’t give my son a dime - haha! But it doesn’t matter because it’s so much cheaper for in-state. I get totally get that. Also, someone talked about OOS being so much more so that even with an award we pay much more. True, but you have to factor in the high Maryland taxes our I state friends pay. I’m just jealous that UMD College Park is such a great school. Rutgers is fine, but UMD is next level. We might just bite the bullet and send him to UMD anyway because the CS program seems incredible and my daughter is at school in DC. We should just move to Maryland!

Yeah, it’s a tough situation to be in. My daughter is definitely going OOS somewhere – she’s not interested in any in-state options – so we’ll end up paying OOS or private tuition somewhere.

[ITeachABitToo]

SoofDad I’m not sure that’s true. VA has that because it’s written into a funding law for state universities, but I can’t find that same statute for MD.

[SoofDad]

@ITeachABitToo - It’s in the Maryland University system Board of Regent’s Policy Document. It applies to all Maryland Public Colleges

[Whatrocks]

@skildea Your post really irks me. You are complaining that you didn’t get a large enough scholarship to a school that thousands of in state students are dying to get into. That’s something to think about. Then you say, oh, I may send my kid to Maryland anyway. Your post sounds very egotistical and tone deaf. I can guarantee you that your kid will get just as good of an education at Rutgers as he will at UMD. And if he is as smart as you think he is, then he should have no problem getting a job once he graduates with the stellar grades he will presumably get. Sour grapes here? YES. I have sour grapes. And reading your post about not getting sufficient scholarship funds in a manner that you consider timely just gets my goat. You are so grateful? No- you feel entitled.

[Theunknown28]

When do RD decisions come out?

[adlgel]

I’m not sure UMD’s notification process is really that unique in terms of notifying students about acceptance and then later notifying about merit aid. And I don’t think UMD has 3 notifications (acceptance, then general letter about merit aid, then specific letter about amount of merit aid) which is how I read @skildea’s post. It’s just two notifications.

I can appreciate being disappointed about not getting a merit scholarship but I don’t think it’s fair to fault the university for using a process used by many other universities re: notifications.

[k_atherine.h]

I really liked UMD when I visited. It was a safety of mine, and I really hoped that I would be admitted to the Honors or Scholars programs they have. Because I’m OOS I was aware of the price tag, but I only received 2k per year in merit aid and no honors or scholars offer. If they really wanted to hook high stat OOS kids, I do believe they should be a little more generous with the aid. I was offered 16K at Northeastern, in-state tuition plus 1K per year and the Carillon Scholars program at UofSC, 5k and Honors College at UatBuffalo (in-state), and 17K at Delaware. When comparing the price tag of Maryland to other schools I’ve gotten into, Maryland makes absolutely no sense to attend and I’m sure there are plenty of people in the same boat as I am

[NoVaRat]

@k_atherine.h

I really liked UMD when I visited. It was a safety of mine, and I really hoped that I would be admitted to the Honors or Scholars programs they have. Because I’m OOS I was aware of the price tag, but I only received 2k per year in merit aid and no honors or scholars offer. If they really wanted to hook high stat OOS kids, I do believe they should be a little more generous with the aid. I was offered 16K at Northeastern, in-state tuition plus 1K per year and the Carillon Scholars program at UofSC, 5k and Honors College at UatBuffalo (in-state), and 17K at Delaware. When comparing the price tag of Maryland to other schools I’ve gotten into, Maryland makes absolutely no sense to attend and I’m sure there are plenty of people in the same boat as I am

You seem to be implying that high stat OOS kids don’t get enough aid because you specifically did not. We are also OOS, but I have a lot of trouble accepting your argument. Just because you viewed UMD as a “safety” does not entitle you to a huge merit scholarship. UMD attracts a lot of high stat kids, both in-state and OOS. Indeed, there are a ton of brilliant, high stat Maryland kids, especially in Montgomery County and Howard County. While some of these kids get nice scholarships, many deserving kids, both in-state and OOS, did not.

There are other top public universities, like the UCs, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, etc., that give far fewer merit scholarships than UMD. I’m sorry you didn’t get the scholarship amount that you were looking for, but UMD, as a public university, and an out-of-state one for you, does not have unlimited resources to hand over to OOS students. If Maryland makes absolutely no sense for you to attend, then you should go somewhere else.

[SoofDad]

When it comes to Scholarships, it really comes down to the numbers, and I don’t mean Stats.

Based on a Washington Post article a few years ago, UMD gets about 25,000 EA applications.

They probably admit about 12,000 to 13,000 of those students.

So let’s take the 12,000 number.

UMD basically has 3 meaningful Scholarship categories. There are 400 B/K Scholarships awarded and there are 400 Dean’s Scholarships awarded (limited to In-State students).

That leaves 11,200 applicants competing for the President’s Scholarships. How many are there?

I’ve never been able to find out. A reasonable guess may be 400, just like the other two.

But I’m feeling generous, so I’ll say they give 1,600 President’s Scholarships of various amounts.

That’s 1,600 scholarships distributed among 11,200 admitted students. That gives each student a mathematical chance of 14%. Not very good odds.

I know that all applicants are not equal, but who can say which ones are more deserving than the others.

If someone has better documented numbers on all this, I’d love to see them.

One final note, a True Safety is a school that is a sure acceptance and fully affordable. If it requires a large scholarship to be affordable, then it is Not a Safety.

And I will readily admit that UMD is not affordable for many OOS applicants.