<p>If you can get one of those legislators to go to bat for you and make some calls, you may get results. It’s not a guarantee, but it may help. It’s a matter of following the money.</p>
<p>da6onet I have further info I think would be helpful to you if you want to PM me. </p>
<p>I’m new and apparently can’t send a PM yet.</p>
<p>University of Maryland College Park’s engineering program is getting the reputation of NOT accepting in-state students and instead accepting out-of-state students with lower states. They are not alone in this. Virginia Tech does the same thing. It is a shame that as Marylanders we pay such high taxes but can’t get into our state school. I too recommend UMBC as an alternative …an excellent engineering program and a much-more caring administration. Good luck.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, it is not the engineering school I can’t get into, the associate dean of Clark said he would be happy to let me in, but he cannot do anything to convince general undergraduate admissions to let me into the university. I can’t get into letters and sciences.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I535 using CC</p>
<p>da6onet -</p>
<p>I needed to chime in on this for you. My situation was extremely similar to yours. I graduated HS in 1998 and went directly to Michigan State as a Journalism major. I spent two years at MSU having a great time… with very little studying. I finally withdrew when my parents came and brought me home.</p>
<p>Years later, I started at AACC and did well, but not 4.0 well. I eventually got a job with an engineering consulting firm and started going to school part time and working full time. I completed my AA in “Transfer Studies” with a 3.something and applied to Maryland under the MTAP program for Engineering. Including my grades from MSU, my gpa was in the 2.8 range.</p>
<p>Something must have changed in this program, because I was able to get into the university with no problem, but the Clark school said no way. Can you guess who was in charge of LEP admissions that year? Yup, M. Robinson.</p>
<p>I had met Robinson several times at various admission events, and he was a definate stickler. Told me each time we spoke that I would not get into the Clark school. I went ahead as Letters and Sciences and started working the department end. One particular conversation with Robinson was really spectacular… that was when I went for orientation and requested that I go ahead and be able to do everything the engineering students were doing, because by this point my company was paying the tuition, so if I didn’t get into engineering eventually, I was not completing the degree at this time. I can’t remember his exact words, but they weren’t kind.</p>
<p>Most of the guys I work with are graduates of the Clark school and each and every one of them wrote a letter of recommendation. I got to really know the head of my department. On my behalf, he spoke to the dean several times and laid out my story. When it was my turn to meet with the dean, he told me that he would rubber stamp my admission if it ever made it to him, but only after I went back to AACC and completed every single class that I could toward my degree, that way I wasn’t taking up the space of a more attractive applicant.</p>
<p>I did what he asked. It sucked, but I did it, and eventually, I was admitted to the Clark school… with a GPA still below 3.0. I am now a senior in the B.S./M.S. program and in the honor society for my department both of which are very competitive, I’ve received scholarships (one actually because I am a MD homeowner). I am an extremely successful student, despite what Robinson had to say. </p>
<p>My point is this, nothing is impossible. Don’t give up and keep pushing. If you show the dedication and drive, they WILL let you in. Don’t let one person stand in the way of your dream. </p>
<p>My admission letter is still posted on my refrigerator, welcoming me to the Clark school. Guess who signed it? Yup, M. Robinson.</p>
<p>Good Luck - I know you can do this.</p>
<p>I appreciate the story Busy1980. I applied MTAP as well, but that didn’t do me any good.</p>
<p>An update to the mystery calculations of a 2.1 cumulative (been bugging me), it wasn’t that they counted my two full semesters of withdrawals (at the end due to severe depression) as F’s. Apparently admissions at Maryland couldn’t figure out that Carnegie Mellon uses a proprietary unit system even though they put the conversion to credit hours on the official transcript that reads “Three units equal one semester hour of credit.”</p>
<p>So in Maryland’s eyes, they say I have 237 credit hours at CMU! Seriously? As if my case weren’t unique enough, lets do some maths, 237 units = 79 credit hours (which is still a lot of bad grades don’t get me wrong). This will bring my cumulative gpa at graduation to 2.74 (what I originally posted) instead of 2.09.</p>
<p>I’ll post updates as I receive them.</p>
<p>I’m glad you are making progress. One thing Robinson was extremely clear about with me was that they calculate the GPA by hand when it comes to the LEP programs, so make sure you don’t give up until they show the same GPA as you calculated. At least you have them taking a second look!</p>
<p>Update: I have been chosen for the board of trustees scholarship pending straight A’s through graduation. That means I get to give a speech at commencement. </p>
<p>I stood at my mailbox for about a minute just saying “holy $!@#” :-)</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I535 using CC</p>
<p>Congrats!! Good luck on your GW application. Wouldn’t be nice if you can attend GW by paying less than the in-state Maryland tuition if GW cares less about your CMU’s gpa! GW offered my H a nearly full scholarship when he transferred from a midwest university.</p>
<p>After more than a week of battling it out with admissions, the dean was able to persuade them to reverse my decision.</p>
<p>I just got a personal email from the same director who signed my boilerplate rejection. I may have to frame the rejection letter along with the acceptance :-D</p>
<p>I’m esctatic, this is just epic all around.</p>
<p>Also this makes writing my commencement speech 100x easier!</p>
<p>tl:dr I’m a terp!</p>
<p>congrats!!!</p>
<p>Yea!!!</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>YAY!!! Congratulations - that is truly wonderful to hear. While it was a difficult battle, it was well worth the fight. I am very happy for you! :)</p>
<p>Welcome to the Terp family!</p>
<p>Congratulations! I’m so happy for you! You hung in there…and you won. Best of luck to you at UMD!!</p>
<p>It will be a great speech!</p>
<p>Wonderful news!!! Glad that administrators can be flexible, it’s a win for you and UMD.</p>
<p>Very good news!</p>
<p>That’s great!!! Congratulations!! :)</p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-L710 using CC</p>
<p>Congrats!!!</p>
<p>Just wanted to update that I’m still doing well here at Maryland. In my position as the engineering honor society initiation chair, I get a list each semester of the top 1/8th juniors and top 1/5th seniors in the engineering school. The list is sorted by ranking (gpa/credit count), guess who is #1 out of 1168 rising juniors across all engineering majors :-D</p>
<p>One of these days I ought to get around to meeting with admissions director Robinson. Perhaps when I’m wearing my gold tassel.</p>
<p>48 credits to go!</p>