<p>Gracious, umcp11: The Penn State thread is blowing up because their acceptance “bubble chart” says that unless you have a 3.7 unweighted and 2000 SAT, you’re outa luck. But many people’s school Naviance and personal experience says otherwise. It will be interesting to see if the higher-caliber Northeast kids will gravitate away from Maryland and Delaware to PSU. I think that PSU’s reputation might take a few years to “catch up” to it’s perception. It’s a horse race!</p>
<p>Their published bubble chart from October doesn’t seem to support the figures you are stating. <a href=“http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf</a></p>
<p>Ooooh that PSU Bubbble chart-Indeed you are right pstauff, its a 3.6 and a 2000 SAT will most likely get “you accepted to a satellite campus” in the yellow…off a tad.</p>
<p>Honestly this chart is extremely similar to admissions statistics for MD. Which kinda reinforces the idea that they are closely related in selectivity/student body. </p>
<p>I don’t think there will ever be a mass exodus from MD to PSU though. PSU is located in a field. MD is a metro ride away from Washington DC. The programs that Maryland attracts OOS students for continue to be stronger than PSU’s in sheer academic quality or because of proximity to DC (certain engineering fields, comp sci, government and politics, etc.) Additionally, UMD consistently makes “most queer friendly/lesbian friendly” school lists that PSU does not…though PSU is gay-friendly MD’s recognition in the gay community signals that the activist/radical community at MD is probably larger as well (helped by proximity to the city). Also, UMD does not have the sports/party rep that Penn State does.</p>
<p>While PSU seems to be improving in the rankings overall Maryland has some really specific distinguishing factors going for it that will keep a certain subset of people way more interested in it…more urban atmosphere, distinct student body, and a certain set of academic programs that seem to keep getting stronger/seem to maintain their footholds.</p>
<p>I’d like to see MD become more selective but it doesn’t look like that’s happening under President Loh…his focus doesn’t seem to be so much on selectivity as on making MD “global” and “open to all.” They’re tentatively planning to increase enrollment at UMD by 4,000…Mote wanted to decrease enrollment. Oh well.</p>
<p>Increase by 4000? Are incoming freshman going to be in flex quints?</p>
<p>Not quite the rep PSU does…but it’s no Brigham Young. </p>
<p>[University</a> of Maryland Ranked 19th Among Top U.S. Party School](<a href=“FOX 5 DC”>FOX 5 DC)</p>
<p>There is a disparity between the two schools acceptance rate on our HS Naviance system. Both school are wildly popular with our large NJ public school with approx the same amount of applications the past 7 years. But where PSU’s acceptance rate is 73% Maryland’s is 45%…it’s a big difference. Maryland’s admitted stats are also considerably higher. Both schools acceptance rate percentage has been consistent for the past several years on the Naviance chart as well (no major drop in % kids accepted) But the caliber of kids might be increasing for PSU?</p>
<p>^Interesting. Maybe UMD is more selective for OOS students.</p>
<p>Tell me about it re: increased enrollemt. <em>eye roll</em> Apparently it’s going to cost a significant amount of money, maybe that would mean building more dorms. But also, they plan to start by increasing the number of transfer students, not freshmen. Transfers generally aren’t gaurunteed housing anyway.</p>
<p>Re: 19 party school. True ^^. But people here ARE always talking about how PSU is better haha. More bars, more house parties, more craziness. I’m not sure I think that /is/ better haha. I think UMD’s proximity to DC means those who aren’t into the party scene have another outlet. PSU’s isolation adds a lot to the party and rinking rep, despite where it places on Princeton Review lists.</p>
<p>Penn State and MD are frequently compared in my area. Here are some basic stats for accepted students in Naviance from my daughter’s high-performing public high school in Maryland.</p>
<p>SAT Combined Average (out of 1600)
PSU: 1218
UMD: 1325</p>
<p>GPA (Weighted)
PSU: 3.84
UMD: 4.19</p>
<p>I’m a high school student from NJ who is applying to Rutgers NB, TCNJ and Maryland College Park, and honestly I think there are MANY reasons why a student from NJ would chose UMD. NJ does have limited opportunities as far as public schools go–Rutgers has a good reputation out of state, but a really dismal quality of life (the city of New Brunswick is pretty nasty), while TCNJ is selective with a good education, but virtually unknown outside of state and, despite its beautiful campus, located in an area where there’s not much to do off-campus. I’ve been spent time at TCNJ, Rutgers, and Maryland for various events in the past few years, and to be honest, Maryland is the nicest campus. For the extra $8,000 or $10,000 a year, it’s totally worth leaving New Jersey.</p>
<p>I turned down SUNY Buffalo in state for UMD, and I have multiple reasons why…Firstly, I graduated from the J-School, which as said earlier on the thread, is one of the best in the country at UMD…SUNY Buffalo’s J-School was ok, but I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to the hands on experience I got at UMD…while cost was an issue, my parents were ok with paying the extra money for me to get a better experience, and I firmly feel it was a great thing…Beyond that, SUNY Buffalo (and alot of the other SUNY schools for that matter) didn’t really seem to have that campus personality that UMD has, rather, they just seemed like endless rows of gray buildings.</p>
<p>^haha, it’s probably all the butter and grease. Yummm.</p>
<p>Mmm, I’ve had the catfish, and it’s decent. Usually every day at the diner brings a mix of good/ok/bad food. But I’ve never had a problem finding something. </p>
<p>That’s true about the lines. I’ve been to much smaller schools that have had much larger (and more, and nicer looking) dining halls. I guess that’s what you get for going to a cheap-o state school though. Not that the dining plan is cheap…but we all know a lot of that is kickback to the university at large.</p>
<p>I’m from the NY/NJ area and I applied to UMCP. My main reason for applying is that I just want to get out of the state. I know it sounds insane because the CUNY and SUNY schools here are great, but I feel as if they’re really downplayed when you live here. I’m applying to some, but that’s just my personal feelings towards it.
I also spent a week at UMCP for the Women in Engineering Program this summer and fell in love with the campus. I ended up having a great time and making a lot of new friends.
Even though it’s a state school in Maryland, and being charged out of state tuition is a bother, for almost every other college I’m applying to that would still remain the same so why not go for it?
It’s also one of the few schools that offer the major I want to enter into (Aerospace Engineering) so I practically jumped at applying.</p>
<p>We’ve got an excellent engineering program so you made a good choice.</p>
<p>I don’t wanna stay in nj lol I would only stay in nj if I got into Princeton which u didn’t waste my time to apply to.</p>