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Freshman Admission Decision FAQs
Freshman Admission Decision FAQs
Have questions about your admission decision? We have answers. Save time by reviewing answers to these frequently asked questions before contacting our office.
Reviewing Your Admission Decision
Our office will send you an email notification when your admission decision is ready. When you receive this email, you can view your admission decision online by logging in to the Terps Application Portal. For security and privacy reasons, we cannot reveal admission decisions over the phone or email.
If you are offered admission to the University of Maryland (UMD), you will also receive a general welcome letter from our office in the mail a few days later. Unlike the virtual letter, this hard copy will not include your major or university identification number (UID).
If you have forgotten your login information, use the “Forgot Your Password?” link on the login page ofthe Terps Application Portal.Our office does not have access to recover or reset your password. Recovering or gaining access without a password cannot be accomplished over the phone, through email or in person.
If you are offered admission to UMD, be sure to review your electronic decision letter carefully as it will include details on your semester of admission, your major, your UID and your resident status (for tuition rate classification purposes). Students admitted for the fall semester may also see information on any living-learning program they have been invited to join.
Review our application deadlines for more information on when application materials are due and when decisions will be released. If you believe you submitted a completed application and all required documents by the appropriate deadline but did not receive an admission decision by the listed date, please first confirm that all of your application materials were received by our office by logging into the Terps Application Portal.
Applications are considered complete when the online application and all required documents have been submitted. All materials must be submitted electronically or postmarked by the appropriate deadline for consideration, and it is the applicant's responsibility to confirm receipt of documents through the Terps Application Portal.
If you still believe that you are deserving of an admission decision, please email us with your full name, date of birth and the county and state where you live. In the subject line of your email, please write “Admission Decision.” Once we receive your email, we will review your application and be in touch with you shortly.
Understanding Your Admission Decision
Given the university’s continued commitment to academic success for all students, we remain unable to increase the size of our classes to accommodate additional students. We offer spring admission to students who we feel will be academically successful and contribute to the overall campus community. Freshman students who are offered spring semester admission should confirm enrollment online and pay the enrollment fee by November 15, unless they choose to participate in Freshmen Connection. Freshmen Connection participants must confirm their enrollment by May 15.
Decisions are final and students admitted for the spring semester cannot appeal their admission decision or defer their enrollment to the fall semester. Requests to be admitted for the fall semester instead of the spring semester will not be considered.
Freshmen Connection is a fall semester extension program offered to all students admitted for the spring semester. In Freshmen Connection, you enroll in courses for the fall semester during off-peak times. Freshmen Connection students can live in on-campus housing beginning in the fall semester, take advantage of the university’s resources and participate in UMD activities and organizations.
Participation in Freshmen Connection is optional, but interested students must first confirm their enrollment at UMD by May 15.
If you believe your resident status (for tuition rate classification purposes) is incorrect, please review our residency reclassification policy. If you still have questions, please emailresclass@umd.eduwith the subject line "Recent Freshman Admit Residency Inquiry". Be sure to include your full name, date of birth and UID to assist our team in addressing your inquiry as quickly as possible. This process is strictly handled via email. Cases are reviewed on an individual basis and depending on the circ*mstances, can take considerable time to resolve as supporting documentation is often required. Our staff will let you know if/when documentation is needed as your residency is reviewed.
We understand you are disappointed that we could not offer you admission to UMD at this time. The undergraduate admissions process is rigorous and individualized, and admission to UMD has become increasingly competitive. Our review process considers 24 factors that allow us to make a decision based on a holistic review of your application. We encourage you to review our Freshman Applicants page for details on applicant requirements and the application checklist
If you were not granted freshman admission, you can re-apply as a transfer student when you have earned enough credits at another academic institution. Please be sure to review the transfer applicant requirements.
Due to our rigorous and holistic review process, it is very rare that an initial admission decision is changed. For an appeal to be considered, new and significant academic information is required and only students who were denied admission are eligible for an appeal. Students admitted for the spring semester cannot appeal their decision.
If you have new and significant academic information and would like to pursue appealing your decision, please review our Appeal Requests page for more information.
Deferral requests are not guaranteed and will be evaluated on an individual basis only if the applicant meets certain criteria. Students admitted for the spring semester cannot defer to the fall semester. All students that are interested in a deferral are required to pay the confirmation fee of $400 before submitting the deferral request and should review the deferral request criteria.
Financial Aid & Merit Scholarships
For admitted students who applied by the November 1 early action deadline, financial aid offers will be released electronically as soon as possible. All candidates for merit scholarships are notified by March 1 and all final awards are made no later than April 1. Admitted students who applied by the January 20 regular deadline are not considered for merit scholarships and financial aid offers will be released by early April. Once available, you can view your financial aid status online.
All candidates for merit scholarships will receive an email notification by March 1. If you did not receive a merit scholarship email notification by March 1, it means, unfortunately, that you did not receive an award. All merit scholarship decisions are based on academic and applicant information at the time of applying, not current or ongoing work. Additional eligibility requirements for each scholarship can be found on our Freshman Merit Scholarships page.
Students cannot appeal their merit scholarship decisions and the university does not match award offers from other institutions. Awards offered to admitted students who do not enroll at UMD cannot be disbursed to other students. Students are only eligible to receive one merit scholarship. To be considered for merit scholarships, students must submit a completed undergraduate admission application for the fall semester by the November 1 early action deadline. Students admitted for the spring semester are not considered for merit scholarships.
Yes! There are many scholarship opportunities available, whether at UMD or through an outside organization. Scholarships can be offered based on your major, minor, college, department, academic merits, financial need, hobbies, interests, affiliations and more. Once admitted, students can access our scholarship matching tool to find and apply for scholarships.
Visit the Office of Student Financial Aid’s website to get started on your scholarship search and to learn about the financial aid process.
Understanding Your Admitted Major
Your academic major is listed at the bottom of your online decision letter within the Terps Application Portal.
To request a change of major, email us with the subject line "Major Change Request" and include your full name, date of birth, current major and desired major in the body of the email. Once your email has been received, an admission representative will be in touch with you regarding your request. All change-of-major requests will be reviewed by our office.
We discourage submitting a major change request to a designated Limited Enrollment Program (LEP), which will have to go through a competitive review process. If you were placed in Letters and Sciences, but originally applied for an LEP, it is very rare that these decisions are reversed. Please review the “Understanding Letters & Sciences” section below for more information.
Once the major change is processed, you must contact the Office of Student Orientation and Transition to determine whether your orientation date will be affected. Not all colleges advise students on each orientation date and failing to check may result in you having to reschedule your orientation session on the day you arrive for your program. (Orientation dates for Freshmen Connection students are not affected by major.)
Major change requests will take several days to be processed and you should refrain from contacting the Office of Student Orientation and Transition until after you receive a confirmation that your major has been updated.
Some of the coursework you have completed as part of your high school curriculum may count toward your UMD degree. Please explore our Transfer Credit Services website to see what coursework is eligible to transfer. For more information related to credits often taken during high school, please visit the Prior Learning Credit page.
Understanding Letters & Sciences
If you originally selected a Limited Enrollment Program (LEP) as your preferred major on your application, you may have been placed in Letters and Sciences (LTSC) for the start of your educational career at UMD.
LEPs are very popular and require a limit on the number of students they can accommodate. The determination of whether a student will be admitted into an LEP is made as a component of our holistic application review process. As the number of students who have expressed interest in our LEPs has increased, admission into these programs has become more competitive, therefore not all students are automatically admitted to their desired LEP.
LTSC is an advising college that incoming students are generally placed in for one of two reasons; they want to explore several fields of study before selecting a major or they are pursuing entry into one of our LEPs.
Academic advisors in LTSC will help you explore course possibilities and instruct you on choosing required gateway courses to gain entry to an LEP once all the requirements are met. Because the academic advisors in LTSC are the most adept at helping students gain entry into their preferred major, students are admitted here rather than the second choice major they indicated on their application for admission. To learn more about the resources available to LTSC students, please visit the Letters and Sciences website. For international students, we encourage you to visit their International Student Programs page as well.
As you progress through your educational career at UMD, you will have the opportunity to enter your preferred major as a current student. Each LEP has a series of courses, called gateway requirements, which must be completed before applying to the major. If you are able to successfully complete the gateway requirements, you will be reviewed for admission into your preferred LEP. For more information on the specific requirements needed to enter your preferred major, please visit the Limited Enrollment Program website.
Students admitted to UMD, but not to Computer Science MUST be prepared to select an alternate major. There are many other computing majors at UMD including Geospatial Data Science, Immersive Media Design, Information Science, Information Systems, Social Data Science, and Technology and Information Design. Students may also be interested in one of UMD’s other 100+ majors or 80+ minors. Many programs offer coursework that include courses in information technology, programming languages, and data science.
It is highly unlikely that students will be able to change majors to computer science at a later time. Current students who wish to change their major to Computer Science after matriculating at the University would apply as internal transfers. We expect to have no more than 100 spots available to external and internal transfer students each year. Students who wish to change their major to Computer Science must complete the Gateway requirements and the LEP application will be reviewed for selective admission.
If you are interested in switching to an alternate major, which is not an LEP, you may email us with the subject line "Major Change Request". In your email, please include your full name, date of birth, UID, current major and desired major. Once your email has been received, an admission representative will be in touch with you regarding your request. All change of major requests will be reviewed by our office.
Next Steps for Admitted Students
To respond to your offer of admission, log in to your Terps Application Portal. Complete the response form and, if prompted, submit your enrollment deposit. This nonrefundable, $400 deposit will reserve your place in the incoming class and will be applied to your tuition. It may take up to 48 business hours for your confirmation to be processed. Once you submit the form, you will receive an email confirming your UMD enrollment.
If you were offered fall admission to UMD, you can confirm your enrollment online anytime before May 15*. If you were offered spring admission to UMD, you can confirm your enrollment online anytime before November 15. We also encourage you to review additional next steps for admitted students.
*NOTE: We have extended our freshmen Fall 2024 enrollment confirmation deadline from May 1 to May 15, 2024
If you need to update your personal information, please email ApplyMaryland@umd.edu with the subject line “Update to My Personal Information” and include your full name, date of birth and any requested updates to your personal information.
Now that you have been admitted, please review your next steps and visit the International Student and Scholar Services website. You will not be able to begin your visa application process until you have confirmed your enrollment at UMD.
Once enrollment is confirmed, international students must submit all additional materials required for the visa application process to the International Student and Scholar Services office, not the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
Congratulations and welcome to UMD! After you confirm your enrollment at UMD, you will need to register for New Student Orientation, explore housing options and more. View the full list of next steps you can take as a newly enrolled Terp!
We are sorry to hear that you will not be joining us at UMD. To notify us of your decision not to enroll, please respond to your offer of admission within your Terps Application Portal to confirm “No.” We wish you the best of luck in your personal and academic endeavors.
Living-Learning Programs
Living-learning programs, or LLPs, are residential communities where students live together and connect over shared interests and academic goals. These programs provide community for students through shared classes, research and service projects, and special events. Students in LLPs interact with university faculty and staff and participate in social and educational activities outside of the classroom.
Newly admitted freshmen can be invited to only one LLP.
To respond to your LLP invitation, log in to your Terps Application Portal and navigate to your Admitted StudentChecklist. Once there, you will find your program invitation on the checklist and be able to confirm whether or not you will participate.
Yes, you must respond to your LLP invitation in addition to responding to your offer of admission.
It is important to note that some LLPs have confirmation deadlines other than May 15 and these programs tend to fill up quickly.
Absolutely! As a Terp, you have access to over 800 clubs and organizations, a wide network of Education Abroad programs and all of the exciting events happening across campus.
Maryland English Institute
The Maryland English Institute (MEI) provides English language instruction and assessment at the postsecondary level for speakers of other languages who wish to learn English for academic, professional or personal reasons.
In some cases, UMD applicants must complete coursework through MEI before beginning their degree program.
The Intensive English Program is a full-time program during which participating students will take two English classes. Students will take a placement exam to see in which of the five levels of the program they will be placed. After successfully completing the highest level of the Intensive English Program, admitted students can start their degrees at UMD.
The English Bridge Program is a part-time program during which participating students can take two non-MEI classes for an additional six to eight credits. After successfully completing the English Bridge Program course (UMEI005: Advanced English as a Foreign Language), students can enroll full-time in their degree program courses.
If you are admitted to the Intensive English Program you can only take the English course in which you have been placed. If you are admitted to the English Bridge Program, you may take two more classes at UMDfor six to eight credits. You must be registered for at least 12 credits to be a full-time student; the English Bridge Program course is weighted at six credits.
MEI students that are admitted through undergraduate admissions as incoming freshmen are guaranteed housing following the same guidelines as other incoming freshmen. MEI admitted transfer students and students studying exclusively through MEI are offered housing on a space-available basis.
MEI students are UMD students, therefore they have access to all facilities in the same manner as other UMD students.
