What the University of Maryland Values in Applicants

They tell you, which is rare

Most universities describe holistic review in generalities. Maryland enumerates it. The published factors include high school achievement, grades in academic subjects, progression of performance, quality of coursework, rank in class, written expression of ideas, extracurricular activities, special talents or skills, demonstrated leadership, community involvement and service, work experience, recognition of special achievements, academic endeavors outside the classroom, breadth of life experiences, socio-economic background, family educational background, geographic origin, residency status, learning differences, extenuating circumstances, English as a second language or language spoken at home, and SAT or ACT scores.

What that list implies

• The transcript leads. Four of the first factors are about coursework and grades, including the progression of performance, which means an upward trend is read as information rather than noise.
• Context is explicitly counted. Socio-economic background, family educational background and extenuating circumstances are named. A student whose record has a reason behind it should make sure that reason is visible somewhere in the application.
• Work counts. Work experience appears on the list. Students who hold jobs routinely under-report them.
• Learning differences are named. That is a deliberate signal about how the file is read.

What follows for the application

Make the academic story legible first: rigor, trend, and any explanation the reader would need. Then make sure the parts of your life that do not appear on a transcript, the job, the caregiving, the thing you do alone, actually appear somewhere in the file. Maryland has said it reads them.