First Year Students, Apply Now:
OR use our new:
Transfer Students, Apply Now:
There are different processes for applying to McDaniel as a first year student, international or transfer student.
International student - We consider a student to be international if your citizenship status is from a country other than the United States. Application deadline is January 15th. Please ensure you have included all components of your application as detailed in “How to Apply as an International Student”.
Transfer student - We consider any student who has completed more than 15 credits at any two or four year college to be a transfer student. Application deadlines are December 15th for the Spring semester and April 1st for the Fall semester. Please refer to “How to Apply as a Transfer Student”. Admission and scholarship decisions follow within a month of either deadline.
First year students -We consider any student that has not graduated from high school to be a first year college student. For first year students there are five separate deadlines for submitting an application and complete credentials, guaranteeing an admission decision and a scholarship decision within 2-3 weeks of the date you select. All applicants may complete the Net Price Calculator, to receive an estimate of the financial aid possibilities available to you. Best of all, there is no obligation to deposit before May 1. If you know McDaniel is your top choice, you can deposit promptly and enjoy the rest of your senior year, or take all the time you need to make a good decision by May 1.
Pick the deadline that works best for you, and be sure that you notify the Admissions Office of your deadline choice. Look for a confirmation email once you have submitted your application asking you to verify the deadline you are requesting (or to provide one if you haven't already).
A completed application for first year students includes:
- The Common Application or The McDaniel Smart Decision Application
- An essay. Topics for both application essays can be found on The Common Application, or by accessing our topics page
- Your official high school transcript (including junior year grade at minimum). Please submit either senior grades or your senior year schedule.
- A $50 nonrefundable fee is required (unless you visit campus prior to submitting your application).We do offer application fee waivers for students who either qualify for a CollegeBoard fee waiver, or who visit campus prior to submitting an application. If you qualify, please select "Mailed Fee Waiver" on your Common Application. We cannot process your application without either the $50 fee, or an application fee waiver.
- Secondary School Report form and two letters of recommendation from academic sources.
- SAT or ACT scores. The SAT school code is 5898 and the ACT school code is 1756. McDaniel College continues to take the highest critical reading and highest math scores from multiple test dates on the SAT or your highest composite score from multiple ACT dates. We want standardized testing to work for you, not against you, and therefore will consider all scores or only scores which you feel comfortable sending. We will not use the writing score on the SAT as part of our admissions evaluation, but instead will continue to require the essay (Refer to Item #2). Scores will be considered official if they are sent by the high school guidance office or testing service. Or you may be eligible to use our SAT Optional program...
All application materials may be submitted online or by regular mail – choose the option you prefer. You can submit them in any order.
Once we receive all your credentials, we will include your application for review at the next available deadline. It is important to note that we will only review your application in one round of admission and scholarship consideration, so the deadline you choose should reflect the final credentials you intend to submit for scholarship purposes. For example, if you have additional standardized test taking planned and you want your latest scores to be considered, or you believe your senior fall semester grades should be a critical part of your record, you should wait to apply until a deadline that follows receipt of these materials. Once we have made an offer of academic scholarship, we do not make changes to those awards.
If you have specific questions, or a special circumstance you’d like to discuss, we suggest you contact the Admissions Office by phone and speak directly to your admissions counselor.
Remember all students who Create an account on this site will have access to their individualized application checklist. This will update as we receive your information. In order to activate the checklist please submit either application form (Item #1 from the list above).