Go to usm for a year, do well and transfer, or go to a community College for ur Gen Ed's and transfer through there

This. Also if you are a Maine H.S. Senior take advantage of the free years at community college, then transfer into Umaine with the transfer agreements. You can finish up at Umaine or USM in the degree you want, for half the price.

I also recommend looking at tech schools as well, learning a trade won’t stop you from going back to college, but it can train you in a marketable skill to bridge the gap between post-high school and figuring out what you really want to do.

Unless their first decision was some sort of error, not very likely. I am going to echo everyone else and mention taking advantage of free community college, given you’re a recent highschool grad.

SMCC is better than USM and 10x cheaper, at least that was my experience (engineering). Wish I could have done all 4 years there.

Don't be afraid to contact admissions and ask. They should be able to tell you what you can do.

UMaine won’t reconsider your application unless you have a “compelling” reason for admission, i.e. better grades. I highly recommend applying to a community college and getting your gen-eds out of the way there and then applying for UMaine after you have established your grades and academic choices with the community college. You’ll save some money, too!

Source: I work with UMaine admissions and have heard the admissions counselors talk a lot about the applications process and what it takes for rejected applicants to be admitted.

I hope you take the advice to go to SMCC. Going to community college for the first two years is one of the best decisions I ever made. I'm almost 30 and have zero regrets about it.

THIS.

Alternatively I had the intelligence to basically sneak into UMaine but lacked the academic work ethic to keep up. Ended up wishing I stayed at community college. I still have to pay for the degree I don't have.

I saved about 20k by doing this. Very based and community college-pilled

It’s actually quite common for most USM undergraduates to go do their 2 years of gen eds at SMCC and the transfer over. It is considerably cheaper. USM actually has a “don’t reject” policy that says, if you meet the criteria for college, you will not be turned down. This means as long as you took the SATs, have a high school diploma or GED, and apply, you are pretty much guaranteed acceptance.

But like the others said, take the gen eds at SMCC first, then transfer over. Most gen eds will transfer over, some are even taught by the same instructor, and as a recent grad you get the free tuition to Main community colleges, resulting in about $750 savings per class.

If you do this for EMCC, there are the same opportunities available. Plus, depending on the program, you would earn enough credits for an associate’s degree from the community college, then transfer into a 4 year program and take advantage of the Maine educational opportunity tax credit on the two year degree while you earn your 4 year.

I went to USM for a semester and dropped its not worth it