What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$2,962 to $26,691 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $29,299 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $19,740.Aid and debt
29.4%
receive need-based grants
$31,672
average debt at graduation
5,181
students got merit aid
about 16% of undergraduates
$7,801
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1410–1520 · 37% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 32–35 · 7% of the class submitted
76% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Important
- GPA
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Considered
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Maryland rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay, your recommendations, and your activities as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Recommendations matter here too — a recommender who knows you well helps. And depth and leadership in a few activities matter more than a long list.
Maryland doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Maryland just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Maryland essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
45% of Maryland classes have fewer than 20 students.
45%
under 20 students
35.9%
20 to 49
19.1%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Maryland CDS 2025–26, I-3.
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
39.2%
live on campus
8.5%
of men in fraternities
11.9%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White37.2%
- Asian23.2%
- Black13.6%
- Hispanic11.5%
- Multiracial5.4%
- Unknown / other5.2%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Maryland CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
77.6% of Maryland students graduate in 4 years.
77.6%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
88.3%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
96.6%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
80.1% finish in 6 years, against 88.3% of all students.
An 8.2-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in College Park.
College Park is a Washington suburb rather than a self-contained college town, and the Metro's Green Line is the single fact that defines student life: the campus has its own station, and downtown Washington is roughly half an hour away without a car.
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That access is the draw, and it is also why the town itself has never had to become the main event — the Route 1 corridor along the edge of campus carries the apartments, restaurants and bars, and it has been rebuilt substantially over the past decade. Students who want a walkable downtown of their own will find College Park thin; students who treat a capital city as their campus get something very few universities can offer.
The City
Major city
College Park, MD
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Sergey Brin
Co-founder of Google, who studied computer science and mathematics at Maryland before the doctoral work at Stanford that became the search engine.
Class of 1993
Jim Henson
Creator of the Muppets, who built the first Kermit while still an undergraduate and made his early puppet television in Washington.
Class of 1960
Larry David
Co-creator of Seinfeld and creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm, who studied history here.
Class of 1970
Connie Chung
The first woman to anchor the CBS Evening News, who started in Washington local news straight out of college.
Class of 1969
Kevin Plank
Founder of Under Armour, who started the company selling moisture-wicking shirts to teammates and former players after walking on to the football team.
Class of 1996
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Rubbing Testudo's nose
The bronze diamondback terrapin outside McKeldin Library, a gift of the Class of 1933, gets his nose rubbed for luck. There are seven Testudos across campus and the habit extends to all of them.
Offerings during finals
Since the 1990s students have piled gifts at Testudo's feet during exam week — notes, flowers, coffee cups and loose change — in the hope of a better grade.
McKeldin Mall
The long green between the administration building and the library is one of the largest academic malls in the country, and it doubles as the campus commons the moment the weather turns.
Maryland Day
Once a year the university opens the whole campus to the public for a day of several hundred exhibits and demonstrations run by its own schools and colleges.
Weekend escapes from College Park
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from College Park
Washington, DC
30 minutes by MetroThe Smithsonian museums are free and the campus has its own station, which makes this an ordinary weekday errand rather than a trip.
Baltimore
45 minutesThe Inner Harbor, Fells Point and an Orioles game, close enough to go and come back the same evening.
Annapolis
45 minutesThe state capital on the Chesapeake — a colonial waterfront downtown, the Naval Academy, and the closest sailing.
Shenandoah National Park
2 hoursSkyline Drive and the Blue Ridge, the nearest real mountains and hiking.
Ocean City
3 hoursMaryland's beach town on the Atlantic, the standard spring and early-fall coast trip.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
25 minutes from campus
For international flights: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) — about 50 minutes by car.
Pro sports nearby
- Washington Commanders NFL
- Washington Capitals NHL
- Washington Wizards NBA
- Washington Nationals MLB
- Baltimore Orioles MLB
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Maryland is inside the federal employment corridor, and it does not require relocating for a summer. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is a few miles up the road in Greenbelt, NIST is in Gaithersburg, NIH is in Bethesda, and the defense and intelligence contractors ring the Beltway — much of it reachable on the Metro line that stops at campus.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- National Institutes of Health
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman
- Booz Allen Hamilton
Washington, DC — about 30 minutes by Metro from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Maryland sits just outside Washington with its own stop on the Metro's Green Line, and the federal corridor shapes what students actually study here: computer and information sciences alone account for 24.7% of bachelor's degrees, ahead of business at 11.8% and engineering at 10.5%. The campus culture is loose rather than all-consuming — 39.2% of undergraduates live on campus, and Greek life draws 8.5% of men and 11.9% of women — so students assemble a social life along the Route 1 corridor and in the city rather than having one handed to them, which rewards an independent student and can leave a homebody adrift. The outcomes hold up: 96.6% of first-years return and 77.6% graduate in four years. The cost side needs more attention than the $12,290 in-state tuition suggests, because Maryland meets 74.9% of demonstrated need and its borrowers leave with $31,672 on average.