At a Glance
Maryland admits 44.8% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
30.3%
receive need-based grant aid
$29,638
average debt at graduation
Maryland graduates carry an average of $29,638 in debt.
Merit Aid
4,936
students received merit aid
$7,051
average merit award
Getting In
Maryland admits 44.8% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 37% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 6% of the class submitted
73.2% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Maryland, College Park considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
45.7% of Maryland classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Maryland, 45.7% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
Live on campus
38.9%
Men in fraternities
8.5%
Women in sororities
12%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Maryland's student body is 38.5% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Maryland graduates 77% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Maryland graduates 77% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Maryland
77%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $29,299*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
88.6%
Overall 6-yr rate
84.1%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 4.5 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
96.2%
96.2% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
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. 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.
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.
The City
Major city
College Park, MD
Best For
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
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 & 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
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
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 20.9% of bachelor's degrees, ahead of business at 12.3% and engineering at 11.4%. The campus culture is loose rather than all-consuming — 38.9% of undergraduates live on campus, and Greek life draws 8.5% of men and 12% 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: 96.2% of first-years return and 77% graduate in four years. The cost side needs more attention than the $11,809 in-state tuition suggests, because Maryland meets 67.1% of demonstrated need and its borrowers leave with $29,638 on average.