University of Maryland-College Park
College Park, Maryland · Founded 1856
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Test-optional
Maryland is test-optional through the spring and fall 2027 application cycles. You decide on the application whether your SAT or ACT is considered and that choice is final; if you choose to be reviewed without scores, any scores you sent are not considered. If you include them, they are used in every part of the review, including Limited Enrollment Programs, merit scholarships and special programs, and Maryland superscores both the SAT and the ACT. 37% of enrolled first-year students submitted an SAT score and 7% an ACT. In its own Common Data Set, rigor of the high school record is rated Very Important and test scores Considered. Transfer applicants do not need scores. Source: admissions.umd.edu - Freshman Application FAQs; University of Maryland Common Data Set 2025-26, C7, C8 and C9 (verified September 2026).
About
Maryland's flagship public research university, in College Park just four miles from Washington, D.C., with about 31,500 undergraduates. About three in four of its domestic undergraduates are from Maryland. Computing is its largest field - computer science and information science are its two biggest majors - with the social sciences next. Business, engineering, computer science and several science majors are Limited Enrollment Programs with their own, more competitive review.
History
The university traces its history to March 6, 1856, when Maryland chartered the Maryland Agricultural College, which opened three years later with 34 students on 428 acres bought from Charles Benedict Calvert's Rossburg Farm, a slave plantation. It became the state's land-grant institution in 1865, survived a fire on November 29, 1912, that destroyed every dormitory room and most of its records without injuring anyone, and in 1920 was consolidated with the Baltimore campus as the University of Maryland.
What stands out
- Ten Limited Enrollment Programs, including business, engineering and computer science, review applicants separately for the major
- Test-optional through the fall 2027 application cycle; scores you send are superscored
- Non-binding Early Action by November 1 and Regular Decision by January 20, with no Early Decision
- McKeldin Mall, at 16.28 acres, is one of the largest academic malls in the country
- 97 percent of first-year students come back for a second year
Popular majors
Campus life
88 percent of first-year students live in university housing, and 39 percent of undergraduates do overall. About 8.5 percent of undergraduate men join a fraternity and 12 percent of undergraduate women join a sorority. Students are the Terps, and rubbing the nose of the Testudo statue outside McKeldin Library is said to bring luck.