Just catching up here after a few months of not reading the thread. Good luck to all new applicants! I want to emphasize something that does not seem obvious from some of these replies: UMD acceptance into the university is completely major BLIND. That means no matter what major you list as your intent, it will not help you nor hurt you to get into the university. ONCE your application has been accepted for the university as a whole, it THEN goes to the specific admissions department for that major and if an “LEP” must be reviewed again for admission to that LEP. So think very carefully if you want to submit your scores or not (yes, I know my advice is too late for this year). If you submit a “borderline” SAT score that is good enough to get acceptance to the college, it will then be used again to determine if you get into an LEP, and those standards may be more stringent. If you don’t submit a score, no one can use it as criteria.
My son is also CS, with a double major in Math. He loves it but works constantly, and I mean constantly. Very challenging programs with a ton of homework and projects. Even if he wanted to “party,” (he doesn’t), there would be very little time to do so. He works on homework all day every weekend as well.
UMD is not calculating an incoming student’s GPA, if that is what you are asking. They are accepting the raw score that the high school sends, whether it be out of a max of 4 or a max of 5. (Seems to be very few schools who have a max of 4 anymore.) The letter from the HS counselor can help explain this number. For example, some smaller high schools may have limitations to the number of AP courses a student can take, thus lowering their chances for a very high GPA on a 5 scale, whereas other larger schools have many opportunities.
So they show an average incoming GPA of 4.45. That would mean the “average” student has an UW of, say, 3.95-4.0 AND has taken about 8 AP and some honors classes PRIOR to senior year. Is my math wrong? Seems crazy high.
you are correct. The students admitted and attending are mostly straight-A students in high school with multiple AP, Honors and GT classes under their belt. Huge change from my high school era when UMD was considered a “safety school!”
Totally. I grew up in DC and UMD was where most of the kids ended up who did not get in anywhere else. My husband is from CA and the could not believe how hard it is to get into some of the UCs. S24 was initially interested in SDSU and mu husband was like no way is he going there, that school takes anybody 
I said not anymore! Times have really changed. All that being said, my S24 knows UMD is a reach for him and he is a strong student. We will see what happens.
They must be using the weighted GPA at time of graduation, there’s no way their average student would have that high of a weighted gpa at time of application
One more important thing to note about UMD stats (reports.umd.edu): for MOST incoming class stats, they do NOT include data from those students admitted to Spring rather than Fall. One must guess that is a somewhat strategic move which keeps the stats on the higher side. So if you were to survey high school stats from all currently enrolled students as they enter their college Junior year (so this would include not only those Spring admits but also many transfer students), you would find the average stats much lower.
At least in MD public schools, taking an “Honors” or “GT” class, allowable (and quite common) starting in 9th grade, inflates the GPA as well.
Now that I think about it… I think the “party school” comments have all come from people in my generation. From back in the day, when almost everybody could get into their respective state university. The old days!
Acceptance rate flat year over year but down 7 points since 2021, that’s significant. I’m instate but my child did not apply. Two observations based on her friend group that were seniors last year: more high stats kids applying to Maryland as their likely, and definitely higher admissions standards, lots of surprise rejections based on who got in as recently as 2021.
Maryland has many students from Montgomery county, which offers a good array of APs and makes them available as early as freshman year.
Thanks, west coast operates differently. Our kids can take one honors class as fresh/soph (and that’s only worth a .5 bump). You can petition for AP seminar as a soph. That’s it. So weighted gpa can’t get as high.
UMD claims to take all these factors into consideration and the letter from the HS counselor should explain it also.
Yep. But kid has a 4.1 w so I’m guessing she’s not competitive and won’t be booking a flight to tour!
Understand and airfare is no joke right now! But MD kids with super high GPAs do have a major downside, and that is that they try not to exceed a certain amount of acceptances from the same school. There are about 3-5 schools in each of the nearby counties who have a reputation for sending “too many” super-smart students their way. Dumb but true, and optics do matter, and so some very talented kids may not get in.
If you wait until after an acceptance … I highly recommend the big all-day tour event on Presidents’ Day weekend. (Can’t remember what they called it.) It was a great way to get panels and tours for both all U and department, as well as dining hall tickets, a fair with different organizations and honors groups. Maybe they do something different for admitted students? I thought that day was so impressive. But then I’m partial to any school that feeds you a full breakfast while you are listening to morning panelists.
Ha well maybe they need an oregon kid to drag down the average 
Honestly, spring admit sounds pretty solid
While UMD might have had a reputation as a party school a generation ago, its CS program has been one of the top rated graduate programs for over thirty years.