Maryland College Park SAT Scores, GPA, and ACT (2026)

About 45 of every 100 applicants get into the University of Maryland College Park, an admission rate of 44.8% in the 2024-2025 data. That sounds forgiving until you look at the Maryland College Park SAT scores the admitted class actually posted: a middle 50 of 1400 to 1530, with an average of 1473. Plenty of students get in. The ones who do arrive with numbers that would clear the bar at far more selective schools.

Run the applicant math. In a pool of 100, roughly 55 hear no. The 45 who hear yes skew hard toward strong scores, so the real question is not whether the school admits often. It is whether it admits people who look like you on paper.

The section splits show where that total comes from. Admitted students landed between 690 and 750 in Reading and Writing and between 710 and 780 in Math, so Math carries the heavier load. On the ACT, the admitted middle 50 runs 32 to 35, which tells the same story on a different scale. This is a public university in College Park, MD, with 30,760 undergraduates, and in the most recent federal data its testing policy is optional. The scale is big. The score expectations are not casual.

Below 1400 means you are under the 25th percentile, so 3 out of 4 admitted students outscored you. With a 44.8% admit rate you are not out of the running, but the rest of your application has to do the arguing. Inside the 1400 to 1530 range, your score is doing its job: it matches the admitted class and moves the decision to your grades and activities. Above 1530 puts you past the 75th percentile, ahead of 3 out of 4 admits, and turns the score into an asset.

The optional testing policy cuts both ways. You can withhold a weak score, but the published ranges come from students who chose to send strong ones, which keeps the bar high. If your practice tests sit near 1400, submitting usually helps more than hiding.

Watch the section splits, too. Math runs 710 to 780 against 690 to 750 for Reading and Writing, a 20 to 30 point gap. A 720 is comfortable on the verbal side and merely adequate on Math, so budget your prep hours accordingly.

Admitted students at Maryland College Park typically show up with an unweighted GPA somewhere around 3.6 to 3.9. That band matters less as a single number than as a signal: admissions readers look at what you earned those grades in. A 3.7 built on honors and AP coursework reads stronger than a 3.9 built on the lightest schedule your school offers.

The band is wide on purpose. A 44.8% admit rate means the school accepts students across a real range of transcripts, then uses everything else, scores included, to sort within that range. Rigor decides where in the band you land, not the decimal by itself.

If your GPA sits at the lower edge, the fastest fix is not retaking classes from junior year. It is your SAT. A score at or above the 1473 average gives the committee a second data point that says the transcript undersells you. Grades take years to move. A score can move in months.

Set two lines on the wall. Hitting 1400, the 25th percentile, keeps you inside the admitted range. Hitting 1530, the 75th, puts you in the top quarter of the class, which is where a score starts working for you instead of just not hurting you. The 1473 average sits closer to the top of that band than the bottom, so treat the midpoint as a floor to pass through, not a place to stop.

On sections, aim for at least 690 in Reading and Writing and 710 in Math, and expect Math to demand the extra reps given its higher band. Since testing is optional here, a submitted score is a choice, which means it should be a deliberate one: send it when it clears 1400, keep working when it does not.

The path between where you are and 1400 or better is a math problem, and our score plans break it into weekly targets you can actually check off. First you need a real baseline, not a guess: take the diagnostic this week, score it against the 1400 line, and let the gap set your study schedule.