Is the University of Maryland or NYU better for city life as a college student?

The biggest practical tradeoff is this: NYU gives you true live-in-the-city daily life, while the University of Maryland gives you a traditional campus with occasional city access. At NYU, the city is the campus, so restaurants, internships, concerts, and neighborhoods are part of ordinary student life. At Maryland, you get a defined college setting in College Park, with Washington, DC close enough for trips, internships, and weekends but not woven into every hour of the day.

If your priority is everyday city energy, NYU is much stronger. Students are in Manhattan full-time, and things like taking the subway downtown, meeting friends in different neighborhoods, or grabbing food off campus are normal parts of the week. The tradeoff is that it can feel less like a classic enclosed college experience since there is no separate campus bubble in the usual sense.

Maryland offers a more balanced college atmosphere if you want school spirit, a clear campus center, residence halls clustered around campus life, Big Ten sports, and more of that traditional student-community feeling. College Park itself has student-oriented spots, and DC is reachable by Metro or a short trip, so city access is real. But it is still more of a campus-first life than a city-first life.

For the exact balance you described, Maryland is usually the better middle ground because it combines access to a major city with a more recognizable campus environment. If what you really mean by "strong city experience" is wanting the city to shape your everyday routine, NYU does that far more completely.