How do Boston University and the University of Maryland compare in admissions difficulty?

Boston University is typically harder to get into overall. BU draws a very large national and international applicant pool, has a more private-school style admissions market, and is widely viewed as more selective than the University of Maryland in broad admissions difficulty.

One concrete difference is who each school is evaluating. BU is reading applications from students across the country and around the world for a limited number of seats, so the competition is concentrated in a way that tends to push selectivity up. Maryland is also selective, but as a public flagship it has a major in-state mission, which changes the applicant mix and makes admissions feel a bit different from a private university like BU.

Another important distinction is that Maryland’s difficulty can vary a lot by residency and program. In-state applicants often face a different level of competition than out-of-state applicants, and some majors or special programs can be much tougher than the university overall. BU can also have variation by college or program, but the overall perception is still that getting admitted there is the steeper climb.

A third differentiator is the academic profile each school tends to attract. Both schools bring in strong students, but BU is often treated by applicants as a reachier private option, especially in popular areas like business, communications, and health-related fields. Maryland is absolutely competitive, especially for engineering, computer science, and certain honors pathways, but in an overall head-to-head comparison, BU is the tougher admit for most applicants.

For building a list, I would think of BU as the more difficult admissions bet and Maryland as slightly less difficult overall, while remembering that Maryland can become very tough for out-of-state students or selective majors.