Is UMass Amherst or the University of Maryland harder to get into?

The biggest practical tradeoff is that University of Maryland is typically the tougher admit overall, especially because it draws a very large out-of-state applicant pool and pays close attention to major choice in some programs, while UMass Amherst is selective but usually a bit more accessible across the board. Maryland also has a stronger reputation for being especially hard for high-demand areas like computer science, engineering, and business. UMass can still be competitive in those fields, but the overall admissions bar is usually not quite as tight as Maryland’s.

For building a college list, most students should treat Maryland as the more selective option. That is especially true if you are applying from out of state or aiming at one of its limited-capacity majors. Maryland admissions can feel meaningfully tougher than the school’s broad public-university image might suggest.

UMass Amherst is not a safety for many applicants, and some programs there are more competitive than others, but in an overall head-to-head comparison it is usually the less difficult admit. In-state status matters at both schools, though it matters most if you are comparing yourself as a Maryland resident versus a Massachusetts resident, since public flagships often become more attainable for their own residents.

So if your question is simply which is harder to get into overall, the better answer is University of Maryland. On a balanced college list, Maryland usually belongs one step higher in selectivity than UMass Amherst.