Daniel Grunberg, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, wants to be a Terp. He has a 3.5 GPA, plays three sports and writes for the school newspaper. However, unlike a few years ago, a 3.5 GPA isn’t a sure ticket into the university anymore.

He lives in Greenbelt, just eight minutes from the university – if all the lights are green.

“I timed it,” said Grunberg, 17, who wants to become a pilot. “Maryland is the only school I ever knew of growing up. It’s my first choice. I think I should be able to get into Maryland, but I don’t know.”

As the university becomes students like Grunberg, particularly those who live nearby in Prince George’s County, are getting discouraged and being shut out.

In response, the university expanded its Incentive Awards Program into Prince George’s County beginning next year. The program, which gives full, one-year scholarships to lower-income students, was originally only offered to Baltimore students.

“Despite the fact that we’re in Prince George’s County, that’s an area we have a lot more work to do,” said Barbara Gill, director of undergraduate admissions. “Students feel like this university is out of reach and they self-select themselves out of the process.”

More students from Montgomery County are accepted than Prince George’s County students, Gill said, but the university also receives more Montgomery County applicants.

Jeramie Jordan, 17, also a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt, said there’s a negative stigma that comes with being from Prince George’s County.

“People see Prince George’s County and they think of low standards,” Jordan said. “You’re going to have your bad apples and when they come out, the whole county looks bad.”

But the university may be shunning these students by recruiting more from out of the state, rather than from within it, Gill said.

Robert Pollard, assistant principal of Northwestern High School in Prince George’s County, said this university doesn’t spend enough time recruiting students in its own neighborhood.

“I think specifically Prince George’s County is considered an untapped resource or a resource not fully utilized,” Pollard said.

This university was once seen as a “safety school” for Maryland students. Now, students think of it as a top-tier school and many don’t even know if they’d get accepted or if they can pay the tuition bills.

“When I went to Maryland, it was, ‘Do you have a check?’ Yes. ‘Is it good?’ Yes. ‘You’re in,'” said Jordan’s English teacher, Troy Bradbury, an university alumnus.

With university administrators boasting about the mean 3.9 GPA and an average 1280 SAT score, prospective students are intimidated.

“That sounds like Notre Dame,” said Patrick Murphy, a guidance counselor at Eleanor Roosevelt. “We tell them to apply even though they don’t have a mythical 3.8 or 3.9.”

The university’s new freshmen acceptance rate this year is 36 percent, the lowest it’s been since 1993, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. In 1998, the year university President Dan Mote arrived, it accepted nearly half of its applicants.

“The fact that they find it’s too hard is a good sign,” Mote said. “The reality is that it’s not that difficult to get into.”

Administrators hope to draw more local students by the Incentive Awards Program, and eventually want to expand it throughout the state and into Washington. The university will recruit one student from five targeted schools in Prince George’s County who will have their first year fully funded by private donors and foundations.

But Roosevelt senior Shane Doyle is just worried about getting accepted in the first place.

If Doyle doesn’t get into the university, he’ll probably go to Montgomery College and transfer after two years, a tactic many students use now that the university is more selective.

Doyle’s 3.4 GPA is a little low to get into this university, he fears. He had to get an after school job to pay for his mom’s cell phone bills and his car bills, leaving no time for extracurricular activities.

“I don’t think they’d let me in right off the buck,” said Doyle, 17, of Old Greenbelt. “I hear Maryland’s a hard school to get into and challenging once you’re in it.”

Contact reporter Laurie Au at lauriedbk@gmail.com.