FYI, there is no obvious rhyme or reason to B/K invites - it is very holistic, and there are no published qualifications of what is considered for eligibility. The only common denominator is that only students invited to honors college are eligible for consideration. A large number of B/K invites are students that have extremely impressive stats (as in they are the ones who would be among the few ivy league admits) BUT there are lots of exceptions to that.
Just want to expand on Matt846’s comment that for honors/scholars, “Getting into either also means you have a decent chance at receiving merit scholarships.” The point I want to emphasize is “decent chance” - it is not guarantee. Maryland is a state school, so they don’t have the large endowments that private institutions have. What that means is they don’t have a whole lot to give, and people are often disappointed with the amounts --if they do get them to begin with.
I have seen some scholars students get more money than some honors students, and students in neither of those 2 programs can also be eligible for scholarships, so that is not a determining factor for award amounts.
Invitations to honors only determines eligibility for B/K consideration. There are very few students in the scheme of things that get invited to B/K, but it just seems like a large number probably because a lot of them happen to be on cc.
It’s important to bear in mind that the bottom line cost of Maryland is significantly less than the majority of schools to begin with, so as disappointing as scholarships may be, Maryland is still a really great choice.
FYI, there are also A LOT MORE scholarships that students become eligible to apply for AFTER they matriculate…here is a link to check them out
https://advancement.umd.edu/celebration/listScholarships.php
Note that the scholarships are specific to a department/school, so click on the appropriate one to get a list that is applicable for you. However, these scholarships, unlike the ones offered to incoming freshman, are not automatic consideration. You need to apply to these on a yearly basis. While I can’t speak definitively for other departments/schools, I can say that Clark (engineering) has a single application that is considered for all the available departmental scholarships. You are required to fill out a FAFSA yearly (yes, even for merit only scholarships).