Maryland is not by any stretch an "easy" school in which to gain acceptance. However, the school's admissions committee understands that not everyone is nor should be a 4.0, 99th percentile student. They don't simply say "lets just interview everyone over a 3.5 GPA" like some schools. The lowest GPA that I know of to be granted admission is 2.5 (which is pretty low for a great school) and that student is now a graduate and enjoying life. The student body is extremely diverse with a wide range in ages, ethnicities and pre-pharmacy academic and professional endeavors. I like to say that they take a look at the entire application for admission instead of just hard numbers as cutoffs. In the admissions committee, they will discuss a student's personal statement, match up grades against scores, look for trends, etc. This doesn't mean their standards are low - anything but the contrary! They are just far more willing to overlook a bad semester because you're 18 and just got to college and partied too much and killed your cumulative GPA. So when other schools wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole, Maryland will see that your last four semesters were upper science class heavy and you got a 3.5 and that speaks more than the 2.0 from freshman year.... and knowing how far Maryland goes to get the best students tells you a lot about the school, its faculty, and its students.
