University of Delaware

Always grateful to God, and forever thankful that I attended and graduated from UD, a public-​Ivy school, with a rich history and a beautiful layout that makes you proud to be a student, and at peace when you walk around its lush and beautiful campus. Something about this place invokes a sense of mystery, serenity, mixed with class and youthful energy. Love this school and have so many wonderful and fond memories.

We took a walk through a bit of the campus, and it is really beautiful. Historic, yet filled with young energy. My wife loved the architecture of the buildings, and the classic look to the campus. I never had walked through the campus the whole time I grew up in Newark. What an amazing campus.

Blue hens!!!
Great school! So far lol
Love the location and how close everything is, it’s like our own little world. Two more years to go!

I am a Delaware resident, and attempted to transfer to the University of Delaware for my sophomore year. I applied online and heard nothing for months. As the admission deadline drew near, I called the admissions office to check on the status of my application. The admission office then nonchalantly informed me, that I was not accepted.
Had I not checked on the status of the application when I did, I would not have had enough time to enroll in another university and missed an entire semester.
To this date, the admission office has never sent a rejection letter.

This review is strictly for the gym/​arena.
I went there Sunday for a basketball game with the 87ers. BTW, I had no idea that this team even existed, supposedly it’s their inaugural year…
I was pleasantly surprised of the size and cleaniliness of the arena. The staff were extremely cordial and helpful.
I loved the fact that they had a kids station with activies, like a moon bounce, Santa… etc. They also had a «VIP» section, that for a small fee ($ 5) you could get some dranks (one complimentary) and watch the game from a more chill location.
I’d go back.

proud to be a blue hen !!!

Meh its a university that caters more to out of state money then servicing there in state students

Best four years of my life!!! Not only did I make a ton of friends, a ton of connections, and have fun. But I also have a three page resume because of the connections I made and multiple letters of recommendation from the people I worked with. It’s a great experience! And best of all the colllege is not too big and not too small. It’s perfect for somebody who wants to go to college away from school (but not TOO far) and it’s like its own little town, everything you need is walking distance away! Except the mall but that’s an easy 15 min drive.

Pretty solid university. I went here.
I’m quite unhappy with how they treat alumni though. Four years of tuition, constant phone calls asking for money, and I can’t even use their WIFI anymore when I’m in town? They took away my .edu email address after I graduated? What the heck UD? What the heck?

Review #600!
I attended Univ. of Delaware for undergrad and had not been back to campus in more than a few years. Wow. I am taken away at how gorgeous the campus is. The beautification process that was started years ago really and truly panned out. No one can say that Delaware is not a maintained school. And the university owns so much property in the area that additional buildings, dorms, dining halls are continuously being constructed.
The town has also grown to be a great support system for the university.
I cannot currently comment on the professors and classes since it’s been a while since I was a student, however Delaware has a great rep in many of the disciplines. I have also spoke with President Harker a bunch of times — great guy who has a lot of connections out there and is using them to Delaware’s advantage.
Makes me happy to be a Blue Hen.

This was honestly the best four years of my life. What I liked most about the University of Delaware is that it has something for absolutely anybody. I felt very well prepared entering the work force with my UD education!

I attended the University of Delaware for 4 years, majoring in physics.
I am proud to say that I will always refer to myself as a Blue Hen, and it seems as though no matter where I go people will understand that sentiment.
I also met my wife here, so a double-​bonus!

Lo and behold, my alma mater has already been Unilocaled! Go Fighting Blue Hens!
With all due respect to past and future Unilocalers, reviewing a University for its student body, administration, and across-​the-​board quality of education simply does not make much sense. There are a thousand-​fold students at this school, and whatever may be reasonably be said about it writ large can be betrayed in the details. That being said, this is Unilocal and not US News!
I love-​love-​love my alma mater. Here are some reasons why…
First and foremost, this campus must be considered one of the most beautiful college campuses in America. The classic brick and the autumn trees make the Green such a delightful academic environment I simply don’t know where one can feel more at peace. I have seen plenty of campuses in my time and I am currently a graduate student at Georgetown University (which ain’t too bad on the eyes either) but I simply have never been on a noticeably more attractive and comfortable than UD. The library could take a coat of paint, but aesthetics aside, it’s a very respectable collection. Ya want aesthetics in your study space? The chapel at Trabant *swoon*.
The student body is not particularly diverse, but (and I do take particular offense to comments made otherwise) the majority of the students I met in my four years at UD were kind, fun, smart, and had genuine intellectual interest. Even in a student body which, admittedly, does not have *great* ethnic diversity, the UD student population is, like every other student population, composed of individuals who cannot be broadly brushed as being «not very smart or creative» and so on — it’s simply nonsense. In my actual undergraduate experience (which one ought to have if one is to review the college) I met some of the most amazing professors, students, and academic professionals who by-​and-​large were themselves completely devoid of ridiculous dogmatic presuppositions about how a student body ought to be generalized.
Sure, the parking office is a nightmare. Student Aid messed my stuff up once or twice. I had a few profs who I swore hated me for no particular reason. This list of tired old shibboleths apply to every damn school in the Union. If one cannot live with these sorts of «challenges» in life then perhaps one should attend the University of Living Under a Rock.
Back to Blue Hen Country…
Newark (pronounced New-​Ark, not «Newerk») has all of the pros and cons of a small college town. Yes, it has a real town-​gown conflict, with parties often being crashed by unwelcome locals, but it also has a classic Main Street cutting through campus. The bars, restaurants and cafes along Main Street rival those of any small-​town college I have ever been to. The memories come flooding back… At the Little Bob I ran pick-​up with some members of the basketball team who proudly compete in Division I-​AA basketball and have nearly all graduated since that time. At Brew Ha-​Ha I sat for hours — often studying, even — talking to profs and students and locals who I knew and who knew me by name. At Deer Park on Wednesdays I would unwind with locals and co-​workers and students drinking until close and then stumble to DP Dough for some grease-​in-​a-​pocket or to Margarita’s for one of the best pizza slices I’ve ever enjoyed. Thursday? Mug Night at the old Balloon. Friday? a quick drive to Philly or a weekend bus trip to NYC. The memories go on and on, but I will not…
The University of Delaware is a beautiful place to go to educate yourself, but the onus is on you to make the experience matter. As with any institute of higher education, differences exist about standards of quality, but this University gets plenty right.

This school is a mixed bag, but a pleasant one. The good outweighs the bad enough for me to give it five stars. I obtained a master’s degree here in Mathematics and I feel it was a good decision – the school offered me good funding, and I was able to get into Ph.D. programs at Yale and Harvard afterwards. I am glad I did not go here for undergrad, however. I will give pros and cons; there are a lot of both.
Pros:
This school offers a little bit of everything; it has a standard liberal arts program, an engineering school, an agriculture school, a nursing program, an education program, and more: just about anything you could want for an undergraduate education. None of the programs are terribly weak – most are quite solid, and a few are outstanding (Chemical engineering and Art conservation stand out).
The graduate programs are well-​funded: it is possible (and quite easy) to get a master’s degree here with a full-​tuition waiver and generous stipend, in virtually all departments that offer master’s degrees. This aspect of the school is often overlooked – I would recommend applying to this school if you would like a master’s degree in any academic subject for which Delaware has a decent program. Overall though, I think the quality of the graduate programs is somewhat lower than the quality of the undergraduate programs.
The graduate students complain about the heavy teaching load (I had to T.A. 3 sections of intro calculus my first semester) but honestly I think the teaching load can be a blessing rather than a curse: someone getting a Ph.D. from Delaware will have much more experience than a student coming from a school that offers fellowships with little or no teaching responsibility and, all other things being equal, will be a much more attractive candidate. Ph.D. and post-​docs from Delaware that I have known have been able to place attractive jobs after their time here.
The campus is beautiful and fairly compact. The town is very pleasant, and the main street is right next to the campus. It’s possible and easy to live on-​campus without a car, and I would recommend this for those wanting to save money or simplify their lives. Navigating the surrounding suburbs, however, requires a car.
Also, Delaware has an amusing mascot: the blue hen.
Lastly, there is a really awesome swing-​dance club that has weekly dances, that has made my stay at this school very enjoyable, and has been a great way to meet awesome people and have a good time.
Cons:
The administration at this school seems to want this school to be as «normal» as possible. Almost everything here is done the way every other school does it. It can be hard to get exceptions to requirements, although the school usually caves in to persistent students with good reasons for wanting exceptions. The administration does not encourage students to do things of their own initiative and often makes it outright difficult to do so. As an example, student organizations are required to get an administrator’s signature (on each item) before they are even allowed to put up posters advertising events.
I’ve seen the student culture at UD diversify over the years which I’ve known the school. The school has a very friendly culture, which I like. A large portion of the students here just get completely wasted every weekend. But if you look around, you will find plenty of interesting people who aren’t involved in that scene. There are more clubs and activities than there were 5 years ago, and the school has gone from a politically-​apathetic environment to one where students will actually protest and self-​organize about issues.
The really bad thing about this school, IMHO, is that, for many students, it’s not a place where learning is considered fun. People don’t love their classes and their subjects and talk about them for fun. Many students just want to get their degrees and get out, while having their fun through things unrelated to academics. Again, I feel that the administration promotes this attitude – much emphasis is placed on grades and GPA. There are too many requirements and they are too strict, even for liberal arts programs. Because of this attitude and culture, the student body puts up with a few terrible professors, and even with the better profs, the students don’t interact with the profs much, and this can make it hard for them to realize their full potential teaching.
Bottom line? Delaware has a lot of downsides but it is still a pretty pleasant place, a fun place to be. I was very happy to go here for two years. I met a lot of awesome people and I did learn a lot, but at times, I felt like I was struggling culturally, in an environment where the majority of the students were focused on just getting through their classes, and were not doing doing as much self-​actualizing as I did in my undergrad (and had hoped to do in grad school too).

Solid four star education. I went here for a couple classes when I found out how much I hated LA. Too bad this place is in Delaware, where a whopping 10 people live. Only about 10% of America seems to realize Delaware is a state.