Campus area

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Delaware
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<p>we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for you livesinnewjersey! Look for some information around St. Patrick’s day.</p>

<p>My D is on the second floor in Russell but she has a giant tree in front of her window so there was a lot of breeze and shade in the warmer weather. I guess it’s just the luck of the draw where you are placed because she wasn’t super hot, but I was convinced that a serial killer was going to come in through that window. She got together with her peeps last night and they chose her as room captain for next year. which doesn’t surprise me at all since she is a control freak of epic magnitude. I’ll let you know how that process goes. Next week the deposit is due and then they can fill out their applications.</p>

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<p>Zoosermom: I just got the housing brochure in the mail yesterday. Looks like the process is
Feb 15-Mar 15 . Didn’t mention deposits. </p>

<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>

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<p>I think it’s a $200 deposit. The application doesn’t become available to the student until the deposit is paid.</p>

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<p>LINYMOM:
Just FYI - if your D is planning on joining Alpha Phi you should be aware (unless the policy has changed) that members are required to live at the Sorority House for at least one year while at UD (unless enough members voluntarily choose to stay there). As most 3rd and 4th yr. members want to stay in apartments most of the time the house is filled by some sorority officers and primarily sophomores. If your D plans on joining you might want to hold off on sending in a deposit for a dorm room (I don’t think it is refundable) until your D finds out if she might be required to stay at the House next year. </p>

<p>Obviously I am biased with my D’s experience at Alpha Phi but I feel staying there is much better than staying in any dorm room on campus for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is located at the center of campus, almost next door to Trabant. If your D is not interested in Alpha Phi please disrergard this info.</p>

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<p>Lol. Totally biased to Alpha Phi as that is my sorority (so DD is a legacy)! Still I told DD to do what is best for her. Is that the only sorority with a house? </p>

<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>

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<p>LINYMOM:
I believe that there are at least 5-6 other sororities at UD with Houses. I don’t know anything about their requirements for students having to stay there, however. I don’t know if you remember it or not but we had some communications with each other regarding Alpha Phi on another thread this past April when your D was trying to make a decision about going to UD. She made a wise choice in going there. All sororities have their plusses and minusses. But according to my D, Alpha Phi is the best sorority at UD! Best of luck to your D in her decision.</p>

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<p>Good to know. I do know she also has her eye on AEPhi. We talked earlier today about the possibility of living in whatever house she joins. So it’s on her radar. Thanks for the reminder!</p>

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<p>checking in with our experience…I have a D who is young, blonde, naive, came from an all girls’ HS…she is low maintenance but does like some creature comforts. She’s a sophomore who lived on the green in Harter this year - was in Russell last year. No real issue with no AC in either building. Harter is old but she loved rolling out of bed and into class, and looking out on that beautiful green every day. The hot weather subsides fast enough. Everything about UD has been great. It’s a dose of the real world, but it’s safe - you must use common sense though. It has just enough bureaucracy to teach you how to navigate, work through a system, advocate for yourself, etc. Academically, she has no complaints. It’s challenging, and she has gone out of her way to meet her profs. She’s made dean’s list every semeseter.</p>

<p>The town is perfect for college students, it’s walkable and bikeable. You never have to move off campus, but you might want to ‘move north’ and take a shuttle or long walk to campus. Plenty of kids do rent apartments. We are hoping our D doesn’t because it doesn’t really seem necessary. I am not interested in schlepping furniture up I95 or dealing with leases.</p>

<p>She has been fortunate to have a job during both winter breaks, so those have flown by. I dropped her off Monday at JFK for her semester abroad in Spain. I am very impressed with how well organized everything has been, and how well planned the program is. I feel good about her host family, where she is in the city, the excursions they go on, her classes, etc.</p>

<p>She did apply for and received a scholarship for the study abroad. It wasn’t much $ but we’ll take it.</p>

<p>She had 9 other choices, and it wasn’t clear until she visited - but it was crystal clear when she visited. She definitely had that AHA moment she did not have anywhere else.</p>

<p>And she is one of those happy, typical kids you see strolling down Main. Good luck!</p>

49

<p>As you can guess from my username, I’m a tad biased but just have to say… BEST SCHOOL EVER. Seriously, it’s just a wonderful place to go to school and my time there was some of the best of my life. Granted, it’s been 15 years since I graduated, so quite a bit has changed - but much has stayed the same as well and since I love to gush about my beloved UD, I’m happy to share the experiences that I had which remain universal even after some time!</p>

<p>I know someone had asked about Thompson earlier in the thread, I lived in Lane my freshman year which is next door to Thompson - they are “twin” dorms. It is small but as a freshman, you don’t really have anything to compare it to, you know? You don’t even really notice the size all that much, at least in my experience - and I remember my roommate and I having at least ten other people in that room at times and everyone found somewhere to sit down so we obviously made it work!</p>

<p>The classes do tend to start out big at the intro level, but get smaller and smaller as you get into your major. I know some parents worry that their child will get lost in such a big class but - and I know this sounds strange - I don’t know that this is such a bad thing. There tends to be some “helicoptering” by parents nowadays (and I am a parent as well so I totally get it!) and not having a professor holding students’ hands and making sure they do their homework and come to class etc etc etc… it’s not a terrible introduction to the real world where you’re the one who has to take the initiative to get things done. Does that make sense?</p>

<p>Social life on campus is a blast - big time. I was in a sorority (which no longer has a chapter at UD - several sororities and fraternities no longer have a presence at Delaware, sadly!) but that is definitely NOT a requirement to find fun on campus. It’s a great addition to campus life, but a small slice of that life - there is so much to do outside of Greek life that a student would not feel like they were missing anything if they chose not to rush. As freshmen, we spent most of our weekends hanging out in friends’ dorms, at fraternity parties and house parties, going to football and basketball games, and just walking up to Main Street for ice cream and talking with all the gazillion new friends you make that first year of college.</p>

<p>Winter Session is definitely not common for freshmen but like others have said - after that first winter break at home, many sophomores and upperclassmen stay on campus for Winter Session. It’s a great way to get a few credits out of the way to lessen the load during the semester or to take a class that is harder to get into during the semester. My sophomore year, I went home for winter break and the day before Winter Session classes were to begin, I told my mom that I was sorry, but I had to go back to school or I was going to go insane - and sure enough, she drove me the 2 hours up to campus so I could register for any class with seats available that would meet any requirement at all for my major (you have to be registered for a Winter Session class to be allowed to live in the traditional dorms during winter break) and we both breathed a sigh of relief! :slight_smile: I ended up taking a philosophy class - just because it was literally the ONLY class with a spot open that I could use toward a requirement and I enjoyed it enough that I went on to pick up a philosophy minor. It’s a great way to try out a subject without committing an entire semester to it!</p>

<p>Let’s see, what else… oh, back to the dorm thing! The lack of air conditioning in the traditional dorms is not the greatest thing in the world but also not the end of the world, it’s hot for a month or so at the start of the school year and for the last few weeks of the year, but fall and spring are quite comfortable with a big ol’ box fan in the window. I do remember a few weeks in May of freshman year where we were all showering at least twice a day because it was so freaking hot!</p>

<p>This may well have changed with time, but back in the dark ages of the 90’s (ha!!) it was pretty typical to live in the dorms for freshman and sophomore year and then to move into either an on-campus apartment or off-campus apartment/house for junior and senior years. I lived on the Russell campus freshman and sophomore year, then in the Christiana Towers (the on-campus apartments) junior year and in a house with roommates senior year. It was a great way to transition from the cozy little room on campus all the way to paying rent and utilities etc - and after graduation, I moved into my own apartment and felt like I knew what I was doing since I had a year of practice with it under my belt before graduating from college. And also living off campus was the most fun humanly possible, but probably best to keep that to myself for fear of scaring off prospective parents… huh? :)</p>

<p>All in all, the best suggestion I can give is to come and visit the campus and you and your child will either know with 100% certainty that this is the place for them, or you won’t. It really is like falling in love (which I also did while at UD… my husband and I met when we lived in the same dorm!) - when it’s right, you just know it - and UD is the kind of place that when it’s “your” place, you know right away!</p>