<p>I think some people have already been hearing back from UD even though they said decisions come out in mid-march. It this true? I applied in November so I'm hoping to hear back soon and it would be great to hear before march!</p>
<p>Only in-sate Delaware residents are receiving acceptance notices at this time. OOS apploicants will hear in early to mid-March.</p>
<p>Prospective students who are being asked to interview for the school’s named merit scholarships will hear earlier than that even if they are OOS. My son heard in mid February. Good luck!</p>
<p>I was just admitted today! I live in Sussex County, the county farthest away from UD, and the mail said it was postmarked the 10th so I’m assuming that students in Kent and New Castle County started getting theirs a few days ago.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing this info. Had no idea some decisions had gone out already. We are OOS so wont hear for a while but good to know things are moving along. Are notifications only by mail or are they also electronic?</p>
<p>I believe it is via the mail. They use to have a nice acceptance package but don’t know if it has changed since older DS was accepted.</p>
<p>thanks, MT. doesnt have to be fancy-just friendly!</p>
<p>Last year OOS applicants began receiving acceptance notices from UD by Email on 3/10/12, followed up by official notification by snail mail (a very impressive packet). I suspect the same thing will be occurring around the same time this year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info so we will await the email 
I guess the packet is still the same or similar!</p>
<p>Does anyone know why OOS applicant’s decisions are offered later than IS?</p>
<p>maggiedog:</p>
<p>UD used to have binding EA for OOS applicants with decisions announced in January combined with regular decisions in March. About 5-6 years ago they discontinued EA and just went to announcing all OOS decisions in March. UD does have a new Admissions Director and (who knows) maybe will change their OOS decision time in the future or perhaps move to rolling admissions (but I have not heard about any such intent to do either). In fact overall it appears that more and more colleges (at least at large major universities) are moving away from rolling admissions and moving towards defined admission announcement dates in the new year once most all applications have been received. My guess as to one reason why they would do this is because they want to get a good overall picture of their applicant pool so that they don’t offer too many acceptances and merit money on a rolling basis that they don’t have enough spaces and merit funds available for more highly qualified applicants who apply later. Obviously there are also arguments for the opposite approach as well. I know this response does not totally answer your question but it is the best I could do.</p>
<p>There is a political reason for doing in-state first, although most public colleges don’t do it that way. With 2/3rds of U. Del seats taken up by out of staters, there is a threat that people would get angry that their Delaware student was rejected to make room for a New Yorker who will pay twice as much. By accepting the in-state students first, U. Del can say that they have first accepted all of the in-state students who met their requirements, and then filled up the remaining seats with the out of state students.</p>
<p>Mid-march is still a long time to wait for a public college decision. While that time is passing, many other colleges have been marketing themselves to the top students, with overnight visits, merit money, etc. By the time these students get their U. Del decision, many will have already had their heart set on another college, and will already have their dorm and roommate picked out at that other college. That is happening with my daughter, for instance.</p>
<p>Many students don’t want to spend extensive time on an in-depth college visit unless they know they will be accepted. </p>
<p>Penn State and Pitt have a system in which the top in-state and out-of-state students receive an almost immediate admissions decision. The students who are in the middle may have to wait 2 to 4 months, and the most marginal students have to wait the longest. This fits into the way many admissions offices work , in which they often initially separate applicants into “clear admits”, “clearly to be denied”, and everyone else in the middle who need further review.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. It is interesting how different state colleges handle the IS and OOS admissions issue.</p>
<p>I’m an OOS applicant, and I was already notified of my acceptance. However, I’m also invited to be part of the Distinguished Scholar competition (for DuPont and similar awards) and the interview day and reception are in early March, weeks before the usual notification deadline. I think that if someone was notified early, it was probably because they were invited to compete for these awards. I needed to be notified ahead of time so I could participate in the Distinguished scholars stuff.</p>
<p>This situation only involves the 100-150 OOS students who are invited to attend the Distinguished Scholar Competition/Interviews. The rest of OOS students will hear in March-probably beginning aroud 3/8-3/11/13 (my best “guess” based on past dates).</p>
<p>Anybody know the requirements to be a distinguished scholar?</p>
<p>I don’t believe there are any defined specific minimum cut-off requirements. I believe UD reviews applications (most, if not all, have applied to the Honors Program) and then invites the “top” 100-150 or so applicants to attend a distinguised scholars event where they are interviewed for available Dupont and some other named scholarships. I believe this tends to be focused a lot on stats (standardized test scores, GPA, class rank, intensity of HS curriculum, etc.). I suspect they might also look for extraordinary EC’s, possibly athletic involvement, and HS ratings as well to a lessor degree. Of course many of these applicants, because of their qualifications, have also been or will be accepted to a number of highly prestigious schools and UD is hopeful that with the extent of the scholarship aid offered that some (hopefully a number of them) of these students will decide to attend UD instead of these other schools (where they might be offered lesser amount of total aid due to the higher level of competition and costs at these other schools). If you were not invited to attend this event you can obviously assume that you did not qualify but his does not mean that you won’t still get merit aid, which can still be very substantial, depending on your stats (and standardized test scores appears to be the major factor). This is the best reponse I can give you to your question. Best wishes to you.</p>
<p>Thank you, I appreciate it!</p>
<p>We are OOS and my son just received an email that says “can’t wait to share good news soon” Anyone else get that email? I am assuming it means he is accepted, wondering about scholarships…</p>
<p>Did your son apply under any type of ethnic/minority/international category? In the past UD would contact such students (who they planned on accepting) informing them that they would be soon receiving “good news” and inviting them to attend an event/get-together for such students (but not actually telling them they were accepted). If this is not the case I have never heard of UD doing anything like this in the past.</p>