<p>Same here, S made it official. UDel it is.</p>
<p>Good luck to all!</p>
<p>Congrats to both of you. What are your majors? </p>
<p>She’s in the business school, thinking double major in economics and accounting. Still not sure.</p>
<p>Congrats to you both!! </p>
<p>Thanks, Mwallenmd and maggie3.</p>
<p>Mwallenmd, S is in the ATI program</p>
<p>Congrats, Lefty! Your son had the correct answer.</p>
<p>My D decided to become a Blue Hen. She’s in business honors - undecided. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>@Lefty1 - my S wants to change majors as well. From what we’ve researched, they have to nail first semester with a high GPA before they can even apply for a change in major. Another alternative he may take is to add another major or, of course, a minor. But all require a rockstar first semester performance. I think that’s great. Certainly the kids have learned their lesson about GPA from their high school experience. That freshman year impacts everything. But unlike in high school, where one can pull it up in the following years to get into a college of choice, in order to make any changes in major, they need to start strong out of the gate. </p>
<p>Is that your understanding @mwallenmd? My S is a psych major because he originally wanted to be a psychologist or MD psychiatrist. Now he is more concerned about getting a job when he graduates and leaning towards economics, finance, public health (new minor). Even tho, I believe these kids need 6 years of college to compete effectively these days - the Master’s is the old Bachelor’s. Just my thinking and no need to start worrying yet or putting the cart before the horse. I mean we just got through this life-changing exercise, right? </p>
<p>Love to hear other opinions & thoughts. Still thinking of you @miesha.</p>
<p>Another q of blue hen parents - does you S/D have to take an online math test? Wondering if that is standard for all or just some. Thanks.</p>
<p>My son sent his deposit in the day after Decision Days (on April 19). He was wowed over by the campus, enthusiasm of the students, small-town feel of Newark and especially the department – he’ll be majoring in Chemical Engineering. So excited for him! UD is the perfect sized college for him. He picked up a tee shirt while he was there, posted his picture on Facebook to announce his decision and wore the shirt to school yesterday. Yes, a very proud parent and excited son!</p>
<p>@DoubleDel yes all have to take a math placement test. It really is a big help and indicator of where your child should be. My D is an amazing student in everything except Math… she doesn’t hate it but it’s just not her strong suit. She needed pre calc (as expected) It was great she was able to take this course because the rigor of Calc at UD is intense. Even in the business school they do no offer a less expanded Business Calc as many colleges do. </p>
<p>As far as transferring majors, each one has a different criteria. For my son transferring into business management and/or marketing he will need to have 24 credits under his belt with Calc, Micro and Macro Economics being a part of those credits. The starting mark is a 2.7 for those particular majors (higher for Accounting and Finance). That being said, that is the MINIMUM GPA they will consider so he will need to be much higher to improve his chances. My guess is my son will probably apply after his freshman year or after the first semester of Sophomore year. I’m thinking for him this is a good thing because it give him something bigger to work towards. I still want him to explore the University Studies program and perhaps explore other options but for now he will aim to get accepted into Lerner and go from there. </p>
<p>@PASeniorParent - Congrats! I’m a Blue Hen and born and raised in Newark, DE. The Chemical Engineering program has always been one of the best in the US. Companies in DE like DuPont are just waiting for these grads.</p>
<p>DoubleDel:
I agree with the comments from lefty1. I would recommend that when your son goes to his New Student Orientation (NSO) day he discusses his changing interests with his advisor so that an appropriate plan can be formulated right from when he starts as a freshman. Actually I have known some students who were able to change their major following acceptance (usually from one liberal arts major to another one) but the process can be laborious (completing forms and getting a Dean’s or Department Head approval) and I am sure that UD will tell you it is not recommended. However I doubt it would be doable for a transfer into any type of “Restricted Major” (identified in the registrars website under the change of major section). A double major is possible but you need to keep in mind that unless the second major is closely allied with the first major (so that some of the courses taken will meet requirements for both majors) that you may have to take courses during the winter/summer sessions if you want to graduate in 4 years. The same is true for a minor but obviously to a much lesser degree.</p>
<p>I certainly agree that for University Studies majors and students wishing to change their major that the first semester of the freshman year is a critical time period. You need to adjust to college life and establish good study patterns/habits to put yourself in the best position to subsequently get into the major you want (unless you are ok with the idea of extending your college to more than 4 years). This is why (based on my past experiences as an academician) that I recommend to male freshman that they not rush/pledge a fraternity in their first semester unless they feel extremely confident that they have the study skills to not put their course grades at significant risk. This is not an issue for females at UD as they are not allowed to rush/pledge a sorority until their second semester (and they must have a minimum GPA to do so). I realize at least some people might not agree with me but this is my perspective. You don’t want to end up like Bluto in “Animal House” who made this comment when he was expelled from college: “now that’s seven years of college down the drain” LOL. Good luck to your son. </p>
<p>My D was able to change her major from criminal justice to elementary education shortly after being accepted to UD in January. She just emailed admissions to see what she needed to do to request a change and they responded with “your major has officially been changed to elementary education.” I was surprised it was so easy. Of course, I’m sure that had a lot to do with her choice in major too. </p>
<p>yes @Jberav I also believe it was so easy because of the timeline in acceptances and I’m sure when they looked at your daughter’s academic profile she was a good candidate as well. It was wise to make the change so early if she knew at that time it’s what she wanted. My son had a similar situation with another school. He had mistakenly marked undecided instead of business. Since he was well over the requirements for that particular school it only took an email to change it on their end. best of luck to your D. My D has a few friends in the education program and they are having great experiences. </p>
<p>unusual observation this year… Usually my son’s school has about 60 applicants… 20 are accepted and about 3-5 attend UD. This year I know about 75 applied, I’m not sure how many were accepted but there are at least 12 attending that I know of! Quite a surge for our school. I was wondering if anyone has a larger amount of kids attending from their schools and what this will do to the freshman class numbers. who knows… maybe it’s just our school or maybe it may be the new admissions procedures… interested to see how this all comes together. </p>
<p>@lefty1 Same here. Guidance Counselor had told us all along that UD had not been “kind” to the students in my S’s school (even tho it is one of the top rated in NJ) and not to get our hopes up. This year, he said, however, that everything changed. UD was being very “kind” to the students for the first time; several got admitted when previous years, only 1 or 2 got admitted. Personally, I think the Guidance Counselor made an effort to establish a strong relationship with the admission representative responsible for reading my son’s schools’ transcripts.I do not ‘think’ that relationship existed before. I could see from his graduating class of last year, there were only two UD acceptances. This year, I think there was 8-10. Several attending. Most deciding between Penn State and UD. Several hoping for the less expensive TCNJ but were not accepted. Crazy year. Makes no sense.</p>
<p>@left1 and all - just goes to show you (IMO) the influence of the guidance counselor – or NOT. I stayed on top of the guidance counselor…think it forced him to call and engage whereas he may not have done so. As an active UD alumnus, a frequently volunteer speaker at UD, a financial donor and as I’ve said before, a double del family, I let the guidance counselor know these factors should have some influence – even though he kept saying ‘maybe’, maybe you’re right, never had that situation before. I had established my own communications with the admissions team and asked him to follow-up. Gave him names, email addresses and phone numbers and synopsis of communications. </p>
<p>@left1 - one more point. So - in fact, it not only perhaps helped my S but helped all the students who applied to UD from this particular high school. Perhaps the school was just never on their radar, or no one ever took the time to explain the high standards of academic excellence, leadership and community service. I don’t know, but the guidance counselor said no student had ever gotten in with anything less than a 3.8 not matter what the SAT scores. This year, several students were accepted in the 3.6 range. Don’t know what the SAT scores were.</p>
<p>@doubledel, yes very strange. I also think it has to do with the rolling admission. Nothing different done in our school this year. I don’t have the actual accepted student number yet for my school but just the fact that about 10 have committed is near triple the normal number that do commit. I am looking forward to seeing the class of 2014 report from our guidance counselor with all this data. I’m just curious if the surge in kids committing is directly related to the surge in applications from our school or if they increased the percentage numbers from our school. </p>