<p>Looking for opinions. Major: Mechanical Engineering. Fortunately, cost is not an issue. Both programs look great. Concerned about life on campus, weekends, social opportunities. Any advice/opinions appreciated!</p>
<p>UDel for the entire college experience; no contest…really</p>
<p>yeah Anne33…udel all the way for a social life!</p>
<p>We researched Rowan last year when my S was looking. All my research indicated that it is definitely a commuter school, an extremely large percentage of students are in state and go home on weekends. Not much to do around campus. Not a great all around college experience for OOS. Their engineering programs are up and coming though.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies! </p>
<p>Here’s a little more info: This student is really torn between both schools. He has visited both programs multiple times and has met with professors and students from both. He really “felt the love” of a caring, interesting faculty at Rowan. Didn’t get those warm and fuzzy feelings from UDel, but knows the program is strong there as well. In addition to academics, he is interested in intramural sports but is not really interested in the party scene. And his parents don’t really want him to come home on the weekends…or better said, don’t want HIM to want to come home on the weekends.</p>
<p>delaware has soooo many clubs and activities i feel like he would not want to come home! also from what ive heard, there is something for everyone at udel and there are so many different types of people that everybody makes friends! there are also various events the school puts on for the students, and i believe there are a lot of intramurals to participate in. in essence, at delaware, you will be busy! on the other hand, many former students from my high school go to rowan and some of my classmates committed there right away since it was their first choice. i never looked at rowan myself, but lots of people seem to love it. like you said it is very loving and close knit and i believe the class sizes are smaller, so that means the students can be more personable with the professors. i did some research that the student may want to consider (he probably already knows this stuff but it may be good to hear it again.) so rowan has 10,438 undergrads with 1,584 freshman while delaware has 17,120 undergrads and 3,914 freshman. those numbers are pretty different, and i think he should consider them carefully because they can mean all the difference in happiness at a school! also, i looked up some housing statistics: at rowan, 81% of freshman live on campus and at delaware 94% live on campus. as you can see this is a huge difference, and if he is looking for staying busy, delaware definitely has rowan beat if you ask me. at rowan there are no cars allowed for freshman (mom and dad wont have to worry about him randomly coming home lol!) but at delaware you can have them which could be good for emergencies! hope this helped!!! whatever he chooses, im sure he will be happy there because both schools are awesome choices :)</p>
<p>Thank you, bbcovitz…I appreciate your statistics.</p>
<p>Anne33:</p>
<p>If you have some time to look thru some of the other threads on this Board I think you will find that most parents have the opposite concern as compared to the one you inquired about. Most parents of UD students have a hard time getting their children to come home even for an occasional visit once they start at UD. I’m sure this is due mainly to the many available EC activities that are available at UD. I’m sure that Rowan also has some available EC’s on weekends but I feel pretty confident in saying that those available do not even come close to the scope/variety/ number of those available at UD. Living 5 minutes from Rowan I can tell you that the Rowan campus is a “ghost town” compared to the UD campus on weekends. </p>
<p>I also would like to say a few things about the level of “partying” that goes on at the schools. I saw that you also posted this thread on the Rowan Board as well and you seemed to get some responses that identified UD as a “party school” and seemed to infer that the same level of “partying” does not go on at Rowan. My D was a student at UD from 2006-2010. I can say that on the occasions she visited home while at UD she was always able to find a party (usually at least several) available at Rowan to go to just about any night of the week. These parties are held at apartment complexes on the periphery of the Rowan campus which house many Rowan students. I think the choice to “party” is an indivdual one and I don’t believe that there is probably any significant difference in the overall amount of “partying” between the two schools.</p>
<p>Best of luck to the student in making his decision. Both schools have excellent Engineering Programs, but beyond this they are in many respects very different types of universities. The student would probably do best in choosing the one he feels he “fits in” best with.</p>
<p>Thank you, Mwallenmd!</p>
<p>I’d like to second the notion that kids don’t come home. They are just too darn busy. Classes, activities, volunteer opportunities, internships. I am truly blown away by the opportunities that come my daughter’s way. She recently had a private meeting arranged with a curator of the Smithsonian to view the historic documents related to an obscure piece of the collection, and stuff like that comes up often. They work very, very hard and the partying reputation is either overstated or old news. UD has really uped its game in the last few years, so it’s not nearly the problem it used to be. </p>
<p>I’d also like to mention that the engineering program at UD is very, very well funded and has all sorts of amenities available for students. It’s also a “name” program. Rowan is a fantastic school (I live in Staten Island and know several students), but it’s not on the same level of name recognition level as UD. You really can’t go wrong with either choice. Best of luck!</p>
<p>He chose UDel. Thank you, everyone!</p>