Im a current Freshman who will answer any questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Delaware
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<p>Sorry that this is long, Ill check back here much sooner next time</p>

<p>@bay2714 You probably need to call and find out because I don’t really know if you can change schools/majors before you are there. </p>

<p>@mgbregman Yes there is a foreign language requirement for I believe almost every major. I know anyone in the engineering college doesn’t have to take a language though. And I believe you can test out of it with AP credits Im assuming.</p>

<p>@NFL7G2 These are the dorms from my opinion, I would definitely try and get other views on it. George Reed are the nicest, however they are suite style so you won’t see your floor that much and they will be very far from all of your classes. Russell is honors, I believe has coed floors, and is generally nice. Harrington is where i live and I love it. There are coed floors and every floor I have seen is extremely close. Rodney is same sex floors and very fun. Dickinson is IMO the worst. Its very far away, the rooms are nothing special, and just generally considered here to be the worst. Thompson, Lane and Smyth are all just average really, they are more towards the middle of campus along with Harrington and russell. Also, as far as I am aware, they will be either renovating or knocking down Rodney, Dickinson, and Harrington in the next few years. And they are building a giant new dorm building that will be ready summer of 2013.</p>

<p>@Fauster If she stays winter, yes she will have her same room. If she leaves, you can leave or bring whatever you want. I did not stay, I just brought my TV, clothes, and sheets home.</p>

<p>@pamom59
5 Best things: The campus, the people, the academics, social life, sports.
5 worst things: The food sometimes is bad, TAs for some labs are awful, there is no diversity here which they are trying to change, the winter session if you stay home is painful, thats it :)</p>

<p>@jackief I haven’t tried to get an internship or a research position because I am only a freshman, however I do know a gym science major and an elementary edu major who both work at a school for their senior second semester. And I do know we get a TON of research money from the state of DE</p>

<p>@sleepy1 @LIParent101 In regards to class sizes teachers: My general chem class that engineers, chem majors, etc, have to take was taught by a professor (Wingrave) and had between 150-170 in it. The chem lab was taught by a TA (Was a grad student), and the chem workshop was taught by a student who took the class and did very well in it (mine was a sophomore who I actually hangout with now). My calculus 241 class (Calc 1) was taught by a professor and had between 50-75 people in it and the discussion group was taught by a TA with about 25 people in it. My biggest class was intro to engineering which had about 250-350 and was taught by 10 different engineering professors. My statics class this semester is taught by my advisor who is an associate professor and has about 30 people in it. Generally speaking the classes you take freshman year, the core general classes, are going to have a lot of people. But as you go down the road they get smaller and smaller. As far as how the professors are, there are some amazing teachers, and then there are some not so amazing ones. Every professor and TA has office hours, where for 2 or 3 days in a week they are in their office for 1-2 hours with the sole purpose of helping students with anything. For example, my calc 241 professor’s name was Germann, it was her first year teaching, she did not speak english well, and all her notes were word for word from the book, she occasionally messed problems up, and her tests had nothing to do with what we learned. However, she was very nice, she did help during study hours, and her TAs for her discussions were amazing. My next math class 242 (calc 2) I have Mercer who is one of the best math teachers I have ever had. He is extremely helpful, nice, cracks jokes here and there, and teaches the class amazingly. My chem professor was Wingrave, who is southern so at 8 in the morning he just talks you to sleep. However he is a very good teacher and again is very helpful. My English professor La Casse was a former national guardsmen who was in Iraq and is now a philosophical guy. He was amazing in every aspect. Every single teacher is helpful and approachable, and they all have office hours to help you.</p>

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<p>My daughter’s experiences with chemistry classes (she’s in a major that is very chem heavy) has been the same as Wilkey’s. Honors sections are smaller, though. She was extremely anxious because she hadn’t taken chem since sophomore year in high school, but her experience was great and she found all the support/resources she needed. So onto Orgo!!</p>

<p>I’m too lazy to figure out five things I like and don’t like, plus I can barely count, so I’ll just pick a couple.</p>

<p>I really like the campus, the area, and the professionals working at the University. I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t helpful and accommodating above and beyond. I love that my D’s unique interests are valued and supported in such a great way. I love that she’s happy and safe. We’ve been happy with registration and class selection. Also, internships and opportunities.</p>

<p>The biggest thing I don’t like is the winter session. It is too long for the student to be at home and too expensive to do every year. It also puts the UD student’s schedule on a different track than all the friends, which is not insignificant when dealing with boredom and loneliness. I really don’t like the winter session. I think it should be altered in some fashion.</p>

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<p>A few questions…</p>

<ol>
<li>Has forced triples been a problem in the dorms? Can you request not to be in a triple?</li>
<li>Can you request a specific dorm? If so, where is a good place for freshmen?</li>
<li>How are the advisors? If you are undecided, are they helpful in identifying options?</li>
<li>If you have a particularly hard class, what options are available for extra help or tutoring?</li>
<li>If you could change 1 or 2 things about UD…what would you change?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks for any info you can share.</p>

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<p>@portmom</p>

<ol>
<li>Has forced triples been a problem in the dorms? Can you request not to be in a triple? I know this year because we had the most freshman ever there were some triples, and they even made a normally upperclassman dorm (Ray St) into freshman. If I remember correctly you could only choose single or double, there was no option for a triple. </li>
<li>Can you request a specific dorm? If so, where is a good place for freshmen? You get to rank them and you can request a roommate if you know a person. Look at my post above for what I think about all of them. </li>
<li>How are the advisors? If you are undecided, are they helpful in identifying options? Advisors are hit or miss. I absolutely love my advisor, however I have friends who have awful advisors. If they aren’t helpful in identifying options, then someone can help you if you seek it out. A very good thing at UD is there is always someone who can help you with choices like this.</li>
<li>If you have a particularly hard class, what options are available for extra help or tutoring? Large lectures will usually have discussion class along with it with TAs that are very helpful. Also as I said above, TAs and all professors have office hours each week for students to go to them to help. I know there is a writing center that has english majors read and help you with a paper or even think of what to write about. I know there is a physics room where there are always grad students there to help you. If you really need help, there will always be someone somewhere that can help you.</li>
<li>If you could change 1 or 2 things about UD…what would you change? The schedule sucks with winter session, so we get out May 23rd this semester. And I would make the main gym bigger. For the amount of people that go there its too small.</li>
</ol>

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<p>Just want to put in a word for a small, often overlooked dorm, Smyth Hall, accross from the Perkins Student Center. When my daughter was assigned to it last year she was at first very upset because everyone else seemed to be in one of the larger well known dorms. But it turned out to be a great dorm andwonderful for her. Close to dining hall, library and everything else, smaller and more intimate but still conducive to making a ton of friends.</p>

<p>I’m only going to mention one “worst” thing about UD, and it’s one of those double edged sword kinds of thing. Winter Session. The main difficulty with it is that you are charged separately for it. So between tuition, room and board, figure $5-6k more if you stay on campus. More like $10k if you go abroad. First year its hard to get a job at home or find an away program you’d like to go on, so if you don’t go back to campus for a class or two, you or your child will have a LOT of time to fill when most of their HS friends are long gone. The good thing though is that your child can take one or two classes intensively with few other distractions or requirements and get it out of the way and probably do well.</p>

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<p>Wondering about winter session. What do the vast majority of the freshman do? Do they stay on campus and take classes, go abroad, or just stay home. If you could guess the approximate breakdown of freshman, I would most appreciate it…</p>

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<p>Apparently most freshmen leave. Some had secured jobs at home or lived not far away and were content to go back for a long break. Although I gather that many were chomping at the bit to return when Spring Term began. </p>

<p>Due to family reasons my D couldn’t come home. We didn’t find a class abroad she wanted to go on and although I offered, none of her friends were able to go off somewhere with her outside of a school class. My D isn’t adventurous enough to go off on her own so she stayed on campus and took two classes. Before WS began she was apprehensive that there would be no one around and that she would be bored or lonely (her small dorm mostly emptied out). As it turned out, her room mate also stayed for WS and one or two others she had met in classes. Her schedule allowed her to have a longer weekend and she drove off campus two weekends, one to visit a HS friend at Muhlenberg and once to come home. (we let her bring a car back for WS). </p>

<p>Dispite the pre-WS concerns, she was quite happy and occupied. (I know that I would have heard more complaints if she hadn’t been). At school the time went by a lot faster and easier than it would have at home with all her HS friends returning to their schools in January.</p>

<p>And she was able to get two required courses out of the way with two professors she wouldn’t have gotten during one of the regular terms. She enjoyed the classes and did very well in both.</p>

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<p>For freshmen I would say most go home, some do winter session, and a few do study abroad. Winter session is nice to get classes out of the way. It doesn’t start until beginning of january so you can go home for christmas and new years. I would say about 15-20% of freshmen do winter session. But the RAs in the residence halls still plan activities so that there’s plenty to do if you get bored since you only take 1 or 2 classes.</p>

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<p>Any insight for business students? In particular, concerned about getting into the accounting program a transferee at end of year from University Studies? I get the GPA requirement but I thought I read somewhere that even if you make the GPA cut-off, it doesn’t mean you can transfer into Accounting, which seems to have the highest barriers to entry if you didn’t get admitted as a freshman. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>@Bill124 I would call admissions, they will give you a much better answer that I could even try to.</p>

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<p>Not all majors have a foreign language requirement. It depends on the college in which you are enrolled</p>

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<p>I see there is a math placement exam. Can someone summarize how the exam vs. ap scores are used to determine placement and/or credit. Does the exam take precedence over scores? Does to the exam only determine placement and the ap scores are needed for credit? I’m sure this info is online but I noticed it in my quick browse through the acceptance packet and would appreciate hearing from students.</p>

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<p>I’m a grad but I don’t think much about this would change. The AP score determines your possible credit and where you potentially can opt out. It doesn’t say that you can’t take the course again. Lots of people want to take calculus again. Sometimes for a review and sometimes because it might then be less difficult. Everyone has to take the math test to give a basis for what you can take or if you need remediation. Since you will meet with your advisor before you have your AP results, they will sign you up for a class based on your test which you can change once your results come during the summer. Lots of people have to change classes based on AP results, this is no big deal for your advisor - they expect it.</p>

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</p>

<p>They don’t finalize schedules until the AP scores come out (the students meet their advisors during their Blue Hen days in the early-mid summer), so placement is finalized based on that. The test is taken online and is pretty easy, according to my D, who is not a math person at all.</p>

<p>PS to Jackief, I’ve been so out of it with PBK that I didn’t realize you were considering UD? Is it a done deal?</p>

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<p>zm- I would say it is the front runner, but no final decisions after we visit again in April.</p>

<p>D has a calc AB score from last year and is taking BC this year (this is how our school does it) We would probably advise her not to place out of more than one term of calc in college anyway to ease the transition, esp with honors gpa requirements (see my other post asking about course grading means wrt engr and honors) So this year’s test results might be moot.</p>

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<p>Hypothetically- Is it possible for students to graduate in 4 years if they do not ever do the winter session? That cost would need to be considered in all if our son who is a Chem E major would go there.</p>

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<p>My 3 friends who were ChemE majors all graduated in 4 years. A couple did winter sessions but more for the chance to take something that interested them. YMMV. I took on line classes from my instate schools during winter and summer when I added another major to meet some general reqs. I never heard of anyone not graduating in 4 years because they couldn’t get the courses req for their major. All the super-seniors I knew had changed majors at some point. I suppose it would take longer if you failed or had to drop courses along the way.</p>

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<p>pamom3 - yes it is possible, it is how my s will do it, winter session is an added cost that we cannot afford. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the chemE curriculum yet? It’s pretty much a roadmap for how to accomplish it in 4 years, unless there are extra requirements for the honors program that I am unaware of since my s is non-honors. Below is a link to the curriculum semester by semester.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.che.udel.edu/pdf/2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.che.udel.edu/pdf/2008.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

Absolutely. I think the only way a student wouldn’t graduate in 4 years in ChemE is if they either failed something or made a change to a major. My daughter is in a major with a required sequence and I can tell you that all necessary accommodations are made for the kids with required courses to get them in the proper term. Which is not to say it might not be an 8 am class . . .</p>

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<p>have you ever heard of a student appealing their admissions decision?</p>

<p>I’m instate and I was only accepted to the associate in arts program at the dover campus with an undeclared major even though i applied to the main campus with an international business studies major.</p>

<p>stats:
GPA: 88.5 (slipped up more in with senior mid-year grades)
SAT: 2210</p>

<p>do you think they’ll reconsider?</p>