<p>My son has been offered admission into University of Maryland's honors engineering program (he wants to study electrical engineering) as well as University of Delaware's program. He didn't even apply for the Maryland honors program; he just got a call yesterday saying he was in. Can anyone who knows about these programs comment on the relative merits of each U's program, as well as what kind of benefits/responsibilities accrue to a student in an honors program? Does honors just mean tougher courses, or does it also mean access to select courses, seminars, etc.? Thanks.</p>
<p>University of Maryland's honors engineering program, 10chr.</p>
<p>I have a friend (an engineer) whose son is in U MD'd honors program...computer science I think.....loves it. I think it really is a college within a college....including living together in a special dorm or 2. Its a very respected program. Of course UMD is a big school....Delaware is a bit less expansive. Sorry, but I can't answer your curriculum questions directly.</p>
<p>I am from MD and have a few friends in the honors program there. As far as I can tell, they have to take "Honors" courses which are generally liberal arts courses meant to expand a student's cultural horizon or something along those lines (I think they are listed as Honors, so it sounds like only honors students have access to these). Also, one of the not-so-necessary but nice nonetheless benefits of the program (at least from what I've heard) is that honors students get "Honors housing" with bigger rooms and maybe nicer facilities (one friend ended up with a triple, but doesn't mind it at all since it's the size of a typical quad being that its in the "Honors" dorm). Also, simply living among other Honors students could contribute somewhat to your son's academic success (this would obviously depend on his personality type, but it seems like sound reasoning for the most part - surrounding yourself with "smarter" people than the already smart UMD general student population could help most people).</p>
<p>Anyway, based on everything I've heard from everyone I know going to UMD-CP, I'd highly recommend it. The location isn't so great (but then again, neither is Delaware's), but there's tons of things to do in/around College Park. Maryland is an ACC school with great sports teams all around (football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer) and a top-25 engineering program. I don't think you could really go wrong with it, especially with the Honors program.</p>
<p>As far as Delaware is concerned, I really don't know anything about it.</p>
<p>Just a note, the friends I am referring to are also engineers in UMD's Honors Program.</p>
<p>Have you visited both schools? I was accepted to Delaware Honors and also Maryland Honors (and many other schools) but picked Delaware. I was not impressed by Maryland AT ALL. The campus was pretty bad IMO and the surrounding area is unimpressive as well. Granted Delaware is out in the middle of nowhere but it has a cute main street and is within like 40 minutes to an 1 hour of both Baltimore and Philly. </p>
<p>Sit in on a few lectures one day. I got the impression that Maryland was very focused on research and Delaware was focused on teaching. I am now a junior at Delaware and I don't think I've had a bad professor yet. Also, DE grads are heavily recruited by big name companies as it's close to some big cities in PA, Baltimore, Wash DC, and also there are big companies in DE like Dupont. </p>
<p>Visit both and then make your decision. Just because you're in the honors college doesn't mean you aren't in the University as a whole. You will still take many courses non honors and will likely live outside of the honors program housing(which Delaware has as well)at some point.</p>
<p>... and I thought about the same issue of Maryland being ranked higher but in the end I decided that if I was a driven student and did well, I wasn't going to have a problem getting a job. </p>
<p>Both schools are good schools... you'll enjoy whichever you pick as long as you go there with the right mindset.</p>
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I was not impressed by Maryland AT ALL. The campus was pretty bad IMO
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<p>I thought the campus is really nice every season</p>
<p>chaoses... that's why I added the "IMO". It's a personal thing which is why I encouraged a visit to both schools. People look for different things at schools and on campus.</p>