Rutgers, Delaware, or UMBC for Chemical Engineering

Looking for some input here … my daughter has been accepted at RU, UDel, and UMBC for ChemE. We are NJ residents. Total cost of attendance for the three schools varies (Rutgers is 27K, UMBC is 21K, UDel is 44K) but all are within our budget (though I wouldn’t mid paying less). She has NOT been offered the honors program at any of the three schools. Here’s our narrative about the academics at each school:

RU: most flexible (don’t have to select a specific major until April of freshman year and there are no capacity limitations or restrictions); widest array of engineering majors; very large school, but the separate campuses actually make it seem a little smaller than it is; engineering focused first-year housing

UDel: top ranked ChemE program of the three; concerned about accessing other engineering majors if she decides to switch (say to biomedical) due to capacity restrictions; no engineering / STEM focused first year housing

UMBC: smaller department with presumably more personal attention; STEM focused LLCs; option for biochemical engineering track (makes up for lack of biomedical engineering); none of the majors have capacity restrictions as long as you meet the gateway requirements; concerns about lack of student spirit or that the campus empties out on the weekends

Are our narratives right? Anything to add? Anything to refute?

Thanks!

Considering that she received 21k per year as OOS tuition in UMBC have you tried to go to UDel and see if they might offer you a bit more aid? I know Rutgers is in state for you but if UMBC valued your daughter enough to give her a significant discount then perhaps UDel could give you a bit more?

Another thing, I was comparing the US News 4-year graduation rates (and I know that engineering often takes more than 4 years) but UMBC has a 38% 4 year graduation rate. Rutgers is 58% and UDel is slightly better at 68%. I feel like even if UMBC is the cheapest, you should be looking at it like 4.5 years or maybe even 5 years of tuition for a more even comparison if barely more than a third of the students graduate on time.

Thank you! This is going to come down to a couple of crucial things for DD. The issue of flexibility (what are her options if she doesn’t like ChemE as much as she hopes? What if she wants to do biomedical instead?) are important to her? She also needs to decide if she wants a larger department (with more resources and options) or a smaller one (with presumably more personal attention). She wants to do her research and think through this over the next few weeks. If she decides that UDel is jet first choice, them she will appeal her merit award.

Any more thoughts on this? Are we thinking through this properly?

I have been to all three campuses and it seems to me (also based on what I have read here) that UDel has by far the best student environment of the three. I would go to UD if I were her.

Before you look at ChemE rankings and conclude that Delaware is the best option academically, do consider the underlying factors to this ranking. Delaware is a top school for ChemE because it recieves thosands of dollars in funding from WL Gore and DuPont, two of the world’s largest chemical companies, both of which are headquartered in Delaware. In recent years however, DuPont has began to outsource jobs from Delaware, and has subsequently decreased funding for UD’s ChenE program. The ranking is therfore expected to decrease over the next few years.

In addition, UD’s ChemE program is notorious for weeding out students. Less than 50% of freshmen in the ChemE program end up graduating as ChemEs. Most end up switching to other engineering disciplines which aren’t highly ranked at UD, or dropping out of the school of engineering entirely.

In the event that your daughter decides to change from ChemE to another form of engineering, probably because she’ll realize ChemE isn’t what she expected it to be, you’d want her to be at a school like Rutgers, which has other reputed engineering programs as well.

Thanks everyone. Keep the insights coming.

@mohchan360 Your point about the ranking of Delaware based on funding from DuPoint is compelling, though the UG Advisor with whom we met on our visit yesterday noted that they just received several million dollars in funding through a new research grant. (She didn’t say from where.)

Also, I had heard about the 50% weed-out rating in other parts of CC and my DD asked about it. The UG Advisor noted that they set their class size at 120 and that each year they grant 70-80 degrees. She wasn’t able to provide any further details, so even though the number of is north of 50%, some of the degrees may have come from transfer-ins to the department. She did say that a majority of the people that drop ChemE pick another engineering (MechE) or go into Chemistry. Only a small fraction actually transfer or drop from the university.

I would be interesting to get the retention rates from Rutgers and UMBC, though it’s a little harder to compare versus those two schools, you don’t officially enter the major until your sophomore year.

Your point about the situation if she decides on something other than ChemE is the crux of the matter. It seems like the rest of the UD engineering departments are solid, but not worth the incremental money.

DD goes to visit Rutgers during their Engineering and Medicine admitted students day where ChemE will be prominent. So we’ll have a better basis of comparison.

@londondad Thanks for your feedback. I’m not sure that UD has the best student environment – it probably has the most “classic” college feel. But that doesn’t mean it’s “better” than Rutgers or UMBC. It’s different. And DD needs to decide what works her.