<p>Hi CC community! Right now I am accepted into UConn Engineering (Undecided) and for this topic I am assuming I will be accepted into UDelaware. Assuming I get into UD Engineering, I have absolutely no idea which one I would like to go to and I was hoping I could get some advice from people on here. I will be posting this in both of their forums to get opinions from both sides.</p>
<p>Reasons for UConn
I loved the campus
Sports and school spirit
Good school academically, although the engineering program is ranked lower than UD.</p>
<p>The only things that bothered me were the fact that it is 4.5 hours away from me and the fact that there is nothing outside of the campus and both of these were remedied by the fact that now there is a megabus in Storrs to help me with transportation, and the shopping center they will be building.</p>
<p>Reasons for UD
I also loved the campus and the giant quad they have
The sports are not as main stream but they do have all the spirit that I like.
Also a good school academically and its engineering department is ranked higher than UConn.
Located about an hour away from me which is perfect
A few thousand dollars cheaper than UConn if I am not mistaken</p>
<p>Only thing that I do not like is the 2 month long winter break. I know you can go abroad or take classes their, but they both cost money and are expensive, and I would rather not be stuck at home with no college friends home because they are all away already.</p>
<p>My D is a sophmore at UD and we looked at UCONN as well. We much preferred UD - think the campus is nicer. UCONN was a bit too rural and not anything outside of the campus, compared to UD (the whole Main Street thing is pretty cool). Being an engineering student should make UD weigh much heavier because they have a great engineering program.</p>
<p>And BTW by D and I DO hate the long break. However, it’s not enough of a reason to not choose the school. And I agree the winter session may be great for some, but if you are OOS and money is tight that can be a huge obstacle (D wanted to do winter session this past January but we had to deny her.) </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision. You may get a different opinion on UCONN post!</p>
<p>S got into both schools (not for engineering), and we live the same distances away (1 hour from UD, 4-5 hours from UConn). We all drove up to UConn after he was admitted so he could see the campus, spend the day with a current student, sit in on a class, etc. At the end of the day we met up and asked what he thought. He said “No one here is smiling. At UD, everyone was smiling.” </p>
<p>Of course that’s an exaggeration, but there was a palpable difference, at least when we were there, from the upbeat atmosphere at UD. Plus the lack of anything to do in Storrs is a big drawback, particularly if you’re not interested in Greek life.</p>
<p>S is now a very happy UD freshman. He likes it so much that he may even do a summer session, and this is a kid who would have run away screaming at the mention of anything like that a year ago.</p>
<p>My DD was accepted to both UD and UCONN also (not engineering). UCONN may be a little closer to where we live, but not as easily accessible by public transportation. DD always had UD ranked higher on her list - like booklady, she liked the upbeat, friendly atmosphere at UD better, as well as the suburban location. Weather is a bit better in Delaware. In general, UD is ranked higher academically (although I’m sure there are great programs at UCONN and DD would have gone there had she not gotten into her top 3 choices). She’s now a happy freshman at UD.</p>
<p>The long winter break isn’t ideal, but plan ahead and you can find something productive to do. My DD is now applying for a study abroad program for next January. I’m hoping in following years, she will work (even for free, but getting paid would be nice) at a place related to her career interests.</p>
<p>I’m sure you will get different answers on the UCONN board!</p>
<p>I would like to second all of the comments from the previous posts. I do believe that a sense of elan does permeate the student body/campus at UD that I did not sense in most other colleges that my D and I visited (we did not visit UConn) prior to her decision to attend UD (Nursing). UD’s Engineering Dept. has an excellant national reputation with it’s Chemicial Engineering Program being rated 10th in the nation (above all Ivy League Programs except Princeton). If Chemical Engineering is your interest I definately would choose UD over UConn. Best of luck to you wherever you decide to go. UConn is also an excellant college.</p>
<p>My son is considering UConn, UDel, Binghampton and UVermont, Computer Science</p>
<p>Any thoughts on male/female ratio from those with sons at Delaware. Males are in the minority, there was a newspaper article on it in a paper talking about how few men are at Delaware (I googled it-I think Philadelphia newspaper 1-2 years ago), has it been a problem for your sons making friends. A friends son at James Madison almost transferred out freshman year due to lack of male friends, but is now staying and his brother plans to attend there too, so it worked itself out.</p>
<p>As with others, my son is very happy at UD. He has plenty of male friends, so I don’t think that is an issue. It’s not like it’s a small school with only a few thousand students. The longe winter break is a pain (and especially since they told us they did not charge extra for the dorm and then changed their policy) but it was nice having my son home to shovel snow this year :-).</p>
<p>BTW as someone else said, if chemical engineering is your interest, going to UD is a no-brainer.</p>
<p>I wish I was going for ChemE but sadly I am not, I am going in undecided but as of now I want to do Mechanical. But who knows, maybe I’ll fall in love with Chem and it will be perfect!</p>
<p>S has found plenty of male friends, and the ratio hasn’t been an issue at all for him. A bunch of them are rooming together/near each other next year. And misterbill, I’m with you on the snow shoveling - it was great having him home!</p>
<p>One factor to keep in mind regarding the lack or responses on the UConn website probably relates to the differences in the makeup of the student bodies between the two schools. At UConn 75% of the student body (from Uconn’s website) is from Connecticut while at UD only a little over a third of the students come from Delaware. UD is unique among major State Universites in this regard. It is the only major State University that receives more applications from OOS students as compared to in-state students. Judging from the distances noted in many of the above posts I would wager that most are parents of OOS students who choose to come to UD. I feel this actually is another selling point for UD as compared to other major State Universities. The majority of the OOS students at UD are from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland combined with Conn. being a distant 5th (or so). UConn recieves most of its OOS applicants from the New England/New York area and I suspect relatively few of them even consider UD for admission so have not visited the campus in order to compare the two schools. I could be wrong-just a thought.</p>