<p>Okay, for Mid Atlantic residents, what's you opinion on the relative merits of
University of Delaware
Rutgers
Penn State - University Park</p>
<p>Don’t know about Rutgers or U-Del. But we did check out Penn State, University Park last week. Is a huge university in a small college town. D liked the campus and the town, but wasn’t sure she wanted to be in such a huge university. She might think of applying to the honors college there though.</p>
<p>At the info session, they talked a lot about the 2+2 program - where you can do the first two years at any Penn State campus and then finish your degree at University Park. This probably cuts costs and provides more flexibility for the local folks (some campuses are commuter campuses)…but didn’t make a difference to us OOS.</p>
<p>Rutgers and PSU are both significantly larger than UDel. PSU is considered the “best” of the three, Rutgers in the middle… but this is from a Delawarean perspective and I know that many PA/NJ students pay OOS tuition to attend Delaware, which is much more competitive OOS than IS (cf. Commitment to Delawareans). UDel probably has the prettiest campus, but I’ve never visited PSU or Rutgers.</p>
<p>I do not believe the difference in schools would be worth paying an oos premium.</p>
<p>All three are pretty comparable, although I’d give PSU an edge academically. A lot depends on what you want for a location. S didn’t like PSU because it’s in the middle of nowhere. He loved Delaware, which does have a very pretty and well-maintained campus. We haven’t visited Rutgers, although I do know that the main campus (New Brunswick) is very large and is made up of five different campuses.</p>
<p>Oh, it really depends on what you want.
All are good schools. One of them might have an edge depending on the program.
Yes, PSU is in a rural area, but the college town is bustling. Everything is right there and it’s quite safe.
Del has a more urban feel but also the safety issues that go along with it.
Have not been to Rutgers - but those I know there are not impressed with the physical campus.
The campus at PSU IS large but I think the main parts are very pretty.</p>
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<p>Does anyone else see a problem with the statement above?</p>
<p>I would send my son to Penn State in a heartbeat, all other things being equal. I agree with what toneranger said. The town is small but very active and safe. The university is huge. The people are very nice. A student can study any conceivable subject there. Beautiful and stimulating place.</p>
<p>Maybe the only disadvantage (to me) is that it’s hard to get to.</p>
<p>UDel feels smaller than it is. Unless taking classes in athletics or Ag/Animal, it’s practical to walk most places … including the commercial Main Street which runs right through the campus. And it looks a lot like an LAC, with large lawns and Georgian style buildings. Some majors are challenging, some aren’t. Some students study a lot, some don’t. Some students use the six-week Winter Break to study abroad, some don’t. Etc.</p>
<p>Anyone care to add UConn into the mix and how it compares?</p>
<p>
This only cuts costs if you commute. The tuition is essentially the same - for in-state anyway. Some satellite campuses are quite nice and have dorms and are run just like any small college. Plenty of OOS kids do the 2+2 if they can’t get into Main right away.</p>
<p>I think some of the decision depends on what you want to study, if you like spectator sports etc.
Delaware is a beautiful campus, close to the beach and bigger cities than Penn State.
For name recognition - you can’t beat Penn State.</p>
<p>As far as UConn - probably comparable to Delaware.</p>
<p>I think all 3 have their own unique differences, each appealing to different tastes. My son just completed his sophomore year at UD, and is transferring to Rutgers in the fall. So I will soon see which one he prefers. The campus at UD is beautiful, and most academic buildings are very easy to walk to. Main Street is nice, with a variety of restaurants and shops. As an engineering major, my son had quite a bit of work to do. He found the teaching to be mixed, with 1/3 of the professors being very good to excellent, 1/3 to be fair, and 1/3 to be poor. The good professors might have been hard, but they were accessible, offered liberal office hours, and in some cases, provided extra classes once a week for those students who wanted more. The fair ones did their jobs. Some of the poor ones had a limited grasp of the English language, did not want to be bothered for help during office hours, and seemed unprepared at times. As far as the student body is concerned, there was a mix of students as was mentioned in a previous post. Some were very serious about academics, some who never did any work, and everything in between the two extremes. </p>
<p>I have never seen Penn State, but my son wouldn’t even apply there because he didn’t want to be in a rural area. So really, I believe that what we all think doesn’t matter as much as what the prospective student thinks. Good luck with your college search!</p>
<p>Bottom line, I think you need to visit and draw your own conclusions.
My son thought he would hate Penn State. Pictured a bunch of farms, some ugly buildings, and nothing to do. Almost didn’t visit.
But it has a classic college town with lots going on and everything is right there. It feels smaller after you find your own groups. Son is sad that he’s going into his last year!</p>
<p>mantori - Note the qualification. I know lots of people who HAVE visited all three campuses, and PSU/Rutgers have never been preferred for aesthetics. (For numerous other reasons, certainly. But I’m an elitist LAC snob and even I think UDel’s campus is beautiful.)</p>
<p>^^^
OK, well I have been to both campuses (PSU and Del) and I think both are pretty…PSU is much bigger of course.
I too had the impression that PSU was ugly or at least plain before my visit. It’s NOT. Classic beautiful campus, lots of green areas, mature elms, stately buildings. There are some weird looking buildings here and there, but overall, the place looks great.
Can’t say much about Rutgers…</p>
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<p>Until you said it, there was no way to know. Unfortunately, this board is full of comments like, “I don’t know anything about this subject, but here’s my opinion anyway.” Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to it.</p>
<p>“As far as UConn - probably comparable to Delaware.”</p>
<p>Hmm. I know a lot about UConn. DW is an alumnus, and of course it’s our state flagship university. And my daughter’s attending UDel. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>NewHope, can you elaborate a little? S is thinking of applying to UConn, but we’re not going to be able to visit, so I’d be interested in your thoughts.</p>
<p>^^^ No worries. It was a strange position to find myself in, defending my state flagship which I hate. XD</p>
<p>When it comes to the NE state flagships, I think most people choose on other specific criteria–distance, size, campus, academic strength in a specific major–versus simply overall merits.</p>
<p>How about adding the University of Maryland at College Park to the mix?</p>
<p>It has something none of the others do – easy access to an interesting city (Washington, DC). It’s a little farther from the Northeast than the other schools you mention, but there’s easy access to whatever sort of transportation you might want – planes, trains, buses, I-95.</p>
<p>The campus is beautiful, with a Southern look to it, but Maryland is not really a Southern school. The bulk of the student body comes from the Washington or Baltimore suburbs (with the out-of-staters coming mostly from New York and New Jersey). If you want a truly Southern feel, you have to go a bit farther south than College Park.</p>
<p>Maryland is a huge school, but it has many honors and special interest programs for freshmen and sophomores that help to make the campus feel smaller. People don’t seem overwhelmed by the size of the school in the way that those at Penn State sometimes seem to be.</p>
<p>Maryland also has some pluses in the diversity department. The DC suburbs are one of the most racially diverse areas in the country, so kids from every imaginable background end up at Maryland. Maryland also has a large and thriving Jewish community that attracts Jewish students from both within and outside the state.</p>
<p>The one major disadvantage of Maryland is that the area beyond the immediate vicinity of the campus is a borderline slum. And as might be expected, given these surroundings, there is a theft issue. If you leave something unattended even for a moment, it’s gone. So a certain urban-style caution is needed, even though the campus is in a suburb.</p>
<p>[Full disclosure: My son graduated from Maryland a year ago. He had a very positive experience there, both academically and socially, but he did have bicycles stolen three times.]</p>
<p>“NewHope, can you elaborate a little?”</p>
<p>UConn advertises itself as the No. 1 public university in New England. It may be that, though I’m sure UVermont would argue the point. UConn’s well-funded, and just completed a $2B building program. There are many good programs, and there are plenty of smart kids … also several nationally ranked sports teams. But UConn has an isolation issue. A two hour walk to the nearest McDonald’s? Twenty-five miles to the football stadium? It’s a good place to get a degree, if one doesn’t mind accomplishing that in comparative isolation.</p>