<p>My son has been accepted to both schools for Chemical Engineering. With the scholarships offererd UMBC costs $10,000 a year less than UD. Is UD worth the extra money for undergraduate?</p>
<p>My knowledge of UMBC is general. That being said, the school has a sparkling reputation for STEM fields. It the difference in scholarship money is substantial, I’d lean towards UMBC because of its reputation for hardworking STEM students and successful career placement.</p>
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<p>Thanks for the input – I think that is where we are leaning. Have been very impressed with UMBC</p>
<p>Delaware seems to have an excellent reputation specifically in chemical engineering, but no particular reputation in other subjects (although ABET accredited engineering degree programs anywhere meet a relatively high minimum standard). However, $40,000 difference over four years is a lot, especially if it means loans.</p>
<p>If visiting, you may want to visit each school’s career center to see what companies come recruiting for the student’s major at each school.</p>
<p>thanks for the input. Just got the Meyerhoff Scholarship in today’s mail. UMBC Retriever for sure!</p>
I know this was 9 years later, but my son is in a similar position. (No Meyerhoff, but Honors at Delaware. Still a big price difference.) Wondering how things went for your son.
Just to chime in. Have you visited both schools? UMBC is definitely known to be commuter friendly, not that there aren’t plenty of students on campus also. I work with several mechanical engineers from UMBC. They are all very good engineers. Delaware is one of the top schools for chemical engineering. My son applied to UMD and UDel for chemical engineering. He got great merit at UDel but not enough to offset in-state tuition at UMD. He’s currently thriving at UMD.
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Thank you for your input. Son was accepted to ChemE and honors programs with merit money at both UDel and UMBC (in-state). UMD only admitted him as a Spring semester start and not to engineering or honors. We had been assuming that he’d go to UDel, since the ChemE is program is top rated, but UMBC is closer and $80,000 less for four years. He’s not a drinker, so perhaps the lack of an overwhelming party culture wouldn’t be a bad thing. But again, the UDel ChemE program seems to be very highly regarded. Not sure if that really makes a difference.
$80,000 is a BIG difference. In the end employers are going to see a ChemE degree from an accredited university and it won’t make a world of difference between the two. There may be more intern opportunities at one or the other but yeah, in the end they both produce marketable degrees. The difference for us after merit would have been about $20,000 more total at UDel but he chose UMD as it was his top choice.