The University of Delaware

I'm not a fan of UD. I had the choice between this and another school, and I wholeheartedly wish I had chosen the other school. Aside from SOME wonderful friends and people, the gorgeous campus, decent parties and chill attitude of MOST students, this school is not good. I feel as though the school did so much to attract good students, and then once you get here they're like "OK see you in 4 (or more commonly 5 or 6) years at graduation... if you're still here." The teachers I've had in the Biology department were horrible - in what kind of school can you not get a good course/instructor in your major?! The school really cares more about diminishing the "party school" reputation and getting a good incoming freshman class than they do about their current students. "Public Safety" does nothing more than give parking tickets, even though there are numerous robberies and other crimes every weekend. The town of Newark is pretty bad... townies are crazy, it's pretty low class and there's NOTHING to do. Coming from a small town I didn't think it'd be too much of a problem but this is ridiculous. Don't be fooled by tours and even the statistics the school gives you - there are ways to tweak numbers and they do. Good luck getting a decent advisor - mine went on sabatical and I never was even informed until I needed help with my schedule and couldn't get it! Also, be prepared to have your GPA (and therefore future) wrecked if you are a Bio major who also wants to have a life. Also check out the curriculum for your major - make sure you want to deal with lots of BS classes and not much of a well-rounded education. I have friends here who love this place, but I'm getting out of here to a smaller school that actually does something for the students who are PAYING them to be there as soon as I get my GPA up enough.

1st Year Female -- Class 2008

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Faculty Accessibility: F

While the school is great academically, the campus is beautiful and the professors are typically very good, a good percentage of the students at UD--particularlly the girls--are very rich and snooty. Sorority life is, unfortunately, huge at Delaware. Fraternities, however, are becoming more and more non-existant (most were kicked off campus due to new, stricter rules. Which, by the way, is another important point: UD is NOT the party school it used to be. Campus and local police are very quick to bust up parties and arrest students. And, with most of the fraternities off campus and unable to have big parties, the social life here as steadily gone done hill throughout my four years here. Even bars in Newark now cannot have drink specials...it is completely ridiculous.

4th Year Male -- Class 2003

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Friendliness: B-