UDistinctions

 

The University of Delaware is one of the most popular universities in the U.S., with nearly 26,500 freshman applicants for the Class of 2014, the strongest pool in the institution's history. The freshman class totals 3,394, with the middle 50 percent of the class earning an SAT score between 1790 and 2000 and a high school GPA between 3.38 and 3.91. The middle 50 percent of freshmen admitted to the Honors Program had a GPA between 3.82 and 4.00 and an SAT between 2010 and 2190.

A leader in international education, UD offered the first study-abroad program in the world in 1923. Today, UD has programs in 50 countries and on all seven continents. UD ranks third nationally among public doctoral institutions in undergraduate study-abroad participation. Nearly 40 percent of UD undergraduates study overseas. In 2010, the Education Advisory Board’s University Leadership Council cited UD’s study-abroad program as a model. In 2007, UD received the Institute for International Education’s Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation. UD also has agreements and exchanges with universities in Asia, Europe and South America.

UD is committed to providing an atmosphere in which all students are welcome and feel welcome. The University supports critical thinking, free inquiry and respect for diverse views. UD’s First Year Experience helps freshmen build social connections and a strong academic foundation that serves students well. At 77 percent, UD’s graduation rate is 20 percentage points higher than the national average. UD’s Latino and African American students also graduate in numbers far higher than the U.S. average—22 percentage points higher and 16 points higher, respectively.

UD's exceptional faculty includes internationally known authors, scientists and artists, among them a Nobel laureate, Guggenheim and Fulbright fellows, members of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences and American Association for the Advancement of Science. UD has more than 100 endowed professorships, honoring distinguished teachers and scholars recognized by their peers on campus, across the nation and around the world.

Matthew Watters, a senior neuroscience major and political science minor at UD, was named a 2010 Rhodes Scholar. UD has had 12 Rhodes Scholars since the prestigious program began in 1904. UD also has produced numerous Marshall, Goldwater and Truman scholars, and in 2005 was named a Truman Scholarship Honor Institution for its outstanding record of Truman Scholars selected. In 2010, UD had four Goldwater Scholars—Amanda Welch, a junior animal science major; Michael Napolitano, a senior biochemistry major; Patrick Devlin, a senior mathematical sciences major; and Mark Weidman, a senior chemical engineering major.

In 2010, Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography, won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on faculty in the early stages of their careers. It is awarded to just 100 researchers each year. It was the second-straight year that UD boasted a PECASE winner. Thomas Epps, assistant professor of chemical engineering, won the award in 2009. Two UD faculty have won early career development awards from the National Science Foundation in 2011: Maciek R. Antoniewicz, DuPont Young Professor of chemical engineering, and Sharon Rozovsky, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

In 2009, UD was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction; it was the third-straight year that UD earned this highest federal recognition for volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. Susan Serra, Office of Service Learning coordinator at UD, said the selection is a tribute to the University. “It's gratifying to have UD recognized for the outstanding work our faculty and students are doing in reaching out to the community.” More than 12,000 students—over half of UD’s student population—donated a total of 140,000 hours to community service projects in 2009.

UD traces its origins to a small private academy founded in 1743 by the Rev. Francis Alison, whose first class was a remarkable one. That first class included three Signers of the Declaration of Independence, George Read, Thomas McKean and James Smith. Read also signed the Constitution. Their names are memorialized on residence halls on the Laird Campus.

 

Notable University of Delaware alumni include U.S. Vice President Joe Biden; New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; Tony Award-winner Susan Stroman; former Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon and current Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco; the inventor of Gore-Tex, Robert Gore; and Wayne Westerman, whose revolutionary computer technology, based on human touch, is used in Apple's iPhone and other products.

Two UD alumni have won the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “genius award.” They are Jacqueline Jones, a 1970 graduate and Truman Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University, and Charles Lewis, a 1975 graduate who founded the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

Other distinguished alumni include David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt, chief strategists for the 2008 presidential campaigns of Pres. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain; Tom Degnan, named a 2007 “Hero of Chemistry” by the American Chemical Society for his work at ExxonMobil on PxMax; Mary Patterson McPherson, executive director of the American Philosophical Society and former president of Bryn Mawr College; and Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, senior textile conservator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History who led the 14-year conservation project of the Star-Spangled Banner.

UD has a long, proud tradition of excellence in intercollegiate athletics and during 2010–11, two Fightin’ Blue Hens teams were invited to NCAA tournament play. The volleyball team won the Colonial Athletic Association championship—its third CAA championship in four years—and reached the first round of the NCAA tournament. The football team made it all the way to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) title game in Frisco, Texas, before falling to Eastern Washington University. The football team finished the 2010 season ranked #2 in the FCS.

A citation in the Princeton Review once referred to the UD campus as “absolutely the most gorgeous anywhere,” and a 2007 Washington Post story noted, “with its elegant, elongated Green, [UD] is a stunning landscape of Georgian Colonial red-brick, white-columned architecture to rival anything conceived by Thomas Jefferson.”

 

 

With several centers dedicated to renewable energy science, education and policy—such as the UD Energy Institute and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy—UD is working on the world’s most pressing energy sustainability challenges. UD scientists are conducting path-breaking research in solar cells, wind power, vehicle-to-grid technology, next-generation magnets and catalysis. The University is going green as well: A 2-megawatt wind turbine powers UD’s campus in Lewes, Delaware; UD’s shuttle fleet includes two zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell buses—among only a dozen nationwide; and a 2,000-panel solar installation on three campus rooftops gives UD the third-largest solar capacity of all East Coast colleges.

The world-class collections of the University Museums enrich the campus community and far beyond. The Old College Gallery has over 10,000 objects, artworks and artifacts, with particular strengths in vintage and contemporary photography; Pre-Columbian and Southwest Native American ceramics; American prints and drawings from the 19th Century to the present; and significant works by the renowned Brandywine School artists Howard Pyle, Stanley Arthurs, Frank Schoonover and N. C. Wyeth. UD also is home to the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art, one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of works by 20th-Century African American artists. At the core of the Mineralogical Museum’s vast holdings are 2,000 specimens purchased from Tiffany in 1919 by Irénée du Pont, then president of the DuPont Company. They had been on display in the jeweler’s Fifth Avenue showroom in New York.

In 2010, the UD Chorale won three second-place awards and a third-place award at the 42nd International Tolosa Choral Contest in Spain, placing in every category in which it competed. Appearances at the festival are by invitation only, and UD was one of only two U.S. choirs competing in the global event. In 2007, the chorale won the grand prix round of the 10th International Choir Festival in Tallinn, Estonia—the first time since 1994 that an American choir had won the competition.

UD’s spirit teams regularly take top honors in national competition. In 2011, both the cheerleading squad and the dance team won second place in the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) national championships in Orlando, Florida. YoUDee, the Fightin’ Blue Hens mascot and a member of the Mascot Hall of Fame, clinched the 2011 UCA national championship—its third championship in 10 years. The highly regarded UD Marching Band is 300 members strong and performs championship-caliber halftime shows at football games.