A Commitment to Delawareans

For the Class Entering in Fall 2009

D-R-A-F-T NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

What is the Commitment to Delawareans?

Think of the Commitment to Delawareans as an academic roadmap. Its goal is to show you the courses you must complete and the level of performance you must achieve in them if you want to be confident of gaining admission onto the Newark campus of the University of Delaware. If you follow what we have outlined, you can also be confident that we will meet your demonstrated financial need up to full, in-state tuition with a combination of grants, loans, and/or college work-study.

Is this a guarantee of admission?

It is as close to a “guarantee” as we can make it. While no university can guarantee admission until a student has submitted a complete application, we can lay out what you need to do in grades 9^th through 12^th if you want to give yourself the best chance of being admitted. Our intention is to help students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors answer the question, “How can students best prepare themselves for admission into the University of Delaware?”

How does the Commitment to Delawareans differ from the University’s published requirements for admission?

Our published requirements spell out only the minimum number of college preparatory courses students must complete to be considered for admission. For some students, meeting only these minimum requirements will not be enough to assure them of admission. Whether they actually get admitted to UD – and whether that admission is into a four-year degree program or only to a two-year, Associate in Arts program – will still depend on such factors as their grades, their test scores, and the rigor of the courses they have selected.

Following the guidelines set forth in the Commitment to Delawareans, however, puts you on track for admission to the Newark campus into a four-year degree program. It also ensures that, once you do enroll, you will be among our best prepared students.

In short, the Commitment to Delawareans lays out a balanced curriculum of breadth and challenge in English, mathematics, laboratory science, foreign languages, and history and social studies. It is not only a roadmap for admission into an affordable education at the University of Delaware; it is also a curriculum to set you on the path to excellence as a University of Delaware student.

The UD Commitment to Delawareans DRAFT: January 28, 2006
The residents of our home state have always enjoyed a special relationship with the University of Delaware. That is why we offer admission to every Delawarean applicant who demonstrates the ability to succeed at the University. The most important predictor of academic success is the rigor of your course selection in high school. Next are the grades that you earn in rigorous, academic classes. Knowing that, we have developed a path that will show Delaware residents how they can best prepare themselves for admission into the University of Delaware. The requirements that follow are not our minimum requirements for admission.  Rather, they are more stringent than the ones we set forth in our admissions publications.  Rest assured that, even if you fall short of meeting them, you may still be admitted into the University of Delaware. However, if you want to be confident of being admitted, here is a plan you can follow that will lead to a place in our freshman class. Specifically, we make this commitment: · if you meet all of the requirements specified below, then you can be confident of being admitted onto the Newark campus of the University of Delaware · Further, if you file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (“FAFSA”), the University will meet your full, demonstrated financial need up to full, in-state tuition with a combination of grants, loans, and/or college work-study. The University will also attempt to meet your room and board costs as financial aid resources permit.
General Requirements: Note: a unit = the equivalent of a full year of coursework	1. You must complete at least 20 academic units of coursework between grades 9 through 12, and at least 5 of those units must be completed during your senior year.
	2. The level of these courses must be at least college preparatory or higher. If your school denotes its course levels with “phases” (with 5 as the highest) then these must be phase 3, 4 or 5 level courses.
	3. At least 2 of these 20 academic units must be at a level that is higher than college preparatory — for example, “honors,” “accelerated,” “enriched,” “Advanced Placement,” “International Baccalaureate,” “Academic Challenge.” If your school uses course “phases” (with 5 as the highest), then courses denoted as phase 4 or phase 5 would meet this requirement.
	4. Among these 20 academic units, no grade may be below a B- (or the equivalent of a B- according to your school’s grading scale) and your overall cumulative GPA in these academic units must be at least a B+ or higher.
	5. You must have a record of good conduct in your school and in your community. Students who have been expelled from school, have received suspensions for serious infractions, or have been convicted or adjudicated by the courts of crimes are not eligible.
	6. You must be a resident of the State of Delaware and qualify for in-state tuition at the University of Delaware. Your application must be complete by our application deadline, and you must enter the University of Delaware as a freshman for the fall or spring semester immediately following your high school graduation.
	7. You must graduate with a high school diploma from a regionally accredited high school. (We will gladly consider home-schooled students on a case-by-case basis.)
	8. Finally, your 20 academic units must include the following as specified below:
Course Requirements:
Course	Academic Units	Level
English	4 years	At least college preparatory
Mathematics	4 years	At least college preparatory drawn only from Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics, Probability, PreCalculus, and Calculus.
Science	4 years	At least college preparatory. At least 3 of the 4 units must be drawn only from chemistry, biology, and physics and all 3 must include a laboratory.
Foreign Language	3 years of the same foreign language	At least college preparatory and all 3 years must be completing during 9-12 grades.
History	2 years	At least college preparatory, including one course in world history
Social Studies	2 years	At least college preparatory and drawn from psychology, political science, government, economics, or sociology. A year of college preparatory science may be substituted for one of the social studies courses.