Whatever you’re looking for in a college, you can find it at the University of Delaware. I’m not making a sales pitch here folks. Let’s look at the facts:

COST: If you’re in-state, this is the best deal in the world. Out of state, it’s just about as expensive as any other school, but a lot cheaper than ivy league and private schools. Plus you can find plenty of ways to save money by living in apartments instead of dorms (which means getting away from your parents)

Population: UD is known as a big public school that has a small private school reputation. The population is about 15,000 undergrads, which may seem like a lot, but whenever you’re walking around campus you always run into people you know. It’s just as easy to disappear in the crowd as well as spread your social butterfly wings and meet a lot of people, but you probably won’t get to meet everyone. That said, with over 200 clubs and organizations, you have all the opportunity in the world to explore your interests and find your crowd—and you can always have more than one!

Academics: If you’ve been taking AP in high school, UD’s classes will be at your level. Depending on what classes you take, you might find yourself in a lecture hall (intro to sociology), or a class of 15-30 students (Intermediate Spanish)

Chemistry is notoriously hard and a requirement for most science-based majors, but let’s face it, if you’re reading Teen ink, your interest lies in the English department. UD offers AP English credit but does not exempt you from taking prerequisite English classes if you are an English major. In fact, AP English credit as an English major is pretty much useless. The best AP credits you can roll in with are Bio and Calc, respectively. If you score extra high on bio, you get science credit don’t have to take a lab! If you pass Calc, you don’t have to take math! (that is, assuming you are an English major of sorts ahem)

Delaware is notorious for being a good school for education majors, and the jobs are especially potent and easy to get into in Delaware. Most schools in Delaware are for the most part adequately funded, and the new schools being built are very well funded, which means you’ll be teaching in a comfortable environment and these new schools will be looking for you to teach.

Athletics: If you’re a DIAA athlete you probably know all about them. If you like watching sports, football and basketball are huge events… well, they used to be. A lot of people play club sports at UD, popular ones include rugby, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and basketball. Even more people do intramurals like flag football (and co-ed ff) soccer, dodgeball, basketball, etc. Basically all the games you missed in gym class are offered as an intramural sport here. Plus, there are 3 gyms that you can use for free. So get in shape! No excuses.

Clubs: The clubs are legit here, and are my favorite thing about UD. All I can say is, no matter what your interest is, there is a club for it. There is even a TV station that broadcasts live across campus, and many of its top producers are looking at internships with networks like NBC, PBS, and ABC. Every single club is student-run and very accepting of freshmen, and yes, there are multiple writing clubs. But you’ll have to try them out for yourself.

Campus life: There is always a party to be found, but it takes time to get to know which parties are best to go to. If you’re involved with certain clubs, for instance Frisbee team, your club will host glorious parties that people can go to whether they are part of the club or not. Other organizations like frats only let girls in, unless you are part of or know important people in the fraternity. The best parties are ones that involve smaller crowds of friends and mutual friends, but they are often hard to come by. Parties can be dangerous for people under the age of 21 because the police are always on campus and always sniffing out trouble. The university provides free public safety people who will walk you to your dorm or class at night to keep you safe. Overall campus life is perfectly save, provided that you are smart.

Not a party person? Well there’s plenty of other things to do with all the clubs. Plus the dorm life is great. The RA’s never stop finding things to do. You will never be hungry. Newark is full of places to eat, not that you’d want to because the dining food is actually good, but hey there’s good spots for a nice date. And you can order pizza at 2 in the morning. And the university shops are open until really late every day. And you can buy stuff at the grocery stores.

Other than that, the best thing to do in Delaware is travel… to a different state. Luckily, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and New York City are just a train ride away! Plus there’s rehobeth beach, DE which is only about an hour away by car, assuming there’s no traffic and you’re friends with a DE native to get you there.

Whatever you want to do, UD has it. For those who like to experience it all, come on down to Delaware. People from California come here—that’s how legit Delaware is.