University of Delaware

The University of Delaware (colloquially "UD") is the largest university in Delaware. The main campus is in Newark, with satellite campuses in Dover, Wilmington, Lewes, and Georgetown. It is medium-sized – approximately 16,000 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students. Although UD receives public funding for being a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant and urban-grant state-supported research institution, it is also privately chartered. At present, the school's endowment is valued at about $962 million US.

University of Delaware is a Public Ivy, which is a term used for colleges and universities with an academic quality comparable to Ivy League institutions at a public school price. These colleges and universities have academic rigor comparable to Ivy League schools, provide Ivy League experiences to their students with a distinguished faculty, and compete with the best and the brightest students of all races and nations.

UD is considered as a very high research activity university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The school has renowned engineering, science, business, hospitality management, education, urban affairs and public policy, public administration, agriculture, history, chemical engineering, chemistry and biochemistry programs, among others, drawing from the historically strong presence of the nation's chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the state of Delaware, such as DuPont and W. L. Gore and Associates. It is one of only four schools in North America with a major in art conservation. UD was the first American university to begin a study abroad program.

The school from which the university grew was founded in 1743, making it one of the oldest in the nation. However, UD was not chartered as an institution of higher learning until 1833. Its original class of ten students included George Read, Thomas McKean, and James Smith, all three of whom would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence.