The other post is right, university size is an important thing to consider in choosing a university. That aside, University of Maryland College Park is a better ranked university than Delaware. According to US News, Delaware is #71 whereas Maryland is #54. I don’t know how much that matters to you though.

If I had to pick between the two schools, I would also think about location and what sort of resources are available to you at each place. Maryland is on the DC metro. You could be in DC in less than an hour. I also know that Maryland has a lot of really great internship programs in place with government and cultural instiutions in D.C., which might be a nice resource.

Good luck picking a school!

It depends on what you’re looking for. Strictly looking at size, I know students who go to both. One common complaint about UM-CP is that it’s a really big school. Around 30,000. You’re just your student ID number there. Graduate students teach the courses basically. You go to lecture with 200 other people and the professor doesn’t have time to help each of you if you need it. So you meet with a graduate mentor. Sometimes they even grade your papers. This is generally what each of your classes is like. If you can learn on your own and don’t mind being lost in a crowd and having to search high and low for help when you need it, you might do fine there. Some people are very resourceful and know where to find academic help on campus through friends in the class, upperclassmen, and tutors. Others feel left behind and drop out or fail their classes. I don’t know how this compares to UD, but this is what I know about class size at UM. The best place to look is on the internet and talking to students at these schools. The school’s website will give you the straight facts about the school, but each website is biased. Sometimes it’s best to talk to students who go there and find out why they chose that school. I personally looked into each of these schools and found that neither were for me simply because I like having a medium-sized campus where the professors teach the classes and get to know the students. The largest class I had was 60 students and the professor got to know each of us. Speaking academically, I wasn’t looking for the greatest school, but at least one that had good academic programs. And, when it came down to it, money was an issue. I got some scholarships for the college I attend now and that weighed in my decision.