The state of Delaware is located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania, to the east by New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by Maryland. It is the second smallest state in the union (96 miles long and from 9 to 35 miles across). The population of Delaware is 850,000; though only the forty-fifth most populous state, it is the seventh most densely populated. It is a prosperous and thriving state. It enjoys an excellent location: the urban core of Delaware (New Castle County) lies halfway between New York City and Washington DC; thirty minutes’ drive south of Philadelphia and thirty minutes north of Baltimore. Many of America’s largest corporations locate their headquarters in Delaware; like Ireland, the state offers the attraction of a very favourable corporate tax regime. The state’s per capita personal income ranks ninth in the nation; the average weekly wage ranks seventh. The state’s economy generally outperforms the national economy of the United States.
Delaware has a history of dynamism and innovation: it was the first of the thirteen states to ratify the constitution in 1787 (hence the state’s nickname, “The first state”); though a slave state it supported the executive decision to abolish slavery and voted against secession in 1861; and it was in the van of the industrial and commercial development of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries that saw the United States become the wealthiest nation in the world.
American College Delaware is situated in the town of Claymont, which lies immediately to the north of Delaware’s largest city, Wilmington (Wilmington is the social and economic hub of the state; the political capital is Dover). Though technically separate from Wilmington, Claymont is in effect a suburb of the city. The population of Wilmington is 75,000; Claymont’s population comprises an additional 10,000 people.