<p>I was really considering Drexel until I visited it last week. I was highly disappointed. Here are some of my complaints:</p>
<p>-It was really hard to find a bunch of restaurants close to Drexel. There were no shopping malls, movie theatres, or places for social gatherings to be at. Where do students at Drexel go when they want to hang out outside of campus?</p>
<p>-I live close to New York City, and when comparing Philly to NYC, Philly seems so empty and dead to me. Was it because I visited during spring break that Philly was so empty?</p>
<p>-And finally, Drexel has horrible ratings. College ******* rates the girls at Drexel a C, and I haven't heard very good reviews from friends either. How are the people there?</p>
<p>-Also when you YouTube Drexel what comes up is a bunch of Drexel skateboard goons fighting with some dude on campus. Are there a lot of smart kids at Drexel? The admissions rate is awfully high...</p>
<p>I know I sound like an ass hole but these are serious concerns. Can any current students at Drexel please address some of my concerns? Please be as subjective as possible in your responses. Thank you.</p>
<p>Just a block away from campus is 30th street station where there is a ton ton of food places. Right on the corner of 34th and Walnut is another food court. The very popular movie theater called the bridge is is a few blocks up from there.</p>
<p>Drexel also has many very new high tech state of the art buildings, a lot that were designed by well-known architects… including several under construction right now. (the athletic center is brand spankin new… like opened a few weeks ago).</p>
<p>The problem with your visit is you did not venture out outside your tour around campus. Yes there are tons of malls and shopping places in philly, just google them. It’s also possible that spring break had something to do with it. Especially in April, all you’d find is students all over campus, playing volleyball on the sand courts, tennis, activities in the quad, sports games on buckley, etc.</p>
<p>Are there a lot of smart kids at Drexel? Yes. Beyond that, I don’t think I need to “defend” this. There will be many many students a lot smarter than you at Drexel. In fact, there are many students who go to community colleges and many who enlisted in the military straight out of high school that are much smarter than you. If you don’t realize that now, you’re in for a reality check. I will tell you, that among the brightest students at Drexel are the international students. And after a thorough youtube search, I only found four Drexel skateboarding videos… all uploaded by the same user. Maybe you need to look a little harder. As far as ratings go, they mean jack ****.</p>
<p>Finally, I honestly think you’d be better off not coming to Drexel. Nobody can make you like a certain college or not. Its perfectly fine and perfectly ok if you came out of Drexel not feeling it. Drexel isn’t most people’s dream school… but for some it is. Just keep looking at other universities until you find a few that you like.</p>
<p>Good luck. For future reference, “ass hole” is one word</p>
<p>Drexel is in the middle of Philadelphia, there are plenty of things to do. Unlike other colleges in suburban areas, you don’t need a car to get from place to place. I like the people here and yes, there are plenty of smart kids on campus. I saw your post on the accepted thread and with a 2.6, you’re decently below the avg GPA that Drexel accepts. As for students here, I don’t know many below a 3.0 in general. </p>
<p>If you have this many concerns, however unfounded they are, then you’re probably better off attending another school. Going in with a negative attitude will just lead to your unhappiness. If you have a positive attitude about the school you’re attending then you’ll have a ton more fun and meet plenty of awesome people.</p>
<p>If Philly isn’t alive, where else is alive? It’s not NYC, nowhere is like NYC, but Philly is one of the most alive, too. </p>
<p>Well I’m not sure how good student you are, but I know a couple of people going to Drexel, and I’m hundred percent positive, you’ll find there some serious challenge. It’s not a top ten engineering school, but it’s a very good one, and they attract lots of good students since they award scholarships.</p>
<p>I mean if I could afford Drexel, I would go there. The city is lively, transportation is easy, and its location is convenient.</p>
<p>-It was really hard to find a bunch of restaurants close to Drexel. There were no shopping malls, movie theatres, or places for social gatherings to be at. Where do students at Drexel go when they want to hang out outside of campus?</p>
<p>I think you are wrong. There are at least 10-15 excellent restaurants within less than 10 min walk from the center of the campus. A movie theater just 5 blocks from there.
Philly is full of action. Look around better </p>
<p>-The buildings seemed really old. Nothing about Drexel seems modern.</p>
<p>Did you see the building on 32 and Market. It was build in 2006 (Engineering Research Center). Did you see the new extension of the gym (build … this year). Did you see the recent dorms? There is one more building going up right now on Chestnut and 34. </p>
<p>-I live close to New York City, and when comparing Philly to NYC, Philly seems so empty and dead to me. Was it because I visited during spring break that Philly was so empty?</p>
<p>Maybe you visited another city?</p>
<p>-And finally, Drexel has horrible ratings. College ******* rates the girls at Drexel a C, and I haven’t heard very good reviews from friends either. How are the people there?</p>
<p>If this is an important rating for you … No further comment :)</p>
<p>-Also when you YouTube Drexel what comes up is a bunch of Drexel skateboard goons fighting with some dude on campus. Are there a lot of smart kids at Drexel? The admissions rate is awfully high…</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I know I sound like an ass hole but these are serious concerns. Can any current students at Drexel please address some of my concerns? Please be as subjective as possible in your responses. Thank you. </p>
<p>I think that you need to look at this a little bit beyond the superficial…
Good luck.</p>
<p>Drexel isn’t really as bad as people make it out to be. I was just wondering if their honors college is any good. I heard that they have a brand new building to house honors students, but how is the reputation/rigor/prestige of drexel’s honor college?</p>
<p>there is no prestige to the honors college. it doesn’t mean anything. I know some people who have GPAs under a 3.0 and are still in the college. it has some perks, like a few extra classes that you can take, free printing at an honors lounge, and early class registration, but it’s basically a technique drexel uses to increase the admission rate (it’s very hard for a non-honors current student to become an honors student, even if there gpa is above a 3.7 - a lot of hoops need to be jumped through) the honors “housing” is just a plain ripoff. nobody differentiates between a drexel honors and non-honors grad. anyone who tells you anything else is wrong.</p>
<p>bottom line is the biggest perk is early class registration, so you should be happy if you get into the honors college, and should not turn the offer down, but don’t think it’s anything special like other university honors programs out there and it’s not going to be a distinguishing factor to get a co-op job or anything else.</p>
<p>Your impressions of Drexel unfortunately are correct. Most of the the activity movie theaters, restaurants are either deep on the Penn campus or in Center City. While Septa (public transport) is your friend,the area round Drexel is crime ridden. In fact a Drexel student was shot by a localat the movie theater touted on these boards. </p>
<p>There is no comparison between Philly and NYC and Drexel is somewhat depressing. Check out Fiske guide if you don’t believe me.</p>
<p>"Most of the the activity movie theaters, restaurants are either deep on the Penn campus or in Center City. "</p>
<p>"the area round Drexel is crime ridden. In fact a Drexel student was shot by a localat the movie theater touted on these boards. "</p>
<p>these two sentences refute each other. if there really is no movie theaters around drexel’s campus, and you say a student was shot a movie theater, how can you claim that the drexel area is dangerous?</p>
<p>the incident that bldesq is talking about is somewhat different from the actual story. there is crime west of campus, (beyond say 40th st), but all these incidents are very isolated. you can pretty much pick out any college and find an incident that sounds dangerous every year. I can’t remember every detail, but I believe the student was grazed by a gunshot fired from an off duty officer and was quickly released from the hospital. It was not a “local” that instigated it, it was an isolated incident of crime that came in from well west of Drexel’s campus. In fact, the person just happened to be a Drexel student. It could have very well been a Penn student, because the movie theater is close to Penn’s campus.</p>
<p>I live in a suburban neighborhood in New Jersey. it’s middle class and it’s very safe to be in. nevertheless, occasionally crime comes in from the neighboring towns. eg: a bank robbery happens every few months or so. does that make the town I live in automatically not safe? No… crime happens everywhere and there is no place that is crime-free. nevertheless, I still haven’t found one student at drexel that didn’t feel safe walking around campus. You don’t measure crime by one past isolated incident. Is Virginia Tech the most crime-ridden campus in America? Certainly not. I know some students that go to Virginia Tech, and they sure feel safe walking around campus. I’m not sure who you are and what college you go to or went to, but I’m sure I could find a recent crime that happened any college campus.</p>
<p>You’re misinformed, and if you did you wouldn’t refer people to a “Fiske Guide” to prove your point. The best way to see what the truth is, is not to regurgitate things from a “Fiske Guide” but to go walk around the Drexel’s campus at night yourself, and ask students if they think the area is safe and if they have had any incidents themselves.</p>
<p>BTW I graduated from Penn-was born and raised in Philly,did grad work at Penn and live in Manhattan. Drexel was and is one of the most depressing campuses I’ve ever seen. Believe me no one from Penn ver goes to Drexel to hang out, attend lectures, eat, or much of anything else. For someone to point to the food court at the Amtrax station as an attraction and reason to attend Drexel is res ipsa loquitur. To put it in New York terms, it’s the equivalent of citing the Port Authority food court as an NYU attraction. Really!</p>
<p>Moral of the story: Just visit the campus yourself and make your own opinion of it instead of listening to other people’s possibly biased opinions.</p>
<p>There’s enough to do within walking distance, whether it’s heading east, west, or even south. I don’t recommend going north unless you want to bike to the zoo. I quite like that Drexel is close to the Schulykill…perfect place for a run/bike ride and it’s super easy to get there straight down Market/Chestnut or over Spring Garden. </p>
<p>Really, just explore the area. It’s really not hard to walk a mile and find things to do on your way.</p>
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