<p>Hi, I am a senior who applied for EA1 back in August. I am in LOVE with Drexel and once I visited it, I knew it was the college I wanted to go to. But I have some questions:</p>
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<li><p>What do you think my chances are? I have a 3.8 weighted GPA and 3.6 unweighted. I have taken all ap and honors courses, and got at 1530 on my SAT (retaking next month).</p></li>
<li><p>I know the school is a lot of money, is it generous on scholarships?? If not will it be a bang for the buck once I graduate?</p></li>
<li><p>Are the Co-Ops really helpful when trying to find a job after college? Because that was one of the main reasons I really love it.</p></li>
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<li><p>I don’t work in admissions, but I will say that your stats are the norm, if not higher. Your SAT is a little low, but everything else seems to check out. </p></li>
<li><p>Drexel is incredibly expensive and the scholarships, unless you get one coming in (Presidential, etc) are kinda slim. They go down as tuition go up and decrease for no reason if they’re not merit based. Private scholarships will definitely help, and there are definitely ways to reduce your cost once you get there. Additionally, I know some folks who have taken out student loans and then have started to pay some of them off with the money they’ve made during their co-ops. So that’s a potential cost reducer right there. </p></li>
<li><p>Are the Co-Ops really helpful when trying to find a job after college? Because that was one of the main reasons I really love it.</p></li>
<li><p>I can’t speak to this because I’m still in school and I’m also a no co-op. However, I will say that a lot of my friends have had great success in their co-ops and the companies for which they have worked have wanted them back, either for another co-op or after graduation. I will also say this - the reliability, goodness, and pay-scale of your co-op is kind of major dependent. Certainly there’s a lot you can do to make your odds of getting a good co-op better (high GPA, relevant work experience, good references), but a lot of it boils down to what you’re studying. </p></li>
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<li><p>You’re stats are great! Is the SAT out of 1600/2400? If it’s out of 2400, that’s kinda low, but like JPuck said, everything else looks good!</p></li>
<li><p>From my experience, Drexel is quite generous when it comes to scholarships; I don’t know anyone who is paying the full price. Many increment of AJ Drexel and Dean’s scholarships are awarded, and with your stats, I think you have a good shot.<br>
Also, may co-ops pay pretty decently, although you aren’t guaranteed a paid co-op. </p></li>
<li><p>I haven’t even had my first co-op yet, but at least in the business school, I hear about people all the time who end up getting full-time job offers from their previous co-op employers. So I would assume co-ops are helpful.</p></li>
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<p>Thats a great GPA, I got in with opposite problem. ~3 GPA and 1960 SAT. Who knows how it balances and compensates. </p>
<p>If you are poor they cover a lot, the middle class as always gets the worst of it. Write a financial aid appeal, doing the loan math and showing how much debt you would have vs your career starting salary. Got $15,000x5 from a single persuasive essay that way, would not have been able to go otherwise so in my case they were generous after holding back (started with NONE).</p>
<p>As for co-op it literally lets you write in your resume that you have 2 years work experience. Its a legitimate full pay job, so you are not entry level and will get jobs over your friends in 4 year schools. At least thats the way I see it. Work experience is everything - the classroom is completely different from the workplace and employers recognize this and favor very much the person who is already acclimated into the world of work as opposed to fresh college grads with nothing to show but wide eyed enthusiasm.</p>