<p>I am currently a Music Industry freshman at Drexel (credit-wise I'm a sophomore, but our program is four years). I'm in the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design (COMAD) and living in Myers Hall.</p>
<p>I moved to Philly from Florida where I have lived my entire life so I know about the change of moving to college.</p>
<p>I relied on this website a LOT when I was choosing colleges and the students who posted on here helped me so much in my decision to come here that I'd like to give back.</p>
<p>If anyone has any questions about Drexel, be it about academics, social life, hall life, extracurriculars, etc. I will do my best to answer with my own experience and opinions or direct you to where you can find the answer.</p>
<p>Good luck to all applying and hope to see you at Drexel next fall! :)</p>
<p>hi!! drexel gave me a full tuition scholarship at the international science fair last year i’m from CA and dont know anyone who goes to drexel and i’ve never visited. i hear that the co-op program is rlly good and i was wondering about the campus and social life in general? and also how is the weather in philly? thanks!</p>
<p>If Drexel is one of your top choices (it should be with a full scholarship, wow congrats!), you should definitely visit it for yourself. You will never know without seeing it firsthand. Campus and social life is a lot of fun! Philly is a great city and there is always something to do. Shopping, restaurants and events are occurring everywhere and Drexel students get discounts on tickets to a lot of places, like broadway shows and sporting events. The great thing about Drexel is that they give you a Cultural Passport as a freshman which gives you free or discounted entry to a lot of historical places and other attractions in Philly like the zoo, Eastern State Penitentiary, museums, etc.</p>
<p>Social life is amazing, I’ve met so many cool people within my dorm. The only bad thing for me is that my program is extremely small (about 57 students this year I believe) and we have all of our classes together which makes it a little difficult to meet new people in an academic setting. However I’m assuming you’re doing some sort of science or math major, in which case you will probably have new people in every class!</p>
<p>Weather is a bummer sometimes, I’ll admit. I don’t know what part of Cali you’re from, but moving from Florida was a huge change. I didn’t realize that the show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” was somewhat of an inside joke here. It was really sunny the first couple of weeks and also today (WOOHOO!) but for a good three weeks it has been dark and cold and rainy! It’s not too bad though, just something you need to get used to.</p>
<p>Hope this helped some! Oh and the co-op program here is AMAZING!</p>
<p>Hey! Awesome on the Music Industry choice, it’s an excellent program. </p>
<p>Your stats look good, and it seems very promising that they are emailing you, but keep in mind (and not to scare you!) but the program is extremely hard to get into. I believe there are about 57 freshman this year and I want to say about 800 people apply (at least these are the stats I remember being told). The best advice I can give you is to get your application in as early as you can, within the next couple weeks if you haven’t done so already. The earlier you put in your application, the better chance you have! </p>
<p>As for scholarships, you will hopefully receive an academic scholarship but I can’t tell you how much. On the other posts I saw between 11,500 and 15,000. I applied with a 3.89 GPA and I believe similar SAT scores and I received a 28,000/yr academic scholarship.</p>
<p>What other music experience do you have? Do you have any business experience (ie promotion or setting up shows?) or technical experience (do you mix your own tracks?). If so I would emphasize this more than the actual rapping (though definitely still showcase this) because they will be more interested in the industry work you’ve done (business and technical) than the performing you’ve done since it’s an business rather than a performance major.</p>
<p>Haley, a few financial questions if you can shed some light (or anything else you see to mention):</p>
<p>Applying for the MI program for upcoming year (entering 2011). Mostly interested in the Sound/Audio production and technical side, but would like some Business and/or Engineering/Computer groundwork – not necessarily Double Major, but enough depth to be proficient is several disciplines. </p>
<p>SAT’s 1420/1600 2100+/2400<br>
SAT2 around 750 on each of three SAT2’s, and 5’s on the three AP’s taken so far<br>
GPA 3.98 UW in a small college prep HS (pretty much 100% graduates accepted to college every year).
Not National Merit qualified</p>
<p>Long list of plays in a strong drama department including large number of Musicals over the last several years + Chorus background including All-State, but pretty limited experience on the technical Audio Production side of performance (small town with pretty limited chances for anything even semi professional).</p>
<p>EFC would likely eliminate most need based aid, but 50K per year would be tough.</p>
<p>It looks like Drexel has a pretty good Merit Aid/Scholarship, but I’m confused about some of the numbers people are sharing. GPA/SAT don’t seem to correlate all that well with $$ awards – do you know what other factors are considered for Drexel Awards and general scholarships? Do they consider need as part of the Merit awards?</p>
<p>Are awards based on acceptance to the Honors program or is that a separate issue?</p>
<p>Are awards different for the MI vs Arts/Sciences vs Engineering schools or are all schools on similar footing?</p>
<p>Thanks for any added light to the dark tunnel.</p>
<p>Hello! Awesome on the Music Industry choice, the program here is great. Good luck! As for wanting to get information in both aspects, you will certainly do that here. I’m not sure if you can double major seeing as how Music Industry is considered one major even though there are two (3 counting entertainment pre-law) sides to it. However, I’m not sure so don’t quote me on this. If you are mostly interested in tech but want some business knowledge on the side, I think you will find that in this program.</p>
<p>We all take the same classes and it isn’t until Junior year that you choose your track (Business, Tech, or Pre-law) so up until then you will be taking classes with people who are doing business as well.</p>
<p>As for the scholarship, I’m not sure how much light I can shed on this. I received a $28,000 scholarship… I had pretty good SAT scores, a 3.89 GPA, a 2-year college degree (even though I’m 18), and wrote a fairly good essay when I applied. I believe all these things are taken into consideration. However, if it is an academic or merit based scholarship, need is not taken into account. Need based financial aid and merit based financial aid are two seperate things. You can call the financial aid office and talk to them about it but I am almost 100% positive that need is not taken into account when giving out merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I agree that $50k a year is tough. I am taking out over $20k in loans every year, but it is worth it for me. The program here is great. Should you get accepted, you will have to visit and see for yourself and determine if it is worth it to you.</p>
<p>As for the Honors/scholarship relationship, I am not in the Honors program and I still got this award… being in the Honors programs has it’s perks though as you will be able to live in the Honors dorm (Millenium - however, I personally don’t like this dorm) and you can register earlier for classes, among other things. I’d suggest applying for the Honors college, there’s nothing to lose!</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I enjoyed tracing your old posts – though it wasn’t actually intentional until you started this thread, but they came up commonly when MI was searched. I was actually funny to read some of them after knowing where you are at now.</p>
<p>Hopefully in 3-4 weeks some good news will come this direction.</p>
<p>Haley, my daughter is interested in Graphic Design. She’s met the professors and loved them all. I’m most concerned about the classes not in her major, and the “college experience”. As I’m sure you’re aware, Drexel seems to generate some negative comments. I’m wondering if that’s just a few miserable, vocal people, and what your general experience has been. How have your dealings been with the financial aid office? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Smokey7: You’re welcome! Make sure you bundle up, it’s already really cold here! :)</p>
<p>Hi HMSmom! Seems like everyone posting on here is COMAD! Westphal is the best. :)</p>
<p>I’m not sure how much I can say about classes not in her major. I dual enrolled my last two years of high school and therefore graduated with my two year Associate’s degree. This makes it so that I don’t have to take English or Economics and other classes that are needed for my major but not necessarily music related. This quarter all of my classes are music so I can’t give much information on that, especially since they pick your classes for you the first quarter. Next quarter however I am taking Accounting and will begin my non-music related courses and so then I will know what those classes are like. General education classes from my previous experience aren’t too bad. It is just like it was in high school (a little more advanced of course). During the summer before freshman year starts, your daughter (should she decide to attend Drexel), will have to take placement exams in English and Math (other classes perhaps depending on what Graphic Design requires: for example, music industry majors had to take Theory). This will hopefully help to place her in the appropriate courses. :)</p>
<p>As for “college experience” I think I may have posted some stuff about social life and things like that in the first question I responded to in this thread. College experience has been great for me so far (minus some homesickness and getting adjusted to being responsible for yourself!). The people here are great, dorm life is fun (if not a little trying at times… you have to make adjustments when living with other people!), and I am doing well in my classes. </p>
<p>To address bad comments about Drexel: I think that people who have negative experiences with something are more likely to speak out than those who have had positive experiences. In a restaurant, you don’t often call the manager over to compliment them on a good dining experience (because it’s what you expect), but you definitely complain about a bad experience. I have not had any problems (except a small few with financial aid which I’ll address in a minute) with Drexel. I am thoroughly enjoying my experience here, but not every college is for every person. If she liked what she saw and experienced here however, I think she’ll enjoy herself!</p>
<p>As for the financial aid office… in my personal experience, they almost never answer the phone. I have called many times (not since I moved here but while waiting to come here with questions about financial aid and questions about loans that needed to be answered promptly), and would remain on the phone anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before getting exasperated and hanging up. I complained about that a lot because I would call on a Tuesday at 11 when I knew other people were in class and was wondering why it seemed there was nobody in the office to pick up my calls. Every once in a while I would get a hold of someone but I would suggest using their Ask Drexel option. I got much better service. It’s an online email service where you can ask a question, they usually get back within one business day. Hope this helped, let me know if you have any other questions!</p>
<p>Just saw another post on questions that was talking about this thread has many CoMaD posts, so just so you know I can answer other questions too such as social life, weather, security etc etc as I already answered some of these in this post.</p>
<p>Also I work at the DragonCard office, any questions about this can be answered as well. :)</p>
<p>Hey could you tell me if there’s a difference between 4 and 5 year students in terms of schedules or everyday life (I know four years only get 1 co-op), and is it easy to switch majors? Thanks</p>
<p>As a 4-year student I can’t say I know too much about the schedules involved with being a 5-year student. As you already mentioned the co-op schedule is different, however, just as an aside, not all four years only get one co-op. Most do, but it is dependent on your major because, for example, in my major we do two 3-month co-ops (summer between our soph and jun years and summer between our jun and sen years) instead of one 6-month co-op. As for schedules, I would assume that they are exactly the same (we run on a quarter system, so 10 weeks in one class rather than a full semester - more quickly paced but offers you the chance to take more classes in a year AND get out of a class quicker if you don’t like it haha). Their (5-year) schedules should run the same as any other students except that (obviously) they will have one extra year of schooling and therefore have more required courses. For more information on this topic, you can always call the academic advisors at Drexel.</p>
<p>Easy to switch majors is kind of a cloudy question. Honestly that all depends on what major you are trying to switch into. I hate to keep referencing back to my own major, but it’s easiest for me haha. My major for example is basically impossible to switch into because there is a limited number of spots available due to space issues in the labs. The trasnfer policy for each major is going to be different. Your safest bet is probably to call the departments of the majors that you are interested in and ask them specifically how difficult it is to switch into that major.</p>
<p>Hi! Very glad that you are helping as you can. I was wondering, is there like winter break/spring break ect. ? What do people usually do? Do they return to their homes or do some plan on staying in the university/ studying or doing something else? </p>
<p>Also, I applied for architecture major and I was wondering if you knew anything about it in Drexel. It’s a 4 year no co-op. And last question, why are architecture major not offered co-op?</p>
<p>I was wondering if you knew whether I could change majors. I will be a freshman next fall (2011) and I was accepted for Architecture, but I had a change of mind… (not a sudden one lol) I had actually always been in between these two options and now I decided that maybe I really want to change to biomedical engineering. Is it hard for me to change from architecture to biomedical engineering major?
I really appreciate your help!</p>
<p>Here’s my question, I live in Southern Cali, and since you’re hometown is Florida, how many times a year do you go back home? Or how many times do your folks visit you (if you don’t mind me asking)?</p>
<p>And is Drexel in the middle of the city? Nice dorms? </p>
i’m from CA and dont know anyone who goes to drexel and i’ve never visited. i hear that the co-op program is rlly good and i was wondering about the campus and social life in general? and also how is the weather in philly? thanks!</p>