Hello!
So I went to Philadelphia from Texas this past weekend and did a lot of exploring, took a campus tour, and talked to my counselor. I learned a lot of things about campus and its surroundings and can try to answer quite a few concerns that have come up on this forum overall.
- Safety.
I walked miles through and around campus trying as hard as I can to find a bad spot. South of campus is entirely the University of Pennsylvania and obviously on campus there is pretty safe. There were always mounted security on both Upenn and Drexel every time I was on campus (morning, afternoon and night). I waled way North (as far as the Cornerstone bed and breakfast) and that was all student housing which has pretty nice exterior architecture and quite a few beautiful churches. If there were people living in a building that weren’t students, they were generally elderly people that had found a nice little home to spend the rest of their days in. I walked way West of Campus (as far as the Boston market) and there were definitely less people walking around over there but no vagrants or threatening people. East of campus you have train tracks and a river and the Amtrak station which all have a lot of people around it. The campus is also filled with students and food trucks all around it so there are a lot of eyes and ears everywhere. Overall, I would say the campus is very safe.
- Campus Beauty.
I think people who say the campus is the ugliest campus in the nation haven’t been to it recently. Drexel has done a lot of renovation and it definitely paid of in the appearance department. Lebow is a stunning structure accompanied by the Law school and Entrepreneurial school. The Rec center is nice enough for what it is and also has a formal dining restaurant underneath it. The main building is old on the outside but has a beautiful lobby on the inside. The ugliest building I probably saw was the Psychology building. But everything else has taken on new architecture with a lot of glass and windows. The Summit and U crossing are also very nice on the outside from what I could see. The other older dormitories are going to be going through renovations here pretty soon as well. The Engineering building is combo of nice in some parts and old/ugly in others.
There were also facilities people all over campus working on something, I saw one working with air conditioners and I saw another scraping dried concrete that had gotten on a light. There is a lot of effort being put to keeping the campus clean. I would also go as far to say there is a significant enough amount of green and grass areas on campus for the number of students that are there at any given time.
- Food.
I didn’t get to eat at the dining hall, so I can’t speak for that. But during lunch and dinner hours, campus is completely surrounded by food trucks. For $5 I got a big plate of lamb, chicken, rice, lettuce, and a soda. Those guys were bordering the west side of campus and were open all day/night. You can easily find good food for as cheap or as expensive as you want it when/if you need a break from the dining hall. When on UPenn, I didn’t see a single food truck. So there is that advantage.
- Student Body.
Since Drexel is so big on Co-Ops, you don’t often see the whole student body on campus at once. During the tour they explain how students are assigned to Fall/Winter CoOps or Spring/Summer Co Ops so that about half of everyone is off working at any given time. Transfer students are typically given Spring/Winter Co-Ops. Classes were still in session when I was there and I had no problem getting around. There was no walking traffic I had to fight or feel uncomfortable with.
- Undergraduate Advising
Ultimately, this is what made me decide on Drexel. Drexel analyzed and gave me all of the credits I thought I would get without having to put down a deposit. They were very punctual with communications and in letting me know expectations. I asked to make an appointment with my adviser when I came in on Thursday and she was willing to sit with me for 30 minutes to an hour to meet with me and talk over the degree. It turned out, she had set the appointment for when she was supposed to be off that day to make the sacrifice for me since I was coming out of state. We went over my expected coursework for the next two semesters, my coop schedule, general information about Philadelphia and the courses I will be in. I have done undergraduate at Purdue and Texas A&M (I am receiving my second bachelors from Drexel) and neither school provided an undergraduate experience that could remotely compare to what I experienced this Spring with Drexel.
- Graduate Advising
This is where the school’s brand and value really hurts. They treat Graduate applicants really poorly. I had two friends apply to two completely different graduate departments and they had awful experiences. Reading others reviews online and responses on gradcafe and such, it seems like this is pretty common theme. If you are not accepted, its an awful experience. You will never be rejected until the very last second, if at all (one of my friends never received a rejection letter even). If you receive an interview, you will also never find anything out unless you are accepted. I don’t know if it is insecurity in which the various departments just fear their accepted students won’t commit at the very last minute or what, but its an awful way to treat applicants in my opinion. I think it is very worthwhile to pursue a graduate education here, but please understand it can be a very difficult and frustrating process and that the graduate application experience is very different from the undergraduate experience.
- Value and what you pay for.
I posted earlier on another thread and a lot of people don’t seem to understand the expensiveness of the school. Philadelphia in general, is a very expensive place to get an education. Most of the universities in or surrounding the city have high tuition rates. Here is a list I compiled using news and world report estimated costs for the 2014 year:
Drexel - $47,051
UPenn - $47,668
Villanova - $45,966
Lehigh University - $44,890
Bucknell University - $48,498
Bryn Mawr College - $45,540
St. Joseph’s University - $40,580
Thomas Jefferson University - $30,358
La Salle University - $39,800
Cabrini College - $29,842
Chestnut Hill College - $32,510
Temple University - $14,770 (In) $25,450 (Out)
Haverford College - $47,214
Moravian College - $36,800
Swarthmore College - $46,060
Ursinus College - $46,075
Widener University - $39,830
Philadelphia University - $35,080
University of the Sciences - $36,096
Drexel’s big selling point is the Co Op. Of all the students that pursue a Co Op, they report 94% find a job they are satisfied with immediately after graduation. As a student you can gain up to 18 months of paid full time work experience before you graduate and still graduate within 5 years. You don’t pay tuition while you are on co op, merely a university fee that covers the general services you still have access to while on Co Op from what I understand. They also find that students receive anywhere from 4%-10% starting pay increase after doing a Co Op.
If Co Op isn’t your thing, Drexel still offers an absurd amount of opportunities for students to get involved in undergraduate research, honors/academic societies, and on campus jobs. Drexel has all of its bases covered when it comes undergraduate opportunity to excel and prove oneself in an academic world. So Co Op or none Co Op this is still a very great school.