Drexel University — Attraction in Philadelphia

I joined Drexel University as a Computer Science major with a sole aim to take transfer to a better institution.

The only two things that I liked at Drexel was :- Scholarship and Financial Aid Math faculty (Dimitri, Jason and Pavel Grinfield)

The CS lectures were aweful, so was the CS faculty. I had a 4 GPA for 3 continuous quarters (that's how long I stayed here). CS 164 was a course which taught Javascript language. However, I knew more JavaScript before taking the course than I came out learning after the course. Totally confusing. Popyack was my professor.

CS 171 and 172 were fine, just because I had prior experience with C++. In 8 out of 10 lectures I fell asleep, because they were extremely boring. The professor made no eye contact what so ever. Half of the time what he says would make no sense. The labs don't really help you out, they are poorly designed. Most labs will take more time than the time allotted. You'll have to go home with extra work.

The university is fraud and extremely unmanaged. There's no infrastructure compared to the good colleges. Small football field.

The area is not safe at all. You keep hearing this person got shot, that person got robbed, raped etc.

They do not maintain student to faculty ratio. Classes are oversized and poorly air conditioned.

Drexel course registration system is very poor. Generally by the time your registration time starts most of the classes you had planned to take would be full. Leaving you sweating and worried early in the morning (around 7 am).

There's something called Drexel Central at Drexel, which helps you out with general/administrative/financial aid questions. I emailed them many a times, however, out of 5 emails, I only got reply to 3 of them. Bad service. (They say they maintain a well-designed database system for all the messages/inquiries/support).

They compare themselves to UPenn. (Yes, you can laugh). Also, some professors say that Drexel Dragons are much better than UPenn students. (Laugh again).

Extremely expensive. (So much money for nothin'. In fact, the tuition is more than that of UPenn which is an Ivey League)

There are two places where you can go and have meals, and hang out with friends too. However, the food options there is so limited that it's better you rather eat at other places and waste all your meal swipes for which you are paying about $ 2000 per quarter. Even with meal swipes you don't get everything (basically the good things). For most of the things you can't use meal swipes. For meal swipe, at one of the locations, for example you can buy Pepppperrrronnnni Pizza (You can guess the quality of the pizza! The worst pepperoni is served here.)

The free refill cups are extremely small. When I joined in the Fall the cups had a good size of 16 oz, but as time flew the cups became smaller and smaller. They are now half (may be even lesser) of what they used to be.

The books for the courses are at extremely high price, and are hardly used.

Drexel maintains rating and review system for course and faculy, however, though it is hardly ever evaluated. (But they will send you a million emails asking you to complete course/faculty rating/review). For example, one of the Pfysics professors at Drexel, who is pathetic at teaching, asks the students to buy books if they are taking the course compulsorily, still continues this practice of making them buy books, even after so many reviews having been done against it. No action taken by Drexel.

The dorm life is not bad. Except that the washrooms, toilets are not cleaned on a daily basis.

The kitchen is always dirty.

Laundry room is always full.

Well, they do have a Subway, but the quality of service provided there is extremely poor. The guy there literally just throws everything you tell him on the bread, such that when the bread is folded, 1/4th of the sandwich comes out.

Chick fil A at Drexel unlike at all other locations does not provide free refills.

Again they are charging you so much for nothing. Never...

I can say that when I went there I was very pleased with the engineering co-op program, several excellent professors, and there were some good food trucks outside, but that is about it. I graduated a while ago and still work for the company of my last co-op, but I still periodically deal with young students from Drexel and I hear that not a lot has changed over the years. They still tell stories about the school being a business and not caring about the students. Support is minimal. Costs are extremely high. I ultimately did my graduate work at Villanova, which I loved and found to be the polar opposite of my Drexel experience.

My biggest issues with Drexel? The school does not care too much about the students. It is looking for your money. Here are some of my experiences to ponder:

1. I had a "scholarship" from Drexel that covered roughly 1/4 of my freshman tuition. I had committed to Drexel and paid my upfront costs. When I went to the burser's office with my mom with my scholarship letter and to pay the rest of the tuition, I was told that they "hadn't collected enough money" through their alumni fundraising to cover my scholarship and that I would be put on a waiting list. In the meantime I was told I had to pay that amount (which I didn't have). I showed them that my letter didn't say "maybe I have a scholarship", but described an award. They told me to "try and sue us for it", and that it wouldn't be worth it. I would have lost my up-front money so we wound up taking out a private loan. I never saw a dollar of my "scholarship". I have the letter to this day.
2. They will admit pretty much everyone. Look at the entrance stats. You then get the lecture of "look around you, 3/4 of these people won't graduate with you". Then comes the "weeding out term" at the end of Freshman year. Yes, they will take everyone's tuition money and fees, and then gladly fail them out. Minimal support for those who try and stay. They don't care. The statue widely known as the "Drexel Shaft" was there for years and was nicknamed as such based on student experiences.
3. Drexel was a highly rated Engineering school when I attended. While I was there, they decided to expand to try and be everything, business, now healthcare, etc., to the detriment of the engineering school. Their ratings dropped from a Top 25 Engineering school to ~100 and even lower depending on where you look. It hurt the school's stature and thus my degrees value.
4. Not enough time with professors. Mixed bag of TA's. Some TA's good, some outright horrendous (Oh the stories I could tell...). You know its bad when 25+ years later you can still remember the bad one's names.
5. I was the 1st graduating class of a dual degree program. IT was sold to us as being set up as 5yrs + 1 extra term. About 20 of us joined. I thought I can deal w/ one extra term's cost and it would be worth it. Instead, they didn't get it set up properly, switched co-op cycles, we wound up taking classes and an extra co-op we didn't need, and were then charged a full year's tuition. That was not what we signed up for. Several of us fought it. Ultimately we were given about $800 each, told "well you made money on the extra co-op", and wow, they gave us a low 2% loan to cover the additional 2 terms costs! The years following us didn't have this issue. Ask me if I...

Ahh Drexel, my Alma Mater. Here are some random thoughts:

Expensive. For the tuition they charge, I felt I could have gotten an equivalent education elsewhere for a lot cheaper. I think the people in Upper Management are trying to make DU appealing to a lot of paying customers(i.e., students). Hey, they have to get the money somehow for all the new buildings they are building. Location is good, right in University City. Right next to Penn. You'll always find something to do, Public transportation makes it easy to navigate around. Lot of food trucks, and a nice food court at Penn and other nice resturants. Facilties are ok, at least when I went. I know they made improvements and built new buildings. Gym is nice. Computer system is ok, at least for Macs. Campus is not that big. Main buildings are Main Building(!), buildings around the Quad, Library, Gym, etc. The building where your classes are going to be held are pretty much centralized in the buildings I just mentioned. If you're trying to get accepted to Drexel, you have a good chance of getting in, even if you were average in High School. As I said before, they are trying to appeal themselves to a lot of paying customers(you, the student). Examples: The Online School, Medical School, ISchool, numerous commercials, Drexel in Sacramento. Yes, Drexel, the money making machine. I believe the accepatance rate is around 70%. Seems like there was a high turnover of students after my first year. Not sure about now. Many people cannot handle the 10 week terms at Drexel. There were people I never saw again after my first year. Apathetic administration - you will experience the "shaft"! If there is ever an error on your bill or records, you will experience a lot of red tape and attitude. Student body is diverse, and ethnic groups tend to stick together. Frats seem to be popular(most located in Powelton Village). There was some racial tension when I went there. Cafteria food is so-so. Better food at the Food Trucks, to be honest. Finally, Co-op is one of the best things about Drexel and some people would say the only good thing about going to Drexel. I don't know about that, but treasure those co-ops and choose the right one. They will help you immensely in the future.

All in all, a good undergraduate experience. I cannot give Drexel a low score. I am proud to be a Dragon. Would I do it all over again? Hmmm..........Make sure you do your...