Drexel University

For the most part, my classes were ok. Show up, do your work, and you're fine. But administratively, Drexel is the worst school I have ever been to. It takes an average of 6-7 phone calls + 5 emails to get a response from anyone (no exaduration here - it took over two years for my transfer credits, 1 1/2 for the correct financial aid, and 10 months to get a mistake cleared from my record). Its all so frustrating. I spend avg. an hour a day making stupid phone calls to Drexel staff for their stupid mistakes. God forbid you should ever need help from an advisor. In all fairness, some the professors are great, but some leave you wondering why you spent the money - leaving dumber than when you came in. For the money (I paid $2000 for online and $1850 for regular classes) go to Penn. I was shocked to learn that Penn costs are comparable!!! Their campus looks much nicer and from what I've heard they have a far better reputation -

3rd Year Female -- Class 2005

Surrounding City: A+, Individual Value: F

I transferred outta this place after 2 years of being ripped off by Papadakis. When you first come to Drexel university they make it seem like "Wow we have a great Co-Op program you should come and you make money while you learn!" Can we say bullcrap? I thought the same thing as a freshman then when time for co-op came there's that little fineprint of "Oh yea you have to pay the university the same money you pay for classes when you go on co-op...aka you are working for free! Oh yea and if you don't get a co-op that pays then you are PAYING TO WORK!" Great huh?

And then there's the fact that they have lots of staff who KNOW what they're doing, however they don't know how to convey it. I remember my japanese class teacher saying "IF YOU STUDY THE CONVERSATIONS WORD FOR WORD YOU WILL GET AN A!" I don't recall her ever saying "Understand what you are studying". I was a Digital Media major and I was going to major in 3D Animation, but when I finally came to look for co-ops, they were all for graphic design!! Why am I paying you people thousands of dollars every 3 months to get a GRAPHIC DESIGN JOB!! And then because these people run on trimesters, when I transferred out all my classes only counted as 2 credits at a NORMAL college. -_-; This place is out to STEAL YOUR MONEY. The only people who get worthy co-ops and good education are engineers. If you aren't an engineer, you might as well apply somewhere else. All their effort goes into their engineering school because that's originally how Drexel started. All their other majors were just added on to attract more people, aka eat your money. Oh yea and if you're no a freshman or a sophmore, don't bother getting housing, because you're put in the waaayyy back of the line. OH yea also I'd like to mention how a stabbing happened on the campus and the president claimed that it wasn't on the campus..oh thats right it was 12 inches from the campus, let me move my foot over. There's also such wonderful things as the "Rape garden" conveniently located by North Hall. OH and their new apartment complex which is partially owned by Philadelphia management, well lets just say if you don't live on the Drexel or UPenn owned floors, no one cares what happens to you, hence why a robbery happened and THAT'S when they actually decided to add some kind of security in the building. However I must say the dormitories themselves are quite safe. Also I was a commuter so I had to take the lovely PAtco/Septa from NJ, and lemme tell ya, you don't wanna be on that trash box after 6 PM, especially if you're a young girl and carrying a bunch of art supplies with you.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2005

Collaboration/Competitive: A-, Education Quality: F

Students regaularly get "shafted" by the administration. My professors are excellent, but it's definitely the administrative offices such as Financial Aid and Student Accounts that are the major problem here. I will admit that my academic program in nursing is kind of disorganized at times, but if everything else was ok, I wouldn't mind that. There is nothing you can do in the face of the red tape, mistakes, and outright incompetence you will encounter in the administrative offices I mentioned. If you are considering going to this school, don't downplay my comment and think, "Oh that won't happen to me." There's a big chance you will get screwed over in some way by the Financial Aid office or Student Accounts and if you don't have anyone who can help you out while you wait for the bumbling idiots to process the check you need for living expenses or fix the mistakes that they made with processing your loans, your academic career could be destroyed. Unless you are into information technology or computer programming or something like that, just think about going somewhere else, because it's not worth it. This school is screwed up.

1st Year Female -- Class 2005

Useful Schoolwork: A+, Individual Value: F