Drexel University

This school really is what you make it. If you find friends that fit your wants and needs, you will have things to do every night. The city is 10 blocks away- walking distance- from the city. If there's not enough extra-curricular activities, just do stuff you enjoy with your friends.

While not the best of schools, Drexel has a fairly competitive technology-related curriculum (I can't speak for other majors). I wouldn't go here for International Studies- that building is the size of my bedroom. But Drexel generally encourages and rewards creativity in most of its assignments, and if you can get a co-op, there's a chance you'll actually have a job waiting for you when you graduate.

I didn't even know that Drexel had a sociology major- probably because it's really not well renowned for all that. They're exceedingly light on liberal arts electives (they have the literature of baseball, sociology of sexual behavior, etc. but not much more), but they offer a nice collection of languages.

I don't know what people's gripe about the financial aid is. They gave me one of the best offers, and the merit scholarship is pretty hefty as well. If you worked your very hardest in high school, they will reward you well with AJ Drexel scholarships, or one of their scholarship programs (STAR: research, Vanguard: summer program).

There is a lot of red tape, but if you keep good communication with your academic advisor, it'll help a whole lot. Also, being in the honors college will give you some scheduling advantage as well as activities (free art exhibit tickets, free opera tickers, free color laser printing, etc.).

And, of course our campus is ugly and has no stores on it. We're between Penn (oooh, pretty) and the city. Between the two of them, there's as many stores and pretty things to see as you could want. You just have to walk a few blocks.

I like Drexel. I like the friends I made at Drexel. I like my computer science courses. I enjoy my Arabic class. I'm going to graduate with a job and a good education, because I worked hard and pushed myself- and still had fun.