Drexel University

Date: Dec 28 2009
Major: Architecture (This Major's Salary over time)
Drexel offers one of only two part-time evening architecture programs on the East Coast, so my options were limited from the start, but over the last five years I've grown more and more disillusioned with this program. First of all, academic advising is horrendous. There is one advisor for PT Arch and she does not return emails. If you speak to her in person, you stand the added pressure of getting everything you talk about in writing, because if you don't and things change, you're screwed. Secondly, the facilities are a joke. Old, crumbling spaces that exist as an afterthought in the attic of the Main Building. Either burning hot or icy cold with acoustics that make it difficult to hear anything said in your studio group. There are printing facilities that are operated by people who don't know how to troubleshoot issues, so you can send your drawings and stand there for hours while one project after another gets destroyed and reprinted and destroyed again. There is no place to work on your project outside of class time, so you work all week at home—an a vacuum—then come in and present and get 5 minutes worth of feedback that's supposed to last you for the next week. There's no collaboration whatsoever. Lastly, if you have an issue with a billing statement or some other administrative problem, good luck getting help. You will call around all day to speak to the "right" person…then find out a week later nothing has been done and you need to call back. The online portal for students, DrexelOne, is difficult to navigate and is down so often for maintenance it's hardly even worth having. At this point, I just need to finish up, but Drexel has not been worth the money to me. It's been five years of headaches, aggravation, and feeling like this entire major is ignored.