Mike R.
Yelp
Full Disclosure: I attended this school and I continue to attend it. I was and continue to be both successful and enjoy my time here.
What Drexel is;
Drexel is a fast paced university with respectable academic credentials and enough supporting services/activities/arrangements in the right places to make up for the slight lack of raw academic prowess. This is a highly professional oriented school and is going to require that you treat your education similar to a 9-5 job. That's not a bad thing and a lot of entities in the actual 9-5 world have a lot of respect for it. If you can deal with it, Drexel is going to turn you into a highly-effective educated professional with a number of characteristics said employment offering entities hold in high regard. And though you have a degree, it's very different from being a college graduate.
What Drexel is not;
A place for the indolent, herd-animals, weak of constitution, those that need their hands held, persons with sensitive feelings, or those that can't manage time with a high degree of effectiveness. This is an intense, quickly paced university that will require you to walk the fine line between effective management and hyper-vigilance. It's also not a party school by any means, so don't come here looking for that. State schools will be better and cost your parents less money while you talk about crushing it last night because you drank 6 Keystone Ices.
Details:
If you're on Yelp looking for university recomendations I don't know what to say. This is the 21'st century though so I suppose that's how it rolls, I am starting to get old. That being said, let me make this clear right now;
There is no crying at Drexel.
Let me say that again.
There is no crying at Drexel.
Drexel is an intensely paced, forward-thinking, exceedingly competitive, and highly individual oriented university. This is NOT the place you go if you're looking for an extension of High School or a "traditional" university experience in any way, shape, or form. This institution represents the academic equivalent of an ice-hockey body-check into and through the glass. There is a degree of mandatory support structure for Freshmen along the lines of the traditional meetings with advisors and activities of that nature. Beyond that, is up to you to actualize yourself. There are hundreds of resources available, but it will be on you to coordinate basicly everything about your education and the ancillary activities that support that. This provides a high degree of freedom for students that can utilize it effectively. It also produces much more perilous conditions for those that can not.
When I said Drexel has "respectable" academic credentials what I mean is that they're not going to jump off the wall like an institution such as MIT would. That said, the courses are extremely rigorous, just because they're on quarters at Drexel doesn't mean you're getting short changed. You, as an undergraduate, need to be prepared to do something like learn Organic Chemistry I and II in 20 weeks. The academic requirements are high, the margins for error are small. Your peers will in most cases be as smart or smarter than you, your professors will be accomplished and strain your limits, the quarter schedule pace is breathtaking and will leave you flat on your ass with a string of Cs if you start slipping and can't recognize that you are. A lot of negative reviews not just on Yelp, but elsewhere, seem to stem from people that are or were ignorant of that fact. While I agree to some degree that Drexel does not provide enough disclosure concerning how demanding the quarter schedule can be, it is nevertheless the responsibility of the student to recognize this early and withdraw or transfer if need be. There is no shame in that, Drexel is NOT for everyone. It's not even for a lot of people.
So what's the advantage? There's a saying around campus amongst the faculty that goes "Penn students get recognition. Ours get jobs." and that's the truth. Drexel has DEEP corporate connections in private business and STEM and an overwhelming number of connections with research. Drexel students are highly regarded and often already have relationships and/or experience with employers when they leave. Experience is almost a requisite for any sort of employment in either of these fields and the co-op program provides just that. I can not overstate the value of experience when you enter the job market. The hands-on approach to cultivating not just college graduates, but educated, EMPLOYABLE, professionals truly is a unique style and Drexel has it nailed. Again, it is on YOU to seize this opportunity, but it is certainly there in abundance at Drexel.
You get what you give in a huge way here.