Drexel University is a private institution that was founded in 1891. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 11,901, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 96 acres. It utilizes a quarter-based academic calendar. Drexel University's ranking in the 2014 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 97. Its tuition and fees are $37,505 (2013-14).
Students at Drexel University get a unique mix of in-class education and extensive on-the-job experience before graduation. Drexel operates a cooperative education program, sending students to more than 1,200 employers worldwide for six months at a time. Before graduation, students can complete as many as three co-ops, many of which are paid. (The average paycheck a Drexel student will take home after six months is more than $14,500.) To accommodate the co-ops, the university schedule is split into quarters. A co-op is completed over two quarters, and student who complete 3 co-ops will graduate in five years. Graduating in four years is possible if students opt for a single co-op experience and take classes during the summer. Most majors require students to complete at least one co-op. The experience pays off after graduation, as about a third of Drexel graduates are offered jobs by their co-op employers. When students aren’t working, there is plenty to do on the school’s main campus in Philadelphia’s University City. They have more than 160 student clubs and organizations to get involved in, including more than 25 fraternities and sororities. The Drexel Dragons compete in the NCAA Division I Colonial Athletic Conference. The neighborhood is extremely student centric, also home to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. The city’s central hub of public transportation, 30th Street Station, is two blocks from campus, and Center City Philadelphia is a 10 minute walk away. Housing is guaranteed freshman year, and first-year students who do not live with their parents must live on campus. In total, close to 80 percent of Drexel students commute to school. Drexel refers to itself as Philadelphia’s most technological school, and it was the first campus in the nation to be entirely wireless.
Drexel offers well-regarded programs through the College of Engineering, and has a medical school and a law school, too. The Drexel University College of Medicine is the country’s largest private medical school, and the Earle Mack School of Law is a unique extension of the university’s mission, offering co-ops opportunities to law students and special curriculums in entrepreneurship, business, and health law. Notable alumni of Drexel University include Earle I. Mack, a former ambassador to Finland and namesake of Drexel’s law school, and William T. Schleyer, former chairman and CEO of Adelphia Communications.