Worth the Experience!
Written: Mar 02 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Co-op program, city life, education
Cons: An extra year in school, tough schedule, city life
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| jlandis44's Full Review: Drexel University |
To best sum up my experience at Drexel, you could use a quote from one of my coworkers when I entered the workforce immediately upon graduation: "You are far better prepared for the 'real-world' that most people I've encountered as 'fresh-outs'". Drexel's co-op program should be considered the major draw to this school. You enter the work force with about 1.5 years of work experience under your belt (that is why Drexel is generally at least a 5 year experience). Along with teaching you valuable resume writing skills, this co-op program allows you to get your feet wet in the work place and know that every 6 months you'll either switch jobs or go back to school. Lots of room to test what you like about working.
As for the environment surrounding the school itself, I found living in a major city to be even more valuable than the education itself. You learn much more about how to deal with people in a city than you would in a rural environment. You see many more things that are generally not available to the smaller town schools - not all of them good (homeless, rats, crack vials on the sidewalk outside your apartment), but for the most part, very good (comedy clubs, South Street, Pat's Steaks!, Abner's, museums, etc).
The education - I have no frame of reference to compare, but it seems to me that it has to be a more intense experience than most schools. Drexel is on the "Quarter System". Each term is 10 weeks long, plus a week of finals. This is to accommodate the co-op program. You still do the same amount of work that any other school would do in their 16-20 week terms. Lots of learning about "time-budgeting". When they take you into the auditorium during orientation and tell you that "probably, the people sitting next to you will not be here when you graduate", it was mostly true for me! The person on my left never graduated, and the person on my right had failed out, only to return in a different major and graduate (with Dean's list grades! I think failing out was quite eye-opening!) In my program (Physics), the education was geared toward real-world experiences. I had an instructor who refused to give in-class exams - everything was take-home. He always said, "I want to test your ability to work out the problems in a real-world environment with all your resources available. I'm not here to determine your stress level!" Another professor would give us exams and tell us to go work together where ever we wanted (library!). He wanted us to learn the material in a team-like setting. (I learned more during some of his exams than I had learned in the previous 3 weeks leading up to the test!) The only thing I found during my experience to be annoying was that I never had to take a Statistics course as part of the curriculum, yet when I reached a course on Nuclear Theory, I was expected to know statistics. If I had known that, I could have taken one earlier...When we graduated, the Dean called each of the Physics graduates into her office and we discussed our feelings on the program. I made the recommendation to add Statistics to the Physics program, but I have no idea if it ever came to be...
My 5 years at Drexel were some of the toughest, yet most fulfilling years of my life...they were also the fastest! If you are someone who enjoys challenge, Drexel is for you. If all you're looking to do is party, Drexel is not for you - If you do it right, you'll definitely get your share of partying, but end up with a lifelong education at the same time!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jlandis44
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Member: Jon Landis
Location: Boyds, MD
Reviews written: 37
Trusted by: 2 members
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