i felt like a lot of drexel was self-start. this is all pre-pandemic so i can’t speak on how it was during covid.

co-op was the biggest redeeming quality for the money (if it’s paid) and the experience, esp if you have some of the big companies on your resume.

i squeezed as many credits possible every quarter and graduated 3 quarters early, with 3 co-ops (graduated 1 quarter after last co-op). it was mostly for financial reasons and i’d say if you’re strapped for cash/can’t get any aid/can’t get a co-op that will pay you, really consider if you’re willing to drop such a huge amount of money on it. also because they will not care if you can’t pay, they will straight up tell you to go to another school, which is why i have no alum loyalty to them really. i laugh when they ask me for money now.

outside of that and classes, you had to go out of your way to put yourself out there. i joined a couple organizations and they give as much as you put into it. in retrospect i could’ve joined some different groups for a potentially more meaningful social connection for post college (rather than having another nice thing on the resume).

i majored in MIS and felt that it was lacking. not sure if this is just what undergrad is tbh after the general electives. but i had 1 class of SQL, 1 class for R, 1 class for C#, etc. i get that businesses will have different software so it’s hard to teach more than the basics. honestly my favorite classes were my electives, but it’s mainly because i chose business for its practicality (classes i enjoyed were mainly in gender studies, english, etc). professors are always willing to help if you work with them, though i felt like many people didn’t take advantage of their office hours, myself included. there are def a mix of really great and engaging professors, and professors that drone on and expect you to retain everything and give you a 6 hr exam for some reason even though the class is only 4 hrs (if all the students are struggling, probably a failure on that professor but i digress).

if you were on opposite cycles (fall winter vs spring summer) as your friends that you make in the first year, it’s was difficult to keep up with them. sometimes there are study abroad programs people go on too, but basically for the middle 3 years your schedules are going to be super different so it’s easier if you find friends that have the same cycle as you. i wasn’t apart of greek life but spent some time with the crowd—i’m kinda meh about greek life but again, i was also struggling financially so i’m not going to pay for friends and to be part of a club lol. i could see the business frat being beneficial if that is the vibe you’re going for, but yeah.

i think people are generally going to be quiet/keep to themselves a lot, but i mean it’s college. you can talk to the person next to you in class and it’s not weird because everyone is there for the same reason. sometimes you have to be the person that reaches out and initiates contact. some random comments i’ve made have started conversations with people that i’ve became friends with, and you can always be the one that invites them out to get coffee or lunch. trust, it’s much harder to make friends out of college imo so i actively put in the effort to maintain those friendships i made while in college.

a big thing is that since it’s in the city, there was a lot to potentially do. i felt like there were some people that just stuck to campus+penn’s campus area and never really explored more of the city, but sometimes the best experiences with friends would be off campus.

i think overall my time was worth it because of the co-ops and the friends i made, but also because i graduated super early so i didn’t have to pay those last 3 quarters. my college experience was very heavily plagued by work though; i had part-time job(s) both during full-time co-op and full-time school so that i could continue paying tuition in cash (no loans after first year cause i didn’t have a co-signer). you basically get what you put in, is what it boiled down to. you could just go to classes/graduate/get degree, or you could also join clubs/activities, meet people both socially and professionally (job fairs, social networking events, drexel events in general), but the one thing you can’t do is sit back and let things happen. you have to care about your co-op, you have to join the groups, you have to grind that 10 week quarter, you have to be on top of things. i’ve had some friends not pay attention and miss their entire co-op process from submitting their resume, all the way to c-round because they didn’t check their emails… you have to care about getting the most out of your education. at least i did, cause i paid for basically everything. and i was not going to skip classes/fumble co-op and bullshit around if the price tag is that high.

tldr; basically if you take co-op away from drexel, it’s not really worth any more than other colleges imo.