I went to six schools after graduating high school: Farmingdale, Nassau Community College, Lancaster Vocational School, Harrisburg Community College, University of Maryland -- Baltimore County (UMBC), and... Drexel. When I say the name I want to spit on the ground. I wanted a degree from Farmingdale and Drexel, but ended up with UMBC and it was NOT settling. The other schools had particular courses or brush-ups at the right price. My point is I have experience with higher learning institutions as a c-o-n-s-u-m-e-r. Always remember, you are a paying customer.
Drexel was the worst in academic program and administration. Drexel took me for a very expensive ride. Here are the
Warning Sign One:
The first few times I was there checking it out I didn't notice that the students had a stuck up attitude of superiority. It turned out that they were not overtly, but covertly highly competitive. They were highly secretive and non-collaborative, an experience that was new to me and took a great deal of time to uncover.
Warning Sign Two:
When I met my academic advisor before laying down my hard earned money, I found he didn't give a shit. I remember in one meeting he said he didn't like his job and didn't want to be an academic advisor. When I tried to set up an appointment with him late in the first semester for second semester advisement. He was no longer there. A few weeks after I was admitted, he quit and chose a different career path.
Warning Sign Three:
Once I was accepted and began to move forward I found I was enrolled in Day School and not Night as I had repeatedly emphasized and instructed.
Warning Sign Four:
My first semester programming class was Pascal. All other universities were using "C" language as a first instructional course. I had taken Pascal at Nassau Community College some years back and understood it was just a academic "training" language to introduce computer science (CS) students to computer programming but was NEVER used in industry. If you were NOT a CS major, then you took "Basic" which I learned in Farmingdale.
Warning Sign Five:
The Pascal Professor was using a celluloid slide machine for administering notes and he sped through the lesson. Second meeting a few students complained about the delivery speed and requested copies of the slides FOR ALL. The professor said no way.
Warning Sign Six:
I went down to the computer lab to write my first pascal program assignment. Computer Science students didn't have their own dedicated lab. We were part of the entire student body. The lab was only open till 9 pm Monday through Thursday with limited Saturday hours. Completely unheard of at the other universities I had attended.
Warning Sign Seven:
IBM compatible PC's and Microsoft Windows is the hardware and operating system of business other than Sun/Unix mainframe. Drexel had nothing but MAC's. Why? Because Macintosh subsidized educational institutions with computers. There was no money out of the university's pocket for computer expenses.
Ad Nauseam:
Ad nauseam is a Latin term for a discussion that has continued [will continue] so long that it has continued "to [the point of] nausea." I will continue this argument list at a later date to illustrate how this escalates to full blown Nuclear WAR with Drexel because in my mind, I STILL have not given you, the reader, a strong enough reason to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM DREXEL.
My last comment for now is this: This picture you see is Drexel Hall, the main building and is about 130 years old. Most of my classes were taught here or connected to it. I had done vocational and manufacturing work in buildings better than this one. The walls were covered in year and years of city pollution. In the upper right had corner, you can see a wooden staircase going up to a 4th floor. That staircase was in a state of rotting decay. I don't remember the building being as well lit as shown in this photograph, it was more dire. My point is Drexel was nothing but "smoke and mirrors" looking to take students for a ride and their money.
You'll have to excuse me as I am beginning to feel nauseous re-living my experience with Drexel.