Drexel University
Drexel University was founded in 1891 as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry by Philadelphia financier and philanthropist Anthony J. Drexel to provide educational opportunities in the “practical arts and sciences” for women and men of all backgrounds.
Drexel’s array of programs, concentrations, courses and curricula are designed to prepare students for critical issues in science, technology, health sciences, information science, media arts, the humanities, and business to shape the next generation workforce and professoriate, and provide them the basic skills to be effective practitioners, communicators, and leaders. Drexel’s programs are complemented by co-operative education experiences for many of our students, where theory and practice converge.
A pioneer in co-operative education since 1919, Drexel operates one of the oldest and largest co-operative education programs in the nation. Under the Drexel co-op plan, students attend classes full-time for their entire freshman year. Then, depending on their academic program, they alternate periods of full-time classroom studies and full-time professional employment with University-approved employers. Students can repeat this cycle up to three times, gaining up to 18 months of real-world, professional work experience to complement their diploma.
Drexel’s academic calendar is based on a quarter system; a student’s co-op cycle defines which quarters he or she will participate in the co-op experience. For example, students with a fall/winter co-op cycle will work full-time during the fall and winter quarters, while a student with a spring/summer co-op cycle will work full-time during the spring and summer quarters. Co-op cycles are typically assigned during freshman year.
A few programs in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, School of Public Health, and Drexel University College of Medicine operate on the semester system. For students in the health sciences programs, classroom work is augmented with extensive hands-on experiences in a wide range of clinical settings.
Drexel offers a variety of educational and employment opportunities to students through study and internship programs in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and the co-operative education (“co-op”) program. The only mandatory co-op in Pennsylvania and one of three in the United States, Drexel’s program is among the nation’s oldest, largest and most respected.
The Steinbright Career Development Center (SCDC) is one of the most highly ranked co-op and career service organizations at any university in the country and works to ensure that students and alumni get the most from their experiential and career placement activities.
Philadelphia’s Technological University
As Philadelphia’s technological university and a leader in curricular innovation, Drexel has a history of integrating the latest technological advances into the learning process:
- In 1983, Drexel became the first university to require all entering students to have microcomputers.
- In 2000, Drexel became the first major university to operate a fully wireless campus, allowing students, faculty and staff to access the Internet from indoors and outdoors, anywhere on the University’s three campuses.
- In 2002, Drexel launched the first mobile Web portal service for students, enabling them to access a range of information via virtually any Web-enabled handheld device, from anywhere in the world.
- The School of Education created the iPods in Education Grant to involve upper-division (students who are sophomores, juniors and seniors) and graduate students in the integration of the iPod into the School of Education academic programs and into student studies.
