Friday, February 22nd, 2008

An article on Drexel.edu titled “Drexel University Freshman Applications Increase a Record 27 Percent over Last Year” reports that 24,186 students have applied for only 2,500 spots at the university.

The university has settled on 2,500 as the number for incoming freshman, and Joan McDonald implies that the university is now focusing on quality, not quantity. The article mentions that the 2007 incoming class had 2,368 students from 1,321 high schools and had an average G.P.A. of 3.5 and average SAT of 1200, and they want to continue raising those averages.

The article also discussed the school’s continued devotion, started by Anthony J. Drexel, to teach skills to the middle class and lower income brackets, with 2,024 students this year using Pell Grants, four times as many as Harvard, Yale, and Lehigh, and twice as many as University of Pennsylvania.

Drexel is getting away from being a regional school and slowly becoming a national school, according to the article. Ten years ago, only 5% of Drexel students were from areas besides PA, NJ, and DE, In 2007, that number was up to 30%, included 48 states and 46 countries.

You can read the full article here: Applications up 27 Percent
Photo courtesy of Google Images

The Triangle and the Philadelphia Inquirer have reported that a man was shot at 35th and Haverford Avenue on Thursday morning. Here is the Inquirer blurb:

“At 1:15 a.m., Ronald Saunders, 20, of the 500 block of North 35th Street in West Philadelphia, was shot in the neck while outside his home. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no arrest or motive.”

35th Street between Spring Garden Street and Haverford Avenue is a mostly student block, however, the article implies that Ronald did live on the same block, and there is a bar called the Easy Corner right where the police tape and memorial with teddy bears and flowers was set up.

It has been a long debate since I have been at Drexel about what the university’s responsibility is to protect its students living off campus. The current “Crime Reporting Boundary”, which can be seen on a map on DPS’s website, does not include much north of Baring Street, other than Drexel’s garage on Spring Garden Street. However, in their crime they do report everything that is called into them, regardless of its location. The DPS patrol zone does extend to Spring Garden Street, and DPS rents Philadelphia Police to patrol the campus only at night.

Sources: City Briefs, Five in Phila slain in a Night, DPS
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

The Drexel Planning, Design, and Construction organization have posted a new and updated compilation of renderings in the 2007-2012 Drexel University Master Plan.

The PDF contains rendering for 11 new projects, including the three slated to begin this year, the expansion of the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the 34th Street dormitory, and the integrated sciences building.

The DAC expansion shows that there will be a large portion added on the south side, bringing the DAC right to Market Street. The integrated sciences building is quoted as replacing Stratton Hall. The 34th Street dormitory shows that there will be a one story street presence which will contain a health center and other retail, and will take the place of the Kelly parking lot.

The PDF also shows a rendering for the Natrona Street residence, slated to take the place of the Language Center and the accompanying parking lot, the seven-story building slated to take the place of Matheson Hall (and it looks like they enclose the A.J. Drexel statue in glass), the expansion to the Academic Building, replacing the space taken by Drexel Pizza and a parking lot, retail expansion along the front of Creese and MacAlister, showing a glass walkway, the renovation of the armory, a west wing to the Rush Building, a new parking garage where a current parking lot is next to the Hess Building (to replace all of the surface lots which are being built on), and a proposed hotel and conference center.

2007-2012 Master Plan PDF
Photo from the Master Plan

In an article on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review today, Robert Morris University, Drexel University, and Allegheny General Hospital have entered a partnership with the goal to attract students to practice medicine in western Pennsylvania after they graduate.

The Scholars-Articulation Program will recruit high school students to go to pre-med at Robert Morris, internship at Allegheny General, and go to medical school at the Drexel University College of Medicine and then return to Allegheny for a clerkship.

Students have to have an SAT score of 1270 and also a B-plus average while in the program, which will have up to five students a year.

Article: Schools Collaborate to Fix Doctor Shortage
Photo courtesy of Drexel University College of Medicine

The Drexel College of Law has received provisional accreditation, an important step toward providing its first students with usable legal degrees.

With accreditation from the American Bar Association, students that graduate can now take the bar exam and practice professionally upon passing. Final accreditation will take two more years, but Drexel has received the provisional accreditation after only 18 months, the minimum time it takes to receive it.

The College of Law opened in 2006, the first new law school in the region in more than 30 years. The first class had 180 students drawn from a pool of 1,700 applicants, and it will graduate in 2009.

Article: Drexel Law Gets Provisional Accreditation
Photo courtesy of Drexel University Relations

The FIRST Robotics Competition, called Overdrive, will take place March 27-29 at Drexel University. The competition will have over 37,000 students from other states and countries participating.

The robot that students will design have to be able to move around a track and move a 40-inch ball from a 6.5 foot high rack.

Sources: Students Prepare for Robot Competition, Robots put students to the test
Image courtesy of Joe Hermitt, The Patriot-News